Anything I say here about music theory and practice as well as how I have implemented that theory and practice in Meander is my own understanding, which is surely not absolutely correct and musicians might choose to debate with me on that. There are also a lot of exceptions to the "rules" in music. If fact, it is these exceptions that give composers and musicians their own distinctive sound. In the end, it is all about what sounds good or entertaining or evokes certain feelings. From my perspective, there are no absolute rules in music. So, take what I say with a grain of salt.
Meander is self contained except for actual sound generation. It has it's own clock, so you do not need to connect a clock generator. The minimum configuration is to connect the Harmony 1V/Oct output to a polyphonic VCO and the VCO to a mixer or Audio output module. The sound will not be great, but that is the first step. Then connect the melody and bass 1V/Oct outputs to their own VCOs. The melody output is 1 channel monophonic. The bass output is 1 or 2 channel polyphonic. The harmony output is 3 or 4 channel polyphonic. Next steps are to add an ADSR and VCA for each part. The Meander gate outputs should control the ADSR trigger. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
Meander is fundamentally a musical "expert" system that has quite a few rules for what makes western music sound good and applies those rules to "sequence" other sound generation modules. Meander has no audio sound generation or modification capabilities, so even though it is basically a complex application (which Meander is and has been over its 30+ year history), it is lightweight in terms of the load it puts on the CPU and DSP. Meander has its own internal clock, so no inputs are required in order to start making music.
Is Meander a generative or algorithmic composition engine? Probably, but I think of it more as an "improvisation system". I've tried to incorporate elements of how musicians improvise melody against a harmonic progression and bassline. The melody player might play scale runs, chord note runs and structured scale or chord note riffs or ostinatos in coordination with the harmony lead. Meander uses fBm time correlated noise to give fractal structure to the scale runs and chord arpeggios, while doing its best to sound good (or at least musical).
Meander is limited to western music heptatonic (7) note scales, primarily so that the chord rules can be uniformly applied. Meander is founded on the 7 modes and 12 roots (~keys) for 84 combinations of mode and root. The Circle of 5ths is the visualization device for seeing the mode and root harmonic intervals. The proper key signature notation is displayed inside of the circle of 5ths.
The Meander module panel is generated procedurally at runtime, rather than an relying on an SVG file. It has an SVG file but that only has the logo text.
Only one functional instance of Meander can be loaded from the VCV Rack plugin browser. If a second or other instance is loaded, the additional instances are disabled and the user is notified of that via a warning on the added panel image. This is due to the complex issues of porting a large stand alone Windows application to Rack, and the complications of having extensive global memory data and code.
All Meander panel control parameters can be controlled by an external 0-10V CV via the input jack just to the left of each parameter knob or button. No external control is necessary to use Meander. The CV control is there to allow you to do (almost) anything you can dream up.
The mode and root are selected by the control knobs on the far left side of the panel. As you rotate these knobs, the circle of 5ths will rotate to show the chords that should be played for this mode and root. The root will always be at the I degree position and is also designated by a red light just inside of the inner circle. Only the colored segments should be played. Each colored segment is marked with the chord "degree", which are the Roman numerals I-VII. The degrees are color coded as to whether the chord will be played as a major, minor or diminished chord. Major chord degrees are designated with uppercase Roman numerals whereas minor chord degrees are designated with lower case Roman numerals. A diminished chord degree is designated with a lowercase Roman numeral and a superscript "degree" symbol. All of this is done automatically by Meander, following music theory common practice.
Meander has 3 main music "parts" sub-panels: Harmony, Melody and Bass. The harmony drives the melody and the bass parts. The melody drives the arpeggiator (arp) sub-part. The arpeggiator is a melodic arpeggiator rather than a harmonic arpeggiator. Each of the parts can be enabled or disabled via the "Enable" buttons at the top of the subpanels. If the part is not enabled, Meander still composes that part (so that the harmony part is always available to the bass generator) but does not play that part.
Each part has three output ports at the bottom of the panel. Those are the 1V/octave, the gate and the volume outputs. The 1v/Oct output is typically connected to a VCO V/OCT input, whereas the Gate output is typcially connected to an ADSR gate input, which is connected to a VCA. Meander follows the Gate voltage standard, but not the common practice. The gate off state is 0V. The gate on state is >=2.1V . The gate on voltage also carries the volume for the note in the range of 2.1V-10V. Thus, the gate output can also be used to control volume by modulating a VCA or controlling an ADSR Sustain parameter, or the channel level on a mixer, etc. The gate could also be used as a CV for anything else you choose to use it for. The volume output is totally optional for anything you might want to use it for. It passes the part Volume setting out, but it may also be modulated by such things as bass part note accents. It can safely be ignored until you become more experienced with Meander.
A big aspect of Meander is that the harmony, melody and bass parts "meander" according to some fairly complex fractal based math. You do not have to worry about that unless you want to. Meander uses "fractal Brownian motion" for producing meandering patterns. The specic type of fBm variation is called 1/f noise and is made up of 1D quintic interpoldated Perlin noise, where the 1-D is time.
Each of the three parts is discussed following in more detail:
Harmony is made up of chords made up of notes from the mode and root that is selected, as well as determined by the current circle of 5ths degree position chord type. A harmonic progression is the movement on the circle in steps over time. At the bottom of the Harmony sub-panel is the "Presets" control which allows you to select between 50+ ready-made harmonic progressions. Each progression is made up of from 1 to 16 steps, designated by the Roman numeral degrees I-VII, corresponding to to the degree positions on the circle for the current mode and root. I.E., the same progression can be played in any of the 84 mode and root "scales". As the pogression plays, you can watch the circle and see which chords are playing for each step. Each preset has an initial number of "steps". You can manually reduce the number of steps via the "Steps" knob, but you cannot increase it past the max value for that preset. The minimum number of steps is 1. Sometimes some interesting music can be created by setting the steps to 1, in which case the harmony stays on the root position of the circle, but may still meander through inversions and the melody and bass will follow.
Technically, Meander uses the "diatonic circle of fifths" rather than the "chromatic circle of fifths". The 7 degrees of the diatonic scale are designated in color on the Meander panel, whereas the 5 remaining degrees of the chromatic scale are rendered in gray. The music theory behind the circle-of-fifths is beyond this manual, but the basic theory is that triad chords next to each other on the colored (diatonic) part of the circle always share one note between them. Each degree going CW around the circle represents a 5th interval, thus the name circle of fifths. Going CCW, the interval is a 4th. The shared note between two chords going CW is a 5th above the tonic or root note of the first chord. Basically, the further away from each other two chords are on the circle, the more dissonance there will be. A common progression is to start out on the I position and then jump several positions CW on the circle and then walk back CCW on the circle back to the I position. Each step CCW gives a feeling of resolution of tension back to the I position. There are a myriad ways to form the progression, but there are a few progressions that almost all popular western music is composed of. Meander has 50+ such presets. One of the most common progressions in popular music is I-V-vi-IV , which is #26 in the presets. That same progression can be played in any of the 84 mode and root combinations, but may have s distinctly different feel in a different mode and root scale. Not all music is based on chord progressions, but a lot is, particularly popular music. Most progression based Western music limits the chord progression degrees to the 7 colored diatonic scale positions.
Note, whereas the harmonic "degrees" (the Roman numerals) meaning and roles are fixed by definition, other aspects such as "harmonic function" are context, style and composer specific and relative. In harmonic function analysis, chords are typically grouped using the circle of thirds as tonic, dominant and subdominant functions. These represent the role (function) of the chord in the harmonic progression. Different styles of music and different composers tend to have different roles for chords in the progression, such as which chords transition most often to other chords in the progression. Different classical composers had their own style of harmonic functions that gave them their distinctive sound. This is also why there are so many variations of popular harmonic progressions, where the harmonic degrees have different functions and contexts. Meander for Windows made use of harmonic function nomenclature but since that was really just specific to classical music common practice era, I have dropped terms such as tonic, dominant and subdominant from Meander for VCV Rack. In Meander, the harmonoc progression steps are designated as upper case Roman numerals. Note, the standard practice is to show major chord degrees as upper case Roman and minor chord degrees as lower case Roman, but since the degrees may be major, or minor or diminished depending on the mode and root selected, only upper case Roman is used in Meander except on the circle of 5ths where the degrees will be displayed as upper or lowercase Roman numerals correctly per the current root and mode.
The fBm fractal noise results in harmony (chord) meandering, by allowing chords to wander over a range from a fraction of an octave to several octaves. Rather than meandering in octave jumps, the chords meander through chord inversions across one or more octaves. The playing chords shown inside the circle are in inversion notation if inverted. If you see a chord such as G/D, that means a Gmaj chord where the G root is played above the D note in the major triad. These inversions also allow the chord progression around the circle of 5ths to sound less melodic. These are also two of the reasons that musicians use chord inversions.
The "Chords on 1/ " control determine when the chords play. 1/1=whole note, 1/2=half note, 1/4=quarter note, and so forth.
Harmony notes can be played staccato or legato (default). Staccato notes have a duration of about half of the interval between the notes. Legato notes may in some cases run into each other with no silence between sequential notes, but Meander attempts to play staccato notes with a gate of 50% of the time between notes, whereas legato notes are played with a gate of 95% of the time between notes.
You can click on the buttons inside any of the circle of 5ths segments. When you do this the harmony part stepping is disabled and Meander plays whichever circle degree you clicked on. Click again on "Harmony Enable" to have Meander resume the progression steps. You can click on the grayed out circle positions but they will not usually sound pleasant as they are outside of the current circle of 5ths degree members. When you click on a colored degree segment, Meander will also add the melody, arp and bass parts for that chord, if those parts are enabled.
You can also control the harmony circle of 5ths position by using the "Degree" and "Gate" inputs inside of the circle. You can set up one of two types of degree control.
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Attach a keyboard (such as TWELVE-KEY module or an external MIDI keyboard via MIDI-CC module and connect the CV and Gate outs from that to the circle CV In Degree and Gate inputs. Pressing any white music key will also disable the harmony part and will set the circle degree to the following degrees. C=I,D=II,E=III,F=IV,G=V,A=VI and B=VII. That degree chord will be played at the octave of the key pressed. Meander will generate the melody, arp and bass from this circle position chord. You can watch the circle display to see which segment is active and what the actual chord played is. Chord inversions are not used in this mode.
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Or, attach a single CV in the range 0.0V-7.7V to BOTH the circle Degree and Gate inputs. Connecting in this manner allows Meander to recognize that degree and octave will control the harmony rather than a MIDI/Rack 1V/octave keyboard. Typically you will want to set up a sequencer such as SEQ-3 to sequence the Meander harmony. Do not connect the sequencer Gate to the Meander harmony circle gate. In this mode, the sequencer values should be entered in an octal radix degree.octave format. The degree can vary from 0 to 7 and the octave can vary from 0 to 7. A value of 0.x is ignored as a sequencer slot skip step. The voltage will then set the circle to the corresponding harmonic degrees 1.x Volt=I, 2.x Volt=II, ... 7.x Volt=VII . In many cases you can just enter the values of 1.0 to 7.0 since the .x octave is added to the Meander harmony "Target Octave" parameter value. The chord will be played and Meander will generate the melody, arp and bass parts from that chord. Again, clicking on "Harmony Enable" will result in Meander resume stepping the progression. It is not recommended to feed a continuously varying CV to the Degree and Gate inputs as that will just result in a mess of degrees and octaves. If you have two adjacent steps with the same degree. it is recommended that you change the octal radix degree and octave value to an octave higher on the 2nd such step, so proper triggering will occur. For example, if you want two "I" steps adjacent to each other, enter the first as 1.0V and the second as 1.1V
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New for V1.0.3 is a button inside of the circle of 5ths labelled "STEP". When you cick on this, Harmony progression is disabled and Meander plays the current circle degree chord until you press STEP again, at which time the harmony will advance to next progression step chord for the currently selected harmony preset. This button also has a CV input jack, you can supply a momentary voltage pulse on this input and the harmony will step, just like by clicking on STEP. In order to return to automatic harmony/chord progression stepping, click again on "Harmony Enable" to enable the harmony part automatic progression.
To edit, click on Run to pause Meander playing. Click on a green "Set Step" button. Click on circle degree degree buttons until you find one you like as Meander plays your click selections. Click on another Set Step button and repeat the prcess. You can step through the modified progression by clicking on the lit Set Step buttons sequentially. At any point you can click on the circle degree buttons to change that step if you do not like it. Click on Run again and Meander will resume playing and use the edited values for the progression until another preset is selected or you end your Rack session. A future release of Meander may allow saving of editing progressions.
Melody is driven by the harmony part chords. The melody notes can either be chordal where they are members of the current playing or last played chord, or they can be scaler where they are members of the current scale (mode and root) but not necessarily of the chord. Meander does not use "accidental" notes that are not members of the current scale.
The "Note Length 1/" control determines whether the melody plays on whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, or 32nd notes.
There is one parameter button called "Hold tied notes". This means that the note gate is not retriggered if the note is a repeat of the previous note (the notes are tied). It is a matter of taste as to how you should set this. Beware this option is enabled by default and may be why you are not hearing all of the melody notes. I recommend not using this as more recent changes to the staccato and legato note lengths may result in the hold on tied notes not working.
Melody notes can be played staccato (default) or legato as controlled by the gate output. Staccato notes have a duration of about half of the interval between the notes. Legato notes may run into each other with no silence between sequential notes in some cases, but the programmed behavior is to play legato notes at 95% the length of the time between notes.
The Arp or Arpeggiator settings are part of the melody. In an arpeggiation, the melody note is the first note in the arpeggio and the other notes are either chordal (current chord members) or scaler (current scale members) and follow the "Pattern" control of notes moving up or down or up and then down by 0, 1 or 2 notes per step. The Arp "Count" is the number of arpeggio notes which are separated by 1/n notes. For example, if the melody note is every 1/4 note, you can fit up to 3 arp notes of 1/16 length between every melody note. The Arp "Decay" control causes the arp notes volume to decay each note. It is up to you to make use of the arp note volume by either the melody volume output, or the volume over gate output.
See the harmony section for description of the Note Length, Target Oct. Variability and Octave Range parameters.
New for V1.0.5, you can also control the monophonic melody by using the "Degree" and "Gate" inputs to the right of the melody enable button. You can set up one of two types of scale degree control.
- Attach a keyboard (such as TWELVE-KEY module or an external MIDI keyboard via MIDI-CC module and connect the CV and Gate outs from that to the melody CV Degree and Gate inputs. Pressing any white music key will also disable the melody part and will set the melody note to the following scale degrees. C=1st, D=2nd, E=3rd, F=4th, G=5th, A=6th and B=7th. That scale degree note will be played at the octave of the key pressed in the currently selected mode and root scale. Thus you can play in the current scale using just the white notes of the keyboard. The C key will always begin the scale on the current root note. To resume automatic "melody" generation, disconnect the Degree and Gate inputs to melody and re-enable the melody.
- Or, attach a single CV in the range 0.0V-7.7V to BOTH the melody Degree and Gate inputs. Connecting in this manner allows Meander to recognize that degree and octave will control the melody rather than a MIDI/Rack 1V/octave keyboard. Typically you will want to set up a sequencer such as SEQ-3 to sequence the Meander melody. In this mode, the sequence values should be entered in an octal radix degree.octave format. The degree can vary from 0 to 7 and the octave can vary from 0 to 7. A value of 0.x is ignored as a sequencer slot skip step. The voltage will then set the melody to the corresponding scale degrees 1.x Volt=1st, 2.x Volt=2nd, ... 7.x Volt=7th . In many cases you can just enter the values of 1.0 to 7.0 since the .x octave is added to the Meander melody "Target Octave" parameter value. The melody note will be played in the currently selected mode and root scale. If you want to have two melody steps with the same degree, it recommended that you set up the second such step as an octave higher. For example, if you want to sequence two "I" degree steps, set the first to 1.0V and the second to 1.1V . Again, to resume automatic "melody" generation, disconnect the Degree and Gate inputs to melody and re-enable the melody. It is not recommended to feed a continuously varying CV to the Degree and Gate inputs as that will just result in a mess of degrees and octaves.
Bass is driven by the harmony part and does not meander. The root note of the current or last played chord is used as the bass note. This note is transposed to the bass "Target Oct." If bass "Octaves" button is selected, two bass notes an octave apart are played, with the 2nd bass note being an octave above the "Target Oct." Bass notes are played every 1/n as "Bass on 1/" values in the same way as with the harmony and melody: 1/1=whole note, 1/4= quarter note, etc.
Bass notes can be played staccato (default) or legato. Staccato notes have a duration of about half of the interval between the notes. Legato notes may run into each other with no silence between sequential notes in some cases, but the desgined behavior is for staccato notes to play at a gate length 50% of the time betweem notes and legato notes to play at a gate length of 95% of the time between notes. .
Bass"Accent" and "Syncopate" both require you to use the bass volume or volume over gate to modulate the bass volume per note. Shuffle is a rhythmic syncopation only and does not requre volume modulation.
This sub-panel allows you to set the parameters for the harmony and melody notes fBm generators. There are two parameters for each. "Octaves" determines how many octaves of 1/f noise are created. The more octaves, the more the fBm varies. "Period Sec." determines the approximate time period over which the fBm varies. Harmony is typically set to vary over long periods, with the default at 60 seconds. Melody typically varies over a shorter time period, with the default being 10 seconds. The 32nd note fBm paraameters do not determine note meandering but rather are generated and output for user use as CV. The default for this last is to vary over approximately 1 second.
The fBm sub-panel has 3 CV outputs that range from OV-10.0V. These are strictly for viewing in a scope module or for using as any type of time varying CV use as the user might desire, such as controlling a VCF, etc. These output signals are determined by the fBm sub-panel Octaves and Period parameters. I.E., the Harmony fBm output is typically useful for controlling things over the duration of song or several bars. The Melody fBM output is typically useful for controlling things within a bar. The 32nd note fBm output has a minimum Period of 1 second and when combined with more Octaves results in a lot of variation over a short time period. The Harmony fBm is output each time a harmony chord is played (or created if harmony is disabled). Likewise, the melody fBm is output each time a melody note is played. The arp 32nd note fBm is output once every 1/32nd note.
fBm can safely be ignored until and if you are interested it exlporing the possibilities. Remember that you can double click on any Meander parameter control knob to restore it to the default values.
The upper right portion of the panel is used to display the notes that are playing in standard musical notation on the bass and treble clef staffs. Chord notes are in red, bass notes are in green. Melody notes are in black and arp notes are in blue. Note, You have to look at the key signature to determine if notes played are sharps or flats. Since Meander does not allow accidentals, notes are always displayed without sharp or flat designation, even if they are played sharp or flat per the chosen scale. This is the common practice in musical scores. The score display displays one measure of notes and then starts over. Depending on the note lengths per part,there could be many notes displayed per bar. Meander will limit the number of displayed notes to 256 per bar.
Located along the lower left side of the panel are 5 clocked trigger (not clock) outputs. They are 1ms pulses that occur once per bar, once per beat, twice per beat, four times per beat and eight times per beat. They can perhaps be used as clock outputs if the receiving module can handle 1ms clock pulses rather than a square wave. These triggers can also be routed to the harmony circle "STEP" input and the currently selected harmonic progression preset steps will be advanced at that rate, which can vary from quite slow to quite fast.
Located at the extreme bottom left corner of the panel, this accepts an input clock and if connected, overrides Meander's internal clock. This should be a 8X the BPM clock. As soon as the clock input is disconnected, Meander will switch over to the internal clock, usually seamlessly. An external clock such as Impromptu CLOCKED is recommended with 8X "RATIO" and with outputs RESET, RUN, BPM and the clock connected to the Meander RUN, RESET, BPM and Clock inputs. The BPM connection is required so that Meander can understand the 8X clock speed and the time signature setting relationships. If you do not connect the CLOCKED BPM outout to Meander, you should manually set the Meander BPM knob to the same BPM setting as the clock BPM. If you are using the Meander internal clock, you should not connect the CLOCKED BPM output to Meander. You can still connect the external clock RUN and RESET connections to Meander in such a case. Other clock modules than Impromptu CLOCKED can be used, but may not fully support Meander. Clocks do not in general understand time signatures, so this all gets tricky. You can use other ratios than 8x sometimes, but the note lengths in Meander may not be correct. Use other than 8x clocks if it meets your needs and sounds good. The internal Meander clock is recommended for getting started and for very simple patches. For more complicated patches, it is best to use an external clock so that clock can also send to other modules that need a clock and all clocks need to be synchronized. Meander now has a clock output which is at 8X the BPM as is the clock input. In general these represent one clock pulse per 32nd note.
Meander takes external Run and Reset signals, executes them and passes them to the Meander Run and Reset OUT ports. Thus, Meander can be started, stopped (paused) and reset by an external clock generator. Toggling Run does not reset the sequencer in any way. Thus, the Run button can pause Meander and it will resume where you left off when clicked again. Clicking Reset does reset the sequencer and reinitializes everything. If you click Reset while Run is in the off state, a reinitialization occurs and Meander will start at the beginning of the progression when Run is pressed again.
Meander does it's best to handle on the fly changes while playing without having noticable glitches or jumps. Sometimes parameter changes require significant re-setup of scales and chords in Meander. If for some reason, Meander does not sound quite right after a parameter change, click the Meander Reset which will re-iniitialize everything with the current parameter settings and start the harmonic progression back over at the 1st step. Changing the harmony progression preset also results in a reset to the 1st step in the progression.
Whereas most harmonic progression presets are deterministic in the degree steps, any preset with "Markov" in the descriptions is stochastic and uses a 1st order Markov transition matrix for the degree steps, with the probabilites reflecting common patterns in the composer's works, if there is a name such as Bach in the description. As such, whereas these progressions may repeat portions over time, it is unlikely to play the same progression twice. There are a few other presets that have Rand or Random in their description that does a simpler non-Markov stochastic progression step.
All knob or state buttons can accept an external CV signal to vary the parameter over all allowed values. The input CV should be from 0V-10.0V . Meander will normalize the CV input ratio to 0.0-1.0 and then multiply this ratio times the parameter range and add to the minimum value to determine the new parameter value. Only acceptable values will be set that are a reflection of the configParam() min and max. The new value is displayed on the panel for your convenience. If an exernal CV is > 0 V., it has control of the param. If the external CV is <=0, control is returned to the Meander parameter knobs. For buttons, the external CV should be 0V for the off state and >=1V for the on state.
- A clock outport was added, adjacent to the clock inport. If no external clock is connected, the Meander generated clock is output. If an external clock is connected, the external clock is output (as pass-through).
- For octal radix degree.octave voltage control of the harmony and melody, you can now send a <1V or >=8V (typically from a sequencer) and Meander will ignore that step. This allows for rhythmic chord and melody ostinatos. A value of 0.0 is recommended as skip step designator.
- All note duration gate signals were tested for all use cases and a few tweaks were made.
- All textual notes played displays were checked and some changes made to correctly display note even if octal radix degree control of harmony or melody is being used.
- Arp was fixed to track melody when melody is controlled by octal radix degree voltages.
- A bug was corrected so that note lengths are correct for all settings. Legato and Staccato are now correctly handled. Staccato note lengths via the gate outputs are now 50% of the note length designation (1/4, 1/8,, etc.). Legato (defualt) notes are 95% of the note length designation.
- 8 new harmonic progressions were added for a new total of 59. A few slight tweaks were made to existing progressions to fit tradition better.
- An appendix was added at the end of this manual that lists the harmonic progression description and Roman number step degrees. I've added some annotations about the progressions if you are interested in knowing more about harmonic theory. I'm no expert, but I have worked with Meander for 32 years or so now. I keep learning though.
- The panel clock input text was changed to "EXT 8x BPM" to remind users that the clock should be an 8X clock.
- Expanded the Harmony Presets text displays to allow maximum length in the space provided.
- Corrected issue with melody when arp is enabled. It now sets the molody note duration to the arp notes duration if arp is enabled. This makes sure the melody and arp gate output catches all notes.
- The harmony chord output port now always puts the chord root or tonic note in channel 0. This enables external modules to extract the root bass note from the chord. Works for triads and tetrad 7ths.
- The 12 bar blues progression (#13) was corrected to use the most standard or traditional form.
- Standardized all progression degree steps to upper case Roman numerals with a space and dash in between steps.
- Correct the #7 "strong" progression to actually be a strong progressions with each step approaching the tonic by 4ths.
- Corrected the #22 "random coming home" progression to always return to the tonic via steps of a 4th.
- When the BPM CV input is connected, Meander now sets the Meander BPM to track the external clock (ex. from CLOCKED) even if Meander is receiving an external clock.
- Support added for "Poly External Scale" output. https://aria.dog/modules/poly-external-scale/ Currently, only Aria Salvatrice's modules can interpret this data. I specfically tested this with Aria's QQQQ quad quantizer module. Basically, Meander sends its mode and root scale info out the "Poly Ext. Scale" out port. QQQQ can receive this data and set up a quantizer that matches Meander's current scale. Thus, QQQQ can be used in scale sequencers and arpeggiators you might build outside of Meander in the current VCV Rack patch. QQQQ also adds to Meander by displaying the Meander current mode and root (key) scale notes on a piano keyboard display. This graphical representation matches the Meander Mode parameter scale that is displayed on the panel below the mode name.
- Corrected several problems related to module browser and Libray panel appearance.
- Corrected a bug that caused the Meander module panel image to draw incorrectly in the plugin/module browser on some systems.
- Added CV Degree and Gate inputs to melody section. Allows playing of the melody engine via octal radix degree.octave values from sequencers or standard note values from a MIDI keyboard or modules such as TWELVE-KEY.
- Changed Harmony circle Degree and Gate inputs format to accept same control as the melody. Allows playing of the harmony engine via octal radix degree.octave values from sequencers or standard note values from a MIDI keyboard or modules such as TWELVE-KEY.
- Harmony STEP input can now properly control stochastic progressions such as those with "Markov", "random" or "rand" in their names.
- Harmony circle "STEP" can now be advanced via the Meander "1ms Clocked Trigger Pulses". Warning, this introduces a 1/32nd note delay in the harmonic progression. In most cases this is not noticeable, but beware.
- All play modes now handle 7th chords if selected.
- All target octaves have been unified to play in the correct octave and display correctly on the panel.
- All button parameter internal variable states are now saved and restored in save and autosave and load via json.
- Run and Reset logic was improved to behave predictably.
- "All 7ths" was changed to "~Nice 7ths". Attempts to only play "nice" sounding 7ths, which are V7, ii7, viidim7 and IVM7. These sound a lot more harmonious and less dissonant. A better choice is V7ths which almost always sound good and are extensively used in music, particlularly in jazz and the blues.
- Added a STEP button inside of the circle of 5ths to allow the harmony progression to be manually advanced, or via CV.
- Panel cleanup.
Note: for any of the following, you can select V7ths in Meander and it will almost always sound good, giving a more jazzy or bluesy sound. Some progressions are tradionally played with non V 7ths in addition but Meander cannot handle arbitray 7ths in a progression.
- Progression #1: Description= "50's Classic R&R do-wop and jazz" this is a circle progression, up by 4ths from VI to I
- Progression #1: Degree steps= "I - VI - II - V"
- Progression #2: Description= "elem.. classical 1" a variation of I-IV-V
- Progression #2: Degree steps= "I - IV - I - V"
- Progression #3: Description= "romantic - alt root_keys" in Cmaj this is a major I-IV-V-I with relative minor vi-ii-iii-vi
- Progression #3: Degree steps= "I - IV - V - I - VI - II - III - VI"
- Progression #4: Description= "custom" you can use this as a place to create your own progression, but it is hard and no way to save
- Progression #5: Description= "the classic I - IV - V" the most commonly used progression in Western music. Tonic, subdominant and dominant.
- Progression #5: Degree steps= "I - IV - V - I"
- Progression #6: Description= "elem. classical 3" a variation of I-IV-V
- Progression #6: Degree steps= "I - IV - V - IV"
- Progression #7: Description= "strong return by 4ths" a circle progression up by 4ths from III to I
- Progression #7: Degree steps= "I - III - VI - IV - V"
- Progression #8: Description= "stay on I" sometimes it is fun to keep the harmony fixed and let the melody and bass meander within that I tonic chord.
- Progression #8: Degree steps= "I"
- Progression #9: Description= "harmonic+ CW 5ths" in Cmaj this goes C, G, D, A, E, B, F down by 5ths CW around the circle (harmonicall)
- Progression #9: Degree steps= "I - V - II - VI - III - VII - IV"
- Progression #10: Description= "harmonic circle- CCW up by 4ths" in Cmaj this goes C, F, B, E, A, D, G up bu 4ths CCW around the circle (harmonically)
- Progression #10: Degree steps= "I - IV - VII - III - VI - II - V"
- Progression #11: Description= "tonal+" in Cmaj this goes C, D, E, F, G, A, B (tonal ascending)
- Progression #11: Degree steps= "I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII"
- Progression #12: Description= "tonal-"
- Progression #12: Degree steps= "I - VII - VI - V - IV - III - II" in Cmaj is C, B, A, G, F, E, D (tonal descending)
- Progression #13: Description= "12 bar blues 1 traditional" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #13: Degree steps= "I - I - I - I - IV - IV - I - I - V - V - I - I"
- Progression #14: Description= "12 bar blues 2 shuffle" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #14: Degree steps= "I - I - I - I - IV - IV - I - I - V - IV - I - I"
- Progression #15: Description= "country 1" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #15: Degree steps= "I - IV - V - I - I - IV - V - I"
- Progression #16: Description= "country 2" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #16: Degree steps= "I - I - V - V - IV - IV - I - I"
- Progression #17: Description= "country 3" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #17: Degree steps= "I - IV - I - V - I - IV - V - I"
- Progression #18: Description= "50's R&R"
- Progression #18: Degree steps= "I - VI - IV - V" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #19: Description= "rock" a plagal cadence (IV-I termination) that never resolves the tension that would be resolved if there was a V-I strong cadence.
- Progression #19: Degree steps= "I - IV"
- Progression #20: Description= "folk 1" a series of strong V-I cadences with strong resolution
- Progression #20: Degree steps= "I - V - I - V"
- Progression #21: Description= "folk 2"
- Progression #21: Degree steps= "I - I - I - V - V - V - I"
- Progression #22: Description= "random coming home by 4ths" a cadence of strong steps by 4ths where the progression steps a random number of steps to begin.
- Progression #22: Degree steps= "I - VI - II - V"
- Progression #23: Description= "random order" a I-IV-V variation in which every combination sounds good.
- Progression #23: Degree steps= "I - IV - V"
- Progression #24: Description= "Hallelujah" a partial song
- Progression #24: Degree steps= "I - VI - I - VI - IV - V - I - I - I - IV - V - VI - IV - V - III - VI"
- Progression #25: Description= "Canon - DMaj" Pachabel's classic
- rogression #25: Degree steps= "I - V - VI - III - IV - I - IV - V"
- Progression #26: Description= "Pop Rock Classic Sensitive" has a reputation for sounding sensitive
- Progression #26: Degree steps= "I - V - VI - IV"
- Progression #27: Description= "Andalusion Cadence 1" with an authentic cadence
- Progression #27: Degree steps= "I - VII - VI - V"
- Progression #28: Description= "16 Bar Blues" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #28: Degree steps= "I - I - I - I - I - I - I - I - IV - IV - I - I - V - IV - I - I"
- Progression #29: Description= "Black Stones" a partial song
- Progression #29: Degree steps= "I - VII - III - VII - I - I - I - I - I - VII - III - VII - IV - IV - V - V"
- Progression #30: Description= "I - V" a series of strong V-I cadences.
- Progression #30: Degree steps= "I - V"
- Progression #31: Description= "Markov Chain-Bach 1" 1st order Markov chain with transition probabilities most often used by Bach
- Progression #31: Degree steps= "I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII"
- Progression #32: Description= "Pop "
- Progression #32: Degree steps= "I - II - IV - V"
- Progression #33: Description= "Classical"
- Progression #33: Degree steps= "I - V - I - VI - II - V - I"
- Progression #34: Description= "Mozart " a typical Mozart progression
- Progression #34: Degree steps= "I - II - V - I"
- Progression #35: Description= "Classical Tonal" a popular I-IV-V variation
- Progression #35: Degree steps= "I - V - I - IV"
- Progression #36: Description= "Sensitive" sometimes called the sensitive female progression
- Progression #36: Degree steps= "VI - IV - I - V"
- Progression #37: Description= "Jazz" a short strong cadence
- Progression #37: Degree steps= "II - V - I"
- Progression #38: Description= "Pop and jazz"
- Progression #38: Degree steps= "I - IV - II - V"
- Progression #39: Description= "Pop" an ascending tonal progression. in Cmaj C-D-E-F-G
- Progression #39: Degree steps= "I - II - III - IV - V"
- Progression #40: Description= "Pop"
- Progression #40: Degree steps= "I - III - IV - IV" // can't really do a IV and iv together in Meander as traditional
- Progression #41: Description= "Andalusian Cadence 2" a descending tonal progression. in Cmaj A, G, F, E
- Progression #41: Degree steps= "VI - V - IV - III"
- Progression #42: Description= "Markov Chain - Bach 2" 1st order Markov chain with transition probabilities most often used by Bach
- Progression #42: Degree steps= "I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII"
- Progression #43: Description= "Markov Chain-Mozart 1" 1st order Markov chain with transition probabilities most often used by Mozart
- Progression #43: Degree steps= "I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII"
- Progression #44: Description= "Markov Chain-Mozart 2" 1st order Markov chain with transition probabilities most often used by Mozart
- Progression #44: Degree steps= "I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII"
- Progression #45: Description= "Markov Chain-Palestrina 1" 1st order Markov chain with transition probabilities most often used by Palestrina
- Progression #45: Degree steps= "I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII"
- Progression #46: Description= "Markov Chain-Beethoven 1" 1st order Markov chain with transition probabilities most often used by Beethoven
- Progression #46: Degree steps= "I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII"
- Progression #47: Description= "Markov Chain-Traditional 1" 1st order Markov chain with transition probabilities most often used in Western music
- Progression #47: Degree steps= "I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII"
- Progression #48: Description= "Markov Chain- I - IV - V" 1st order Markov chain with transition probabilities most often used in I-IV-V
- Progression #48: Degree steps= "I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII"
- Progression #49: Description= "Jazz 2" a strong cadence ascending by 4ths
- Progression #49: Degree steps= "I - VI - II - V"
- Progression #50: Description= "Jazz 3" a strong cadence ascending by 4ths
- Progression #50: Degree steps= "III - VI - II - V"
- Progression #51: Description= "Jazz 4"
- Progression #51: Degree steps= "I - IV - III - VI"
- Progression #52: Description= "I-VI alt maj/ rel. min" actually a I-vi in Cmaj where v1 is the relative minor of the major I
- Progression #52: Degree steps= "I - VI"
- Progression #53: Description= "12 bar blues variation 1" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #53: Degree steps= "I - I - I - I - IV - IV - I - I - V - IV - I - V"
- Progression #54: Description= "12 bar blues variation 2" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #54: Degree steps= "I - I - I - I - IV - IV - I - I - IV - V - I - V"
- Progression #55: Description= "12 bar blues turnaround 1" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #55: Degree steps= "I - IV - I - I - IV - IV - I - I - V - IV - I - V"
- Progression #56: Description= "8 bar blues traditional" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #56: Degree steps= "I - V - IV - IV - I - V - I - V"
- Progression #57: Description= "8 bar blues variation 1" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #57: Degree steps= "I - I - I - I - IV - IV - V - I"
- Progression #58: Description= "8 bar blues variation 2" a I-IV-V variation
- Progression #58: Degree steps= "I - I - I - I - IV - IV - V - V"
- Progression #59: Description= "II - V - I cadential" a short strong cadence ascending by 4ths
- Progression #59: Degree steps= "II - V - I"