Chapter 10 - The Stepper (Melody only)¶

The Stepper is the Melody Track's deepest editing surface - a per-step grid where you can sculpt every note of a sequence one step at a time. Chapters 9, 10 and 12 cover how to make a chord chain, a melody, and a bass line; this chapter is where you move from "playing UNA" to "composing on it."

What you can sculpt - the 8 lanes¶

The Stepper has 8 lanes, one for each of the Melody Track's primary parameters. Each lane holds up to 32 steps of independent values.

Lane	What it controls
PITCH	The pitch offset for each step, in scale degrees. This is your tune.
GATE	Note length. Supports Tie (extends the previous note across this step) and Slide (legato overlap into the next step) as special values.
VELOCITY	How loud each step plays. Supports Accent (full velocity) and Mute (silent step) as special values.
SLICE	Per-step subdivisions of your notes; chops, ratchets, trills and strums.
OCTAVE	12 semitone pitch-shift per step.
CHANNEL	Per-step MIDI channel shift; play individual notes of the melody on different sounds/synths.
DELAY	Timing offset per step. Where micro-groove lives.
LAYERS	Number of layered notes per step.

Each lane is independent - you might set PITCH to a length of 8, VELOCITY to 16, and GATE to 32. The tracks all cycle at their own lengths, coming back into phase every so often. This is one of the ways an UNA sequence starts to feel alive rather than static.

Independent lane lengths - Pitch, Gate and Velocity lanes cycling at different lengths over the same timeline, drifting in and out of phase

Getting in and out¶

From Melody Mode, press SEQUENCE to enter the Stepper. UNA opens on whichever lane was last active.

Once inside, pressing BACK at any level returns you toward Melody Mode. The music continues throughout, you can dive into the Stepper mid-performance and sculpt without stopping.

The Sequence mode¶

Sequence - the Stepper's home

The main Stepper mode shows the 32-step grid of the current lane at a glance, with a header telling you which lane you're on and whether that lane is currently ON or OFF. Enabled steps are bright; disabled ones are greyed out.

LOAD	EDIT	MORPH
SAVE	PLAY / STOP	BACK

The four active workspaces are LOAD, EDIT, MORPH, and SAVE - four different things you can do with the current lane.

Switching lanes. Rotate the CONTROL Knob (without pressing) to cycle through the 8 lanes.

Toggling the lane on and off. Press-and-release the CONTROL Knob to toggle the currently displayed lane between ON and OFF. A disabled lane keeps its step values but stops contributing to the output.

Jump to any lane instantly. Pressing a PARAMETER Knob takes you to that knob's lane in the Stepper - a quick way to switch between what you're editing.

LOAD - factory patterns, user patterns, and random¶

Press LOAD from Sequence to browse patterns you can drop into the current lane.

Stepper Init

FACTORY	USER	GENERATE
PLAY / STOP	APPLY	CANCEL

Three sources:

FACTORY. UNA's built-in library of stepper patterns for the current lane. Each lane has its own factory set - patterns that make musical sense for that parameter (a pattern for Pitch, for instance, isn't the same as one for Delay).
USER. Your own saved patterns. 16 slots per lane.
GENERATE. Procedural generation. Rotate CONTROL to change the random seed; press-and-rotate to change the "strength" (how far the generated values deviate from the lane's default).

Rotate the CONTROL Knob to browse within the selected source. Each pattern previews live - you hear it playing on the lane as you scroll.

APPLY commits the previewed pattern
CANCEL restores the original pattern.

The live preview is powerful for finding a starting point: scroll through 20 factory patterns, listen to each for a bar or two, choose on the one that you like.

EDIT the stepper sequence¶

Stepper Edit

Press EDIT to sculpt the current lane step by step, giving you fine grain control over each step.

STEPS	MULTI	ROTATE
RESET/REVERT	APPLY	CANCEL

The core gestures for editing a step are on the CONTROL Knob:

Rotate the CONTROL Knob to select a step. The selected step is highlighted on screen.
Press-and-rotate the CONTROL Knob to change the value of the selected step.

STEPS, and SYNC mode¶

Hold STEPS and rotate the CONTROL Knob to change the lane's step length (from 1 to 32).

Each lane's length is independent. Pitch might run at 8, Gate at 12, Velocity at 5, and each cycles at its own rate, separate to the track's Steps parameter.

A useful mode: if you rotate Length down past 1 to 0, the lane enters SYNC; in this mode the lane stops holding its own length and starts following the track's main Steps parameter instead. Rotate Length back up from SYNC (any increase) and the lane takes independent length again, starting at 1.

SYNC is the "just follow the track" setting; independent lengths are for polyrhythms and cross-cycling patterns.

Rotation¶

ROTATE works the same way as STEPS but rotates the pattern instead of resizing it. Hold ROTATE and rotate the CONTROL Knob to shift the whole lane's step values left or right within the 32-step grid.

Useful when you've built a pattern that starts on the wrong beat, or you want to loop over different patterns during a performance. Again, this is independent from the Track's own Rotate parameter.

Multi-step selection¶

Sometimes you want to edit a run of steps together. MULTI turns on block selection. It lights cyan when active.

Hold MULTI and rotate the CONTROL Knob to extend a block outward from the current step - or simply quick press MULTI to latch it (if you'd rather not keep a finger on the button).

Press-and-rotate the CONTROL Knob while the block is active - every step in the block updates together. Move all four steps up an octave in one gesture.
Rotate without pressing clears the block and returns to single-step selection.

Multi-select is one of the fastest ways to shape a pattern quickly - set a run of eight steps to the same value, then walk through and tweak the ones that need attention.

RESET and REVERT - the safety net¶

RESET / REVERT is a toggle that lets you experiment without fear of losing your work.

Press RESET (red label) and the whole lane snaps back to how it was when you entered EDIT - undoes all your session edits (step values, Length, Rotation).
After RESET, the label reads REVERT (green). Press it to bring your edited version back. Flip between the two as often as you like.
Making any new edit re-arms RESET - the label becomes RESET again, and pressing it will restore the newly-updated "entry" snapshot.

This gives you a fast A/B: try a wild variation, hit RESET to hear the original, hit REVERT to hear your variation, decide which one you like.

CONTROL + RESET works on a smaller scale. In EDIT mode, hold CONTROL and press RESET to reset just the selected step (or the current MULTI block) to the lane's baseline default value. Press again with CONTROL still held to revert those steps to their previous value. This is per-step surgery, independent of the whole-lane RESET/REVERT.

Special values on Gate and Velocity¶

Two lanes have special values beyond their normal ranges:

On the Gate lane:

Tie - extends the previous step's note across this step (holds the note over).
Slide - legato overlap into the next step (no gap between notes).

On the Velocity lane:

Accent - plays this step at full velocity, regardless of the lane's other values.
Mute - silences the step entirely.

To enter a special value, press and hold CONTROL and you'll see the button relabel itself to tell you what it will do:

TIE/SLD on the Gate lane
ACC/MUTE on the Velocity lane.

Each press cycles through that lane's special values and back to the normal range.

Applying or cancelling¶

APPLY commits your edits and returns to Sequence.
CANCEL discards everything you did in this EDIT session.

MORPH - transforming the lane¶

Press MORPH from Sequence to open the Morphing tools.

Morph is a three-stage transformation pipeline that reshapes the lane's values without editing individual steps. It's how you take a straight pattern and give it variance, in a non-destructive way. You can also scale and filter the sequence in ways that maintain its original pattern structure, but generates alternative variations on the same theme.

The Morph pipeline - the same pattern passing through the MORPH, SHAPE and FILTER stages, with the untouched original preserved underneath

Stepper Morph - Morph Stepper Morph - Shape Stepper Morph - Filter

The three stages:

MORPH	SHAPE	FILTER
RESET	APPLY	CANCEL

Stage 1 - MORPH. A wave modulation applied to the base values. Two controls:

Amount (CONTROL rotate) - how strongly the wave affects the values. 0 has no impact. Higher or lower amplifies the effect.
Frequency (CONTROL press and rotate) - how many wave cycles fit into the pattern. Set to 1 for a slow rise-and-fall across the whole loop; set higher for a faster oscillation.

Stage 2 - SHAPE. Applies scaling and inversion to the morphed values:

Scale (CONTROL rotate) - compresses or expands the range of values.
Invert (CONTROL press and rotate) - mirrors the pattern around its centre. Centre value is no inversion; extremes flip the pattern top-to-bottom.

Stage 3 - FILTER. Two very different filter tricks:

Euclid (CONTROL rotate) - an Euclidean rhythm filter. Sets how many steps in the 32-step pattern remain active; the rest are filtered out. Turn from 32 down toward 1 to sparsen a busy pattern.
Deviate (CONTROL press and rotate) - adds controlled randomness to the values that were cut by the filter. Centre value is no randomness; extremes turn the pattern into something more free.

Each of the three stages has its own selector - MORPH, SHAPE, FILTER. Press one to switch to that stage's controls.

RESET clears the current stage back to defaults;
CONTROL + RESET resets all three stages.
APPLY commits the morphed result to the lane;
CANCEL discards.

Because Morph works on the lane as a whole, it's a fast way to explore variation without touching individual steps.

Set a pattern you like, then open Morph and turn the Amount knob - you'll hear the same underlying shape start to transform. Land somewhere interesting and APPLY.

NON-DESTRUCTIVE EDITS - Remember: You can remove the morph at any time if you open Morph and press RESET - even after exiting the Morph screen.

SAVE - building your library¶

Press SAVE from Sequence to save the current lane to one of the 16 user slots for that lane.

Stepper Save

Rotate the CONTROL Knob to pick a target slot.
Press SAVE to enter confirmation
then SAVE again to commit - or CANCEL to back out.

The two-press confirm prevents you from accidentally overwriting a slot you meant to keep.

While User Saves are global, they are also per-lane (Pitch patterns and Gate patterns are stored separately), leaving plenty of storage for your personal library.

Worked Recipes - for the Stepper¶

The "build a groove from scratch" recipe. From Performance, MELODY → SEQUENCE. You're on whichever lane was last active - rotate CONTROL to reach VELOCITY. Press EDIT. Rotate to step 1, press-and-rotate to set an accent value. Rotate to step 3, press-and-rotate, and so on. Set steps 1, 5, 9, 13 to accent, everything else to a mid-velocity - you've got a 4-on-the-floor pattern. APPLY. Rotate CONTROL to GATE, EDIT, tie steps 2 and 4 for legato phrasing. APPLY. Rotate to PITCH, EDIT, walk through and set each step's scale degree. APPLY. You've built a three-lane groove.

The "just get me a pattern" recipe. From Sequence, LOAD → GENERATE. Rotate the CONTROL Knob to try different seed numbers - you're auditioning random patterns for the current lane. Land on one that fits. APPLY. Repeat for the other lanes if you want. This is a fast way to seed a patch that you'll then tweak by hand.

The "make it evolve" recipe. With a Pitch pattern already in place, press MORPH. MORPH stage is active. Turn Amount up until you hear the values start to drift; adjust Frequency to about 1 cycle per 32 steps. Now switch to SHAPE; Invert around 30 degrees. Switch to FILTER; pull Euclid down to 24 to open up some space. APPLY. The pattern is recognisably yours but no longer static.

The "polyrhythm" recipe. Enter EDIT on the Pitch lane, hold STEPS, rotate to length 5. APPLY. Enter EDIT on Gate, hold STEPS, rotate to length 7. APPLY. Enter EDIT on Velocity, length 3. APPLY. The three lanes cycle at 5, 7, and 3 steps against the track - patterns won't line up again for many bars, and the melody grows and reshapes as they drift.

What's next¶

The Stepper is a big feature and this chapter is a lot. If it feels overwhelming, focus first on EDIT - that's the workshop where 80% of your time will be spent. LOAD is your library. MORPH is where you go when a pattern feels tired. Everything else is refinement.

Chapter 12 (Modulate) pairs beautifully with the Stepper: a Modulate slot pointed at a Stepper lane's Amount or Rotation will evolve that lane over time, turning a fixed pattern into a moving one without your ever having to touch it again.