Mela 5 — Modular Music-Making
An Audio Unit plug-in with a modular design for iPhone, iPad and Mac
Mela is a modular music-making tool that scales with your needs. With its intuitive interface, you can seamlessly build fully custom polyphonic synthesisers, unique audio effects, and complex MIDI processors. Mela can run as a standalone app on iOS and macOS or as an AUv3 plug-in inside your favourite DAW such as AUM, Drambo, Logic Pro and many more.
In Mela, presets are constructed from modules arranged on lanes, each processing audio and MIDI signals. Lanes can receive and send signals to and from the host and other lanes. Modulator modules can modulate any parameter of any module on any lane. Lanes and modules can be easily added, removed, or rearranged, making the preset as complex or simple as desired. Mela comes with 71 modules, with new ones added with every update. The following are some examples from different categories.
- MIDI processors: arpeggiator, chord, Euclidean sequencer, note echo, note modifiers, scale, strummer.
- Synth building blocks: virtual-analog oscillator, FM operator, phaseshaping, noise, VA filter, amp envelope.
- Modulators: envelope follower, envelope generator, LFO, macro control, MIDI source, random.
- Audio effects: chorus, delay, distortion, flanger, phaser, dynamics processors, comb filter, EQ, stereo panner.
- Utility: level and correlation metering, audio oscilloscope, MIDI capture, MIDI logger, notepad.
Mela can be loaded inside a host as one of the following plug-in types: Instrument, Audio Effect or MIDI Processor. The only difference is the number of audio and MIDI inputs and outputs. Otherwise, the features are identical, and a preset created in one type can be opened by another.
Modules are organised into collections. Collection 0 is free, allowing you to test out Mela’s features. Other collections can be purchased via in-app purchases. New modules are added to Collection 3 with every Mela 5 update. The following is a list of all modules.
Collection 0: Amp Envelope, Arpeggiator, LFO, Meter, Note Pad, Relative Pitch, Stereo Delay, Transposer, VA Filter, VA Oscillator, Volume.
Collection 1: Balance, Chord, Chorus, Control Change, Compressor, Distortion, DS Oscillator, Envelope Generator, Envelope Follower, Flanger, Glide, Level, MIDI Logger, MIDI Source, Mono, Noise Oscillator, Note Echo, Note Length, Note Range, Panic, Phaser, Pitch Bend, Random, Scale, Strummer, Velocity.
Collection 2: Clipper, Comb Filter, DC Blocker, Degrader, EQ Band, Fixed Pitch, FM Operator, Macro, MIDI Capture, MIDI Channel, Oscilloscope, Pitch Ratio, Rectifier, Vibrato, Voice Activity, VPS Oscillator.
Collection 3: All Pass, Audio-to-Mod, Correlation, Digital Delay, Dual Pan, Euclid, Macro Button, Mid-Side, Multiply-Add, Noise Gate, Note Chance, Note Event, Phase Inverter, Pitch Follower, Reverb, Ring Mod, Simple LFO, Stereo Pan.
Mela’s capabilities continuously improve, evolve and expand, driven by its long-term vision and user feedback. Feel free to get in touch for anything Mela-related.
Artist Presets & Themes
There are dedicated pages for Artist Presets and Artist Themes. If you have created Mela 5 presets (whether paid or free) or a theme that you want to share with others let me know and I’ll happily link them there.
Support
To learn more about Mela, check out the Getting Started guide, Changelog, FAQ or Tutorials. To report bugs or make feature requests visit the Mela Feedback site. For other support queries directly get in touch.
Screenshots
