A Unique World for Sound Designers to Explore
MESA is one of those synths where the real fun comes from exploring how it works. It combines sound design and visuals in a way that feels genuinely different—the visuals aren't just eye candy, but actually play a role in how the wavetable is created on the fly. Your playing can then feed back into the visuals, creating an interesting loop between what you're seeing, hearing, and playing.
There is a large patch library. Some of my favorites are Crystal Pluck, Shrine Gate, Vinyl Keys, Deep Space Drone, Dream Harp, and Virus Alert. A lot of the other presets weren't quite my style, tending more toward distorted, glitchy, and experimental sounds, but that actually pushed me toward what I enjoyed most about MESA: designing my own sounds.
I got the furthest by starting in the Vision section. Experimenting with the "Chan" setting helped me understand how the colors in the visual are interpreted and translated into sound. I also found that using less movement in the Mod Matrix tended to produce sounds that appealed more to my ear. The VFX system adds another deep layer, letting you stack effects that alter the visuals and, in turn, affect the resulting sound.
There is a lot here to experiment with, and it's highly customizable. MIDI Learn is also easy to access with a right-click, which is a nice touch.
At this point, MESA feels like it has a ton of potential, particularly for people who enjoy sound design and experimentation rather than simply browsing presets. It's also highly extensible, although creating new shaders gets fairly technical and was beyond where I'm currently comfortable going.
MESA feels less like a conventional synth and more like its own little world for sound design—and I've really enjoyed exploring it.
There is a large patch library. Some of my favorites are Crystal Pluck, Shrine Gate, Vinyl Keys, Deep Space Drone, Dream Harp, and Virus Alert. A lot of the other presets weren't quite my style, tending more toward distorted, glitchy, and experimental sounds, but that actually pushed me toward what I enjoyed most about MESA: designing my own sounds.
I got the furthest by starting in the Vision section. Experimenting with the "Chan" setting helped me understand how the colors in the visual are interpreted and translated into sound. I also found that using less movement in the Mod Matrix tended to produce sounds that appealed more to my ear. The VFX system adds another deep layer, letting you stack effects that alter the visuals and, in turn, affect the resulting sound.
There is a lot here to experiment with, and it's highly customizable. MIDI Learn is also easy to access with a right-click, which is a nice touch.
At this point, MESA feels like it has a ton of potential, particularly for people who enjoy sound design and experimentation rather than simply browsing presets. It's also highly extensible, although creating new shaders gets fairly technical and was beyond where I'm currently comfortable going.
MESA feels less like a conventional synth and more like its own little world for sound design—and I've really enjoyed exploring it.
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I like this.
I like this a lot, although I wish the MIDI learn wouldn’t show so easily. I think it would be better to just to turn it off or on.
Response from developer
First off, thank you for the kind words of support, highly appreciated. Also, your suggestion is a great one, and I will take it into consideration for the next update. all the best Juan
