Chapter 9 - Melody Mode¶
Melody Mode is where the Melody Track gets shaped. The Melody track is constructed with parameters, plus the deep editing surface - the Stepper. Also, where you capture new melodic phrases from your keyboard.
The Stepper itself is detailed in Chapter 10; this chapter covers how you get into it and what surrounds it.
A reminder from Chapter 5: the Melody Track plays single-note lines that follow the current chord or chord chain. Whatever harmony is underneath, the Melody picks notes that fit. You shape the line; UNA keeps it in key.
Getting in and out¶
From Performance Mode, press MELODY. If Melody isn't already the active track, the first press selects it and a second press opens the mode (Chapter 6).
UNA enters Melody Mode and the following CONTROL buttons are assigned:
| SEQUENCE | (unused) | PARAMS |
| CAPTURE | PLAY / STOP | BACK |
As elsewhere, the music keeps playing while you edit.
The five active controls in Melody Mode are entry points to different depths:
- SEQUENCE - opens the Stepper, where you sculpt the melody step by step. Chapter 10 is the deep dive.
- PARAMS - opens the Track Params menu (track-level configuration, including the Lock controls).
- CAPTURE - opens Melody Record, where you play a phrase in.
- PLAY / STOP - the transport.
- BACK - return to Performance.
The eight PARAMETER Knobs are live in Melody Mode - turn a knob to adjust a melody parameter directly.
As elsewhere, pressing CONTROL takes you to the Control space (the mixer).
The PARAMETER Knobs¶
The eight PARAMETER Knobs in Melody Mode work the same way as elsewhere on UNA: rotate a knob to edit its primary parameter live, or press-and-rotate to edit its secondary parameter. The display shows the parameter name and value as you turn.
Chapter 5 has the full mental model. The parameter mapping can be found in the Track Params, Chapter 7.
Track Parameters¶
Press PARAMS to open the Melody Track parameters menu. Parameters are grouped into categories you can walk through - the CONTROL Knob steps through categories and rows, press-and-rotate changes values. The categories, in order:
- PRIMARY - the parameters that affect individual notes and steps. Most of these are the primary layer of the PARAMETER Knobs (OCTAVE, CHANNEL, DELAY, LAYERS, GATE, VELOCITY, PITCH, SLICE), plus the toggle-style parameters that don't sit on a knob directly: MODE, DELAY TYPE, VOICE MODE, SLICE TYPE.
- SECONDARY - the parameters that affect the sequence as a whole. These are the secondary layer of the PARAMETER Knobs: STEPS, ROTATE, JUMP, DIRECTION, TIME, MUTES, ACCENTS.
- LOCKS - OCTAVE, NOTE, CHORD. The override layer that pins the track's voicing regardless of the chord chain. Chapter 7 covers Locks in full.
- PITCH STEPPER, GATE STEPPER, VELOCITY STEPPER, SLICE STEPPER, OCTAVE STEPPER, CHANNEL STEPPER, DELAY STEPPER, LAYERS STEPPER - one Stepper category per primary parameter. Each contains LENGTH, ROTATION, MORPH AMOUNT, MORPH FREQ, SHAPE RANGE, SHAPE INVERT, FLT EUCLID, FLT DEVIATE, and an ACTIVE toggle. Chapter 10 is the Stepper deep dive.
Quick shortcut: you don't have to scroll to reach a parameter. Press a PARAMETER Knob (1–8) to jump the menu highlight straight to that knob's parameter - press once for the primary, or press and hold CONTROL and a PARAMETER Knob for the secondary.
For a full reference to every parameter - what it controls, its range, and its default - see Chapter 7 - Track Parameters. Chapter 7 also documents the RESET, LOCK, CATEGORY, PLAY/STOP, and BACK button behaviours inside the PARAMS menu.
Capturing a melody - Melody Record¶
Press CAPTURE from Melody Mode to enter Melody Record. This is where you play a phrase on your keyboard and UNA writes it into the Melody Track's sequence.
While recording, a few things happen automatically: the Melody Track is muted (so the existing sequence doesn't play over you), the chord chain is paused (so what you play isn't transposed by a shifting chord), and MIDI Thru is enabled (so you hear yourself as you play). When you finish, those reset to whatever they were before.
Just press ARM and play¶
There's no preparation to do. UNA auto-quantizes what you play against its best-guess grid, uses sensible defaults for velocity, gate, and timing capture, and gets out of your way. The fastest path from an idea in your head to a Melody Track sequence is: ARM, play your phrase, END, APPLY.
When you press ARM, UNA waits for the first note. As soon as you play, the capture begins. Recording continues until you press END.
Alternatively, Press Start to hear a count in before recording starts. Useful for keeping in time during playback, or leaving a gap at the beginning of a capture.
The capture loop ends on your last note-off, not on END. UNA times the loop from your first note to your last note-off, then quantizes the end of the recording. So you don't need to be super accurate when pressing END.
While recording, a live bar counter appears on the screen so you can see how many bars you've captured at a glance - useful for pacing longer phrases without losing count.
Tuning the capture (optional)¶
If the defaults don't suit - you want a specific snapping grid, a count-in click, or a change to how UNA captures velocity or gate - the pre-record screen exposes the most-used controls directly, and OPTIONS opens the full settings list.
| Function | What it does |
|---|---|
| QUANTIZE / TIME | Override the auto-quantize with a specific snapping grid (QUANTIZE), or set the note length in Step Input mode (TIME). Press to select, then rotate the CONTROL Knob. Leave alone and UNA picks the grid for you. |
| METRO | Toggle a count-in metronome click during capture. Useful when you're recording without an existing groove to lean on. |
| OPTIONS | Open Melody Record Options - the full configuration list (see below). |
| ARM | Prime capture. |
| BACK | Return to Melody Mode without recording. |
Realtime vs. Step Input¶
Two ways to capture, set in Options:
- Realtime Input. You play the phrase as you'd play any instrument - UNA captures the timing of your performance. Velocity is captured (optional). Gate length per note is captured (optional). Subtle timing offsets (swing, lay-back) are preserved in per-step delays (optional).
- Step Record Input. UNA advances one step per note you play. You don't have to play in time - the rhythm comes from the grid, not from your performance. In Step Record mode three controls take on entry-aid roles: REST (insert a silent step), TIE (extend the previous note across this step), UNDO (delete the last step).
After you stop¶
When you press STOP, the captured phrase is in a buffer but not yet committed. UNA shows the raw notes you played above, and the auto-quantized version below (here snapped to a ⅛ Bar grid, and current chord pitches); plus the note/step counts along the bottom. You can:
- QUANTIZE - re-quantize the buffer with a different grid setting.
- OPTIONS - adjust capture options (e.g. swap to a different scale derivation, then re-apply).
- RETRY - start over.
- APPLY - write the phrase into the Melody Track sequence. This is the commit.
- CANCEL / BACK - discard.
You can audition, tweak, audition again, and only commit when it sounds right.
Melody Record Options¶
Press OPTIONS from the Melody Record screen for the full configuration list. Rotate the CONTROL Knob to navigate; hold and rotate to change the selected value.
| Option | Choices | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| INPUT MODE | Realtime / Step Record | The capture style described above. |
| SCALE | Current / Derive | "Current" forces the phrase into the active scale; "Derive" infers a scale from the notes you played. |
| QUANTIZE | Off / 1/32 → 1 bar | The snapping grid for your performance. |
| RESPONSE | 50–500ms | Settle window - how long UNA waits for "clean" note-on timing before locking the pitch. Useful for controllers with slow keybed velocity sensing. |
| VELOCITY | ON/OFF | Whether per-note input velocity is captured. |
| GATE | ON/OFF | Whether per-note input gate length is captured. |
| DELAY | ON/OFF | Whether per-step input micro timing is captured. |
Setting VELOCITY, GATE, and DELAY to ON will give you a phrase that sounds the way you played it. Set each to OFF and you'll get a phrase with uniform dynamics and timing; sounding more mechanical, and perhaps, easier to layer Modulation on top later.
What happens to existing settings on capture¶
A safety detail worth knowing: when you commit a fresh capture, the three Lock parameters (LockOctave, LockNote, LockChord) reset to OFF, and the Stepper morph parameters reset to defaults. This is intentional - a fresh capture plays back uncoloured by old overrides, so you hear what you played, not what the previous Lock settings would have done to it. If you want to re-apply Locks after the capture, re-set them in PARAMS.
The Lock controls¶
The Melody Track exposes the same Lock Octave / Lock Note / Lock Chord controls as the Chord and Bass tracks. They're documented in detail in Chapter 7.
Use the Locks for the same compositional tricks: pin the octave to a fixed range, force the root, or constrain the melody to a specific chord-type's intervals regardless of what the chord chain says.
Worked Recipes - for Melody¶
The "play it once, keep it" recipe. From Performance, MELODY → CAPTURE. Make sure INPUT MODE is Realtime (in OPTIONS). Press ARM. Play your phrase. STOP. PLAY to audition. If it's right, APPLY. If it's not, RETRY.
The "build a melody one step at a time" recipe. MELODY → CAPTURE → OPTIONS → set INPUT MODE to Step Record. Press ARM. Play a note (step 1), play another (step 2)… use REST to skip a step and TIE to extend the previous note. Hit END when you've laid down enough. APPLY.
The "deep edit" recipe. Once you've captured (or just rotated parameters to get something interesting going), press SEQUENCE. You're in the Stepper, where every step is independently editable. Chapter 10 takes it from here.
What's next¶
Chapter 10 picks up where this chapter leaves off - the Stepper, your deepest editing surface for the Melody Track. Chapter 12 (Modulate) is also a useful companion: a Modulate slot pointed at a Melody parameter (Pitch, Gate, Velocity…) will evolve that parameter automatically over time, turning a captured phrase into one that evolves.