Heads up: Melodyne 4 is supposed to drop today.

[David Polich]

Well I already bought Melodyne Editor V4, haven't had time to install it but will tomorrow.

Can you let us know if it looks like there is a function to export the tempo map so it can be used in a DP project? That might only be available in Studio, but I'd spring the extra $50 if it works well.

Tempo map export is only available in Studio..which cannot run
as a plugin in DP.

Btw, Celemony has fixed the high-end loss bug
in Melodyne4, which is now 4.02. If u
have installed V4, simply launch it and
you will see a prompt telling you to download
the update..click on that to start downloading it.

If you are about to purchase it, the
latest updated version is what will
download after you purchase.

Back to this Melodyne vs. DP's pitch
correction debate...I go back and forth
between the two. DP's is great if I only
need to correct a few notes here and there.
If I need to solit notes, tame vibrato,
stretch or compress notes, copy and
paste, adjust note amplitude, or remove
notes, then it is Melodyne for those tasks.

[bayswater]

[Tempo map export is only available in Studio..which cannot run
as a plugin in DP.

Do you know what it is that gets exported? Is it a MIDI file with tempo events that could be imported into a DAW? Or is it (as the web site info implies) just the ability to move the tempo info from one track to another within Melodyne?

[David Polich]

[Tempo map export is only available in Studio..which cannot run
as a plugin in DP.

Do you know what it is that gets exported? Is it a MIDI file with tempo events that could be imported into a DAW? Or is it (as the web site info implies) just the ability to move the tempo info from one track to another within Melodyne?

I dont know, I dont have Melodyne Studio.

Correction to previous statement..Melodyne Studio
4 download includes both standalone and
plugin versions. The Studio plugin has all
the features of thr standalone. Whereas,
Melodyne Editor 4 does NOT include all
of the features of Studio.

[toodamnhip]

This is 100% bang on!

A few years back Sound On Sound did a round up of tuning packages and didn't even mention the best of the lot, DP, which prior to melodyne was the only alternative to Autotune. In fact, so crap is MOTU's marketing, that apart from a tiny paragraph in SOS's future products column entitled 'Shape of things to Come' (in about 2005) I have never seen mention of their pitch automation anywhere. I almost missed the announcement and nearly spit my coffee out when I read it, at the anticipation of what it might be.

If you guys think their marketing is bad, you should take a trip this side of the pond ........ hardly anyone has ever even heard of DP. I do my bit to convert people ...... nearly all of my clients (almost all of whom have their own set ups) are amazed when they see what DP can do. Of course I take all the credit!!!

The only thing I can add is that I don't think Melodyne sounds better. All the packages have artefacts, yes Melodyne produces them less often but I have found that tuning at higher sample rates dramatically reduces the artefacts to about par with Melodyne. Even if you record at lower sample rates it produce a better result, just bounce a stem mix minus vocal, and import that and the vocal into the higher sample rate session (I do 88.2 or 96Khz) and away you go.

If you're doing big shifts in pitch then yes Melodyne will yeild more reliable results but if you're just tuning a vocal (like... most of the time) then it's DP every day. It's at least twice as quick

As to WAXMAN's enquiry ..... I'm another daily user of DP's pitch correction and automation lane or not, it's killer!

I will have to try that higher sample rate strategy, never thought of that, thanks man, very nice idea! (if it works...lol)...
Tell us more about the difference you hear, be specific if you can, (if you can’t, I understand).

I am glad I am not the only one having issues with MOTU’s failure to properly promote it’s products. People need to speak up. If this forum is only about technical advice and applauding MOTU, it is not doing all it can. A healthy debate, and open criticism by caring individuals should be headed by MOTU.
Many here might think this has nothing to do with them, but if DP is not ubiquitous enough, it could lead to the program failing entirely. It also makes us DP users a fringe group to the degree DP falls out of favor with the masses. And this is not good when interfacing with the industry.

I have a very busy production schedule, but I would surely put my time where my mouth is and offer to help MOTU with their promotions. I am not even a promotions expert and yet, I have a whole slew if great ideas on how they could mock up ad campaigns to show off DP’s features.

Maybe I’ll chat with them at NAMM. I’m probably not one of their favorite guys because I complain a lot. But anyone with any sort of insight into life can see I complain out of a love and care for the program.

MOTU, I am offering my ideas to help you all promote. I want the industry to KNOW about all of DP’s deep features. See you at NAMM.

[mhschmieder]

David, that isn't how it worked for me. For some reason, it instead forfeited my v2 of Editor but kept my v3 of Studio. I think because I had done a gradual upgrade path from v1 through v3, there will remain some lingering weirdness with my account, licenses, and installed software.

[stubbsonic]

On a random aside: After seeing these Melodyne 4 demo vids, is anybody else besides me wishing celemony would take that tech and make a virtual instrument with modeling?

[David Polich]

On a random aside: After seeing these Melodyne 4 demo vids, is anybody else besides me wishing celemony would take that tech and make a virtual instrument with modeling?

As a professional sound designer, I have to say
no, I wouldnt want to see Celemony waste their
time on that.

To my ears, the sound design examples in the
producy videos all sound terrible..like chewing
on aluminum foil. Really grating to my ears.
Besides, why would I want to turn a guitar into
a piano or a vocal into a saxophone? Thats
just gimmickry.

All that EQ/partials/formant/spectral
stuff for me is pointless. I bought Melodyne
for two reasons - to correct vocals, and SOME
instrument track correction (timing in particular).
The export MIDI file from audio is also nice,
I use that from time to time.

Izotope's Iris does a better job of creating
new spectral sounds from samples.
Omnisphere, Native Instruments Absynth
and Reaktor...those all do a great job of
resynthesis as well.

[mhschmieder]

Holy Miracle of Miracles, Batman, this Melodyne v4 Studio thingie is like, out of this world!

I just threw it at a mid-to-late-80's bossa nova tune that has been languishing for decades (due to not having an archtop jazz guitar for a 25 year gap in between, and now being out of shape on that instrument), and it not only caught all of my slides, staccato moves, grace notes, bass runs, and other nuances, but it also correctly caught all of my flubs.

The original was recorded to cassette tape directly from the output jack of the guitar, me being clueless and all back in the day. Very muffled sounding, and not very articulate. How Melodyne could pick (no pun intended) through all that muddle is beyond me!

I will need to do some minor cleanup here and there, but mostly of the accurate replicas of my original mistakes and missed notes or beats.

Rendering this MIDI via Impact Soundworks Archtop Hollowbody Guitar library was really an amazing experience.

I think MIDI has had a bad name for a long time for all the wrong reasons. It's all about the performance, and MIDI is just another way of capturing that.

I would prefer more than 127 steps of discrete values (most MIDI tools don't support the two-byte format), and more controller support along with better ergonomics for same, but having Melodyne as an intermediary editor for poorly rendered (or badly played) performances that are difficult if not impossible to re-do, is just something that I couldn't live without.

Melodeon really does a good job of capturing dynamic levels and even distinguishing when a frequency's level is contributed by a tonic vs. a harmonic (when dealing with polyphonic material).

I also converted an alto recorder part to flute using Melodyne, and a bass guitar part to upright bass. I'll eventually re-record them with my real instruments, but already the Melodyne+MIDI approach has given me more professional and inspiring results than my original takes from 30 years ago.

So now I have used the new percussive polyphony mode on archtop guitar. I haven't yet gone back to some of my old digital piano tracks to re-convert them using this new mode; nor have I tried something even more challenging, such as using the sustain polyphony mode on some old CZ-101 and Juno-60 synth pads.

[Sean Kenny]

I will have to try that higher sample rate strategy, never thought of that, thanks man, very nice idea! (if it works...lol)...
Tell us more about the difference you hear, be specific if you can, (if you can’t, I understand).

I am glad I am not the only one having issues with MOTU’s failure to properly promote it’s products. People need to speak up. If this forum is only about technical advice and applauding MOTU, it is not doing all it can. A healthy debate, and open criticism by caring individuals should be headed by MOTU.
Many here might think this has nothing to do with them, but if DP is not ubiquitous enough, it could lead to the program failing entirely. It also makes us DP users a fringe group to the degree DP falls out of favor with the masses. And this is not good when interfacing with the industry.

I have a very busy production schedule, but I would surely put my time where my mouth is and offer to help MOTU with their promotions. I am not even a promotions expert and yet, I have a whole slew if great ideas on how they could mock up ad campaigns to show off DP’s features.

Maybe I’ll chat with them at NAMM. I’m probably not one of their favorite guys because I complain a lot. But anyone with any sort of insight into life can see I complain out of a love and care for the program.

MOTU, I am offering my ideas to help you all promote. I want the industry to KNOW about all of DP’s deep features. See you at NAMM.

For me it's definitely a high frequency graining that I hear at the lower sample rates. Whereas with higher rates (even if recorded at lower) the graining is much less. I tend to record at higher sample rates now since I got the new (Darth Vader) mac pro, on the basis that all processing 'degrades' the signal so the higher quality the starting point, the better.

By the way this isn't a criticism at all, all tuning packages do it some degree, and the fact we are able to salvage great (albeit a little pitchy) vocal performances is something to celebrate.

I'm with you on the "caring about DP" thing. I bought PT HD2 in 2006 and always regretted it. I'm still a DP user.

It's not criticism of the product ..... far from it. The platform is the BEST for me..... but it might be an idea to tell people about it.

It's only because the platform is so friggin' good that I'm prepared to waste my time typing my conversations.

It certainly seems to fall on deaf ears, as DP has to be the best kept secret this side of the atlantic that's for sure!

For such a heavyweight recording platform, the marketing is positively amateurish

Sorry MOTU .... but you know we love you really!

[mikehalloran]

Holy Miracle of Miracles, Batman, this Melodyne v4 Studio thingie is like, out of this world! . . . .

Yea. I haven't done anything as challenging—yet but I am liking this big time.

[mikehalloran]

I thought that I posted this already but I don't see it: For new users, it is less expensive to purchase Editor then upgrade to Studio than to purchase Studio outright. Through Sweetwater, this savings is $151–$201 depending if you buy the boxed Editor 2 or the Editor 4 download first. At AudioDeluxe, the savings is only $129.01 but the overall cost is lower because of the initial 15% off.

[bayswater]

For new users, it is less expensive to purchase Editor then upgrade to Studio than to purchase Studio outright.

Looks like that will end on April 1. After that, all upgrades will cost the difference in retail price.

[mikehalloran]

For new users, it is less expensive to purchase Editor then upgrade to Studio than to purchase Studio outright.

Looks like that will end on April 1. After that, all upgrades will cost the difference in retail price.

Really— that long?

I'm surprised. I would have figured a slight grace period after NAMM this week perhaps to Feb. 1.

[bayswater]

For new users, it is less expensive to purchase Editor then upgrade to Studio than to purchase Studio outright.

Looks like that will end on April 1. After that, all upgrades will cost the difference in retail price.

Really— that long?

I'm surprised. I would have figured a slight grace period after NAMM this week perhaps to Feb. 1.

I got that wrong. It's longer. "Upgrade from Melodyne editor (all versions) to Melodyne 4 studio – Promotion price valid until 04/30/2016". We'll all be using DP on our phones by then.

[dewdman42]

what are the exact differences between the plugin version of Studio and plugin version of Editor? I guess at AudioDeluxe prices, its $83 to upgrade editor, or $125 to upgrade all the way to studio. I don't have any need to run the standalone, I'd always be working inside of a DAW...unless there are some additional features found only in the standalone...or it sounds like the studio version of the plugin can do more than the editor version? What more can it do?