Frequency Central Intros Little Melody, New Generative Sequencer For Eurorack

June 8, 2020 Synth Anatomy DIY, Eurorack, Hardware, News 0

Frequency Central shows with Little Melody, a new clever generative Eurorack sequencer that creates very complex, varied melodies from just 4 steps

The UK based developer Frequency Central has made a name for itself in the past with interesting Eurorack modules (DIY or assembled) with a very good price/performance factor. A good amount of features, clever layouts, and affordable. The newest module is called Little Melody equipped with a super creative 4 step sequencer.

It is a generative sequencer based around a clock divider and chromatic quantizer used to create arpeggios, in-the-moment licks, and riffs. It has four sliders onboard with which you can select the notes with a 5 octaves range. Clever, these are quantized chromatically, so it’s easy to dial in specific notes.

So far it’s more like a classic sequencer. The more exciting thing is that each slider has it’s own associated clock divider with the divisions: /1, /2, /4, /8, /16, /32, /64, and /128 where /1 changes every state every clock pulse, and /128 takes 128 clock pulses to change states. Little Melody allows you to change divisions on the fly what is also described as one of the key features by the developers. They can be set either individually with the ‘Division Selection’ knobs, or all at once with the ‘Preset’ knob or via external control voltage.

Little Melody includes eight counting modes, which change how the clock dividers operate: UP, DOWN, UP/DOWN 4, UP/DOWN 8, UP/DOWN 16, UP/DOWN 32, UP/DOWN 64, UP/DOWN 128. The length of your sequence is determined by the counting modes and highest division that you are using.

Moog Subharmonicon-Style Sequencer?

The concept is somewhat reminiscent of that of the new Moog Subharmonicon but not exactly the same. Jetroid on YouTube explains the difference:

With one sequencer on Subharmonicon, you only have the 4 different notes per sequence, and the clock divisions determine how fast/slow we iterate through the different notes. In Little Melody, notice that multiple leds can be lit simultaineously; the current note is the sum of the notes set on the currently active (ie lit led) sliders. The clock dividers for little melody determine when a slider should be lit, relative to the clock rate.

So for Subharmonicon, you always have just 4 notes playing at variable (unpredictable?) tempo relative tempo input. With Little Melody, you have between 2 to 16 distinct notes playing at variable (but predictable) tempo relative to clock input. Just 2 notes when all clock dividers are set to the same division, but 16 when they are all different. So there are a few similarities, but they’re more different than they are similar.