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Re: Melodyne 2 is out

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 6:48 pm
by zed
David Polich wrote:I stopped using AutoTune years ago, but I'd be lost without Melodyne.
I couldn't have done a number of albums without it.
Absolutely. I use Melodyne also. I agree that we should all have a means to fix the tuning of vocals (and some off-the-mark instruments) in our studios. I am just frowning on that particular gimmicky effect. But I think it will take a long time to stamp it out though. I just "met" a guy who bought a hardware box that creates that exact AutoTune effect and takes it several steps further in terms of how obnoxious he can make his voice sound. He just loves it and plans to use it on all his vocal tracks. <sigh>

Re: Melodyne 2 is out

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:49 am
by mhschmieder
The problem, of course, is that auto-tune is being applied to vocalists who don't need it, such as Paul McCartney and Roberta Flack, whose new albums I can't buy as a result (too painful to listen to, in spite of the inspired interpretations of classic jazz standards and Beatles songs, respectively). It seems that auto-tune is being applied as an effect across entire tracks vs. an isolated note here and there being tweaked a bit.

I just listened to some advance excerpts from Ian Anderson's new "Thick As a Brick Pt. 2" solo outing, and was relieved to hear his voice in all of its non-auto-tuned glory. :-)

Re: Melodyne 2 is out

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 11:00 am
by David Polich
zed wrote:
David Polich wrote:I stopped using AutoTune years ago, but I'd be lost without Melodyne.
I couldn't have done a number of albums without it.
Absolutely. I use Melodyne also. I agree that we should all have a means to fix the tuning of vocals (and some off-the-mark instruments) in our studios. I am just frowning on that particular gimmicky effect. But I think it will take a long time to stamp it out though. I just "met" a guy who bought a hardware box that creates that exact AutoTune effect and takes it several steps further in terms of how obnoxious he can make his voice sound. He just loves it and plans to use it on all his vocal tracks. <sigh>
Hilarious. I wonder if he'd be interested in buying a used Betamax machine.
That T-pain bow will be worth about as much in a couple of years.

Hey what can you say? A lot of "musicians" are idiots. And suckers for junk like this.

If I'm being paid to T-pain someone's vocals, fine. If it's a project I'm volunteering to do, I tell them there is absolutely no way I will do that to
their vocals.

Re: Melodyne 2 is out

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:52 pm
by kwiz
David Polich wrote:
zed wrote:
David Polich wrote:I stopped using AutoTune years ago, but I'd be lost without Melodyne.
I couldn't have done a number of albums without it.
Absolutely. I use Melodyne also. I agree that we should all have a means to fix the tuning of vocals (and some off-the-mark instruments) in our studios. I am just frowning on that particular gimmicky effect. But I think it will take a long time to stamp it out though. I just "met" a guy who bought a hardware box that creates that exact AutoTune effect and takes it several steps further in terms of how obnoxious he can make his voice sound. He just loves it and plans to use it on all his vocal tracks. <sigh>
Hilarious. I wonder if he'd be interested in buying a used Betamax machine.
That T-pain bow will be worth about as much in a couple of years.

Hey what can you say? A lot of "musicians" are idiots. And suckers for junk like this.

If I'm being paid to T-pain someone's vocals, fine. If it's a project I'm volunteering to do, I tell them there is absolutely no way I will do that to
their vocals.
Unfortunately/Fortunately, depending on your perspective, the Cher/T-Pain effect is part of pop music's sonic culture. The use or over use of Auto Tune is something that some people need or want in their productions and to me, it is what it is. I can see all sides to this discussion but I'll add, that I'm sure guitar purists in the 60's frowned on Hendrix when he introduced his distorted overdriven sound to rock music. We all know how that ended up working out. :lol: To me, Auto Tune is just another sonic paintbrush to use, using it is subjective. Much like using an Oboe in a trash metal band... :lol:

Re: Melodyne 2 is out

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 3:30 pm
by mikehalloran
Back to the OP...

I've not used Melodyne ever - never even demo'd it so I don't know all the wonderful things it can do.

I do have AutoTune but rarely fire it up and feel grateful tat I ave never been asked to T-Pain a vocal. In fact, I don't listen to whatever "the kids" listen to except when my daughters have borrowed my car - then I listen for a while for something interesting which I never seem to find.

I've used DP's pitch correction with success on some old cello tracks that I'll never be able to re-do that I flew in from a flakey analog source. It allowed me a subtle vibrato and I was pleased with the result.

Although I have AT, I'm finding that I reach for Nectar when I am trying to whip a less than perfect demo into shape. There are a couple of female vocalists who benefit from the effect.

Like most effect, I'm of the "adjust it so you can tell then back off" school.

Re: Melodyne 2 is out

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 6:33 am
by Splinter
cbergm7210 wrote:Been using Autotune for years with DP. Between it and DP's pitch correction you can't go wrong. Just set AT's action to slow and use DP's pitch lines to nudge things that AT is pulling to the wrong note or not pulling far enough or fast enough. Had 75 tracks of AT'd vocals in the last project without a hitch.
Where's the "Like" button. I'm with you on this.

Lots of people hate using graphic mode in AT and the limited experience I'm had with it, I think it is a pain as well, but the automatic mode is great when set to a slow speed. When used in combination with DP to catch individual notes, I find it tracks well and sounds transparent without that "tuned" sort of buzz to it. Melodyne, on the other hand, sounds cheesy and artificial to me.

That said, I think most people over tune tracks with too fast a speed and fixing every last jot and tiddle. Our ears are used the descending lines going a bit flat and ascending bits going sharp. The question is, does it offend the ear. I tend to be pretty critical about tuning, but when manually tuning a part, I find it's important to use my ears and not my eyes. I'm surprised actually how many "pitchy" notes to me sound very natural and unoffensive.

It tends to be held notes that reveal the most pitch problems and I love that I can keep all the natural vibrato of sustained notes in DP while snapping them to a centre pitch. Using the scissors and merge tools in the pitch correction mode you can group phrases, notes and even parts of notes to best snap them to the pitch grid and determine how much control you want over every note. The less you slice it up, the more true to the original phrasing. It's a brilliant tool. Other than timestretching needs, DP's built in pitch correction features beats Melodyne any day of the week, IMO.

Re: Melodyne 2 is out

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 4:14 pm
by David Polich
Splinter wrote: Where's the "Like" button. I'm with you on this.

Lots of people hate using graphic mode in AT and the limited experience I'm had with it, I think it is a pain as well, but the automatic mode is great when set to a slow speed. When used in combination with DP to catch individual notes, I find it tracks well and sounds transparent without that "tuned" sort of buzz to it. Melodyne, on the other hand, sounds cheesy and artificial to me.

Other than timestretching needs, DP's built in pitch correction features beats Melodyne any day of the week, IMO.
Disagree 1000%. Do you have Melodyne 2? C'mon, seriously, it's far more capable than DP at pitch correction, pitch detection, moving, copying, pasting...plenty of features DP doesn't even have, as well.

I mean, DP's pitch correction works, and if you need to move or tune a few
things quickly, it's great. Not knocking it. But it's defnitely limited.

Melodyne 2 sounds better than the previous version. I suggest you demo it
with an open mind before declaring it inferior.

Re: Melodyne 2 is out

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 4:40 pm
by kwiz
David Polich wrote:
Splinter wrote: Where's the "Like" button. I'm with you on this.

Lots of people hate using graphic mode in AT and the limited experience I'm had with it, I think it is a pain as well, but the automatic mode is great when set to a slow speed. When used in combination with DP to catch individual notes, I find it tracks well and sounds transparent without that "tuned" sort of buzz to it. Melodyne, on the other hand, sounds cheesy and artificial to me.

Other than timestretching needs, DP's built in pitch correction features beats Melodyne any day of the week, IMO.
Disagree 1000%. Do you have Melodyne 2? C'mon, seriously, it's far more capable than DP at pitch correction, pitch detection, moving, copying, pasting...plenty of features DP doesn't even have, as well.

I mean, DP's pitch correction works, and if you need to move or tune a few
things quickly, it's great. Not knocking it. But it's defnitely limited.

Melodyne 2 sounds better than the previous version. I suggest you demo it
with an open mind before declaring it inferior.
+1
Melodyne 2 is the best pitch correction out right now hands down!

Re: Melodyne 2 is out

Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:40 pm
by ronjams
I have to second that melodyne 2.0 is far superior to what autotune 7 or DP has to offer way more flexibility. I can definitely say that I've had experience with all of them in all modes and all of them can drive you quite mad because it still requires your ear and keen listening skills and God help you if you don't understand scales and their relationships to each other.
I consider DP's ability to redraw the pitch curve and resize or split up that curve a big plus because you can't do that in same manner melodyne but there are less elegant ways to deal with that issue in melodyne. At this point you must understand that Autotune & DP deal with the voice but Melodyne goes into another dimension of reshaping an actual performance that cannot be reproduced. For example, an old recording say a Bach Fuge by Vladimir Horwitz and a note was bad it could be fixed.(Probably because he was playing it a 200mph) All of these programs are great but just imagine if the singer would just get it right in the first place I would not have to spend a ridiculous amount of time straightening out vocals in the first place

Re: Melodyne 2 is out

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 1:49 am
by Splinter
Fair enough. I haven't used Melodyne in some time, so if they've improved the sound quality, bravo for them, I just thought what I heard before sounded cheesy. That said, I think the sound quality of AT and DP's pitch correction is really good. Regarding Melodyne's features, I know Melodyne allows you a lot of flexibility to move and rearrange pitches, but to me, when it comes to straight up pitch correction, DP's integration and editing capabilities can't be beat. Having to load audio into a pitch corrector first is a time waster and feels like a needless step when DP has it right at my fingertips.

I wasn't saying Melodyne was crap... not at all... I was just saying for workflow, sound quality, and editing capabilities, DP and AT combined, is a much faster, better sounding option than Melodyne, but as I have conceded, I haven't used Melodyne in some time. DP and AT work great for me, and if you haven't tried working this way, I think you're missing out on a powerful combo. To each their own, though. :mrgreen:

Re: Melodyne 2 is out

Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 4:06 pm
by ronjams
I have worked in just the same manner as you've described and having the convince to do all the processing in Dp is nice but when your needs change and you need to for example, strip parts from a loop or a full blown song that has been mixed, you can still go in with melodyne and get rid of or change notes literally within a given instrument or vocal and create additional parts, that my friend is a lot of power more than DP and AT combined and by the way, I still own all 3 products that we're talking about. Please see what melodyne is all about. Go to http://www.celemony.com Please watch the videos. They are in depth. I'm glad that they put their How-To videos right on their website and they are good enough to get you going right out of the box. You will be AMAZED. All of these products will allow you to get the job done when it comes to vocal editing. There really is no difference in the sound quality per se but rather how the end user has chosen to interpret that data. However, I've heard some strange sounds come out of all these products mostly because the buffer wasn't set right in some cases. Anyway, It's a matter of how you want to work. You have to decide which product will be more efficient for you but I go on a case by case basis.

Re: Melodyne 2 is out

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:48 pm
by toodamnhip
SixStringGeek wrote:Upgrade is $99 and like a sucker, I bought it hoping that this version would finally be stable. Previous versions kept crashing while in DP when fed a mono vocal track of non-trivial length.

However, the new version crashes just like the old one. Anybody else had any luck with Melodyne in DP for vocal pitch correction? I'm kind of fed up with it and ordered AutoTune the other day because 1) I'm hoping it doesnt crash and 2) pop music seems to rely on it so much that it is hard to produce a credible pop demo without it. Not that I like that sound, but that seems to be the sound that sells.
Wait until things go 64 bit, it won;t crash then. It is always a memory problems. If you think of the limits of RAM in 24 bit, you’ll see that there just isn’t enough memory for something like Melodyne and DP combined. When 64 bit comes, there will be head room for everything one could imagine.