Question about Melodyne

[bayswater]

Mention of Melodyne in another thread prompted this. I’ve had Melodyne for a long time. Started with the basic version (Essentials?) and later updated to Editor, Now I have V2.1. I haven’t used it much if at all since MOTU upgrade the pitch editing in DP, and didn’t think updating to V3 was worth the price.

Now that there is a free version of Melodyne with DP, I’m wondering whether to install it. My understanding is that it will replace what I have. It is a newer version, so maybe better, but from what I understand it is the “essentials” version and will not do notes within a chord. ZTX seems to do fine with single notes so it’s not obvious to me what is gained with the entry level Melodyne freebie.

[mikehalloran]

Mention of Melodyne in another thread prompted this. I’ve had Melodyne for a long time. Started with the basic version (Essentials?) and later updated to Editor, Now I have V2.1. I haven’t used it much if at all since MOTU upgrade the pitch editing in DP, and didn’t think updating to V3 was worth the price.

Now that there is a free version of Melodyne with DP, I’m wondering whether to install it. My understanding is that it will replace what I have. It is a newer version, so maybe better, but from what I understand it is the “essentials” version and will not do notes within a chord. ZTX seems to do fine with single notes so it’s not obvious to me what is gained with the entry level Melodyne freebie.

There are a few ways to edit blobs.

The most basic way is to display everything, grab the one blob you want and just move it: click-drag with the Option key held down (don't use Select All as I mentioned in the other thread) or using any of the automatic functions to nudge it up/down. Of course, to include all of the harmonics on the one note you want is tricky.

Melodyne Basic should be able to do that but I can't be certain since I have Studio. I may have some time to fire up my 2012 MBP and check this out later today or tomorrow as I do not have Studio installed on that machine.

The current version is 5 and the web site is having an Upgrade Sale that ends today.

Updates and upgrades
Make your Melodyne even better.

Update your Melodyne to Version 5 or make it still more versatile and powerful by switching to a larger edition. You will find an overview of all updates and upgrades here.

Get up to 60% off now! Offer lasts until 31.12.2023.

One of these looks attractive if done today.

Screenshot 2023-12-31 at 12.34.17 PM.png (181.29 KiB) Viewed 4562 times

Screenshot 2023-12-31 at 12.39.17 PM.png (267.79 KiB) Viewed 4562 times

[CharlzS]

so it’s not obvious to me what is gained with the entry level Melodyne freebie.

Street cred . . . ARA is another feature DP has to include to be competitive. PT was caught in the same buzz. Since ARA is mostly a Celemony/Melodyne plugin tech, it's gives Celemony the opportunity to hawk some more product via upgrades.

[HCMarkus]

I don't find Melodyne superior to DP's pitch layer for pitch editing monophonic sources. And even with ARA, it seems more time-consuming to use Melodyne than DP's built in tools. And with an ARA plugin working, some of my editing conventions are hamstrung.

But if you need to tune or alter one or two strings in a guitar chord, Melodyne is indispensable. (For that, you need Melodyne Editor.) And there are some other cool functions, like de-essing and dynamic control that take Melodyne beyond a pitch editing tool.

But, while we're here, I wouldn't mind a nice tutorial on ARA in DP if anyone knows of a good one...

[mikehalloran]

ARA was developed by Presonus and Celemony in 2011. It's been part of Melodyne Editor since v. 1.3 so v. 2.1 should have it. What I don't know how compatible that version is with the current ARA 2 used by DP, PT and others nowadays. Editor 4.1 supports ARA 2 and, of course, all versions of Melodyne 5 do, too. DP only supports ARA in VST3s.

There are many primers and YouTube videos on it but I would start with Celemony's:

https://helpcenter.celemony.com/M5/doc/ ... awsWithAra

[James Steele]

I don't find Melodyne superior to DP's pitch layer for pitch editing monophonic sources. And even with ARA, it seems more time-consuming to use Melodyne than DP's built in tools. And with an ARA plugin working, some of my editing conventions are hamstrung.

File it under the YMMV category, but I have had an instance where the Melodyne correction sounded a bit better. Might just have been then unique nature of the source material, or the range of transposition, but Melodyne sounded a little bit better in that one case. I'm not talking dramatically... so whether or not it's worth it would be in the "ears" of the beholder.

[mikehalloran]

But if you need to tune or alter one or two strings in a guitar chord, Melodyne is indispensable. (For that, you need Melodyne Editor.) And there are some other cool functions, like de-essing and dynamic control that take Melodyne beyond a pitch editing tool.
...

I just installed Melodyne Essential on my 2012 MBP and can confirm this. Melodyne Essential is for single lines only though it can be in a stereo or mono track(!). I did not bring it up in ARA 2, instead using the old Transfer method. ARA loads the entire track and I didn't need that—for short passages, this is the way that works.

My 2012 MBP with a SATA III SSD is slooooooow compared to my M2 Studio but I had no idea how slow till today. Long story short, I had to remove every trace of Studio 4 and had to jump through many hoops to do so but I got it working, thanks to the DP User Guide—not in the Plug-Ins Guide, another surprise.

...
it’s not obvious to me what is gained with the entry level Melodyne freebie.

Back to the OP, spend the $29/$99 to upgrade to Editor/Studio 5 or leave it alone. I cannot recommend Melodyne Essential to anyone who has used Editor or Studio and/or knows how to edit individual notes in DP.

BTW, I use ZTX all the time in DP and TwistedWave (I have it in something else, too but can never remember what) but there are tasks where it just does not have the functionality I need.

[mikehalloran]

BTW, you can use Melodyne Essentials to change the pitch of an entire track or section: In DP, it will show up only as a VST3—follow the DP 11 User guide to download and Activate.

Select Melodyne as your plug-in. Transfer the audio the old way or import using ARA.

In the Melodyne Edit menu, Select All. This turns the track red.

Click-drag to the key you want. To fine-tune, hold the Option key (Mac), then click-drag.

This changes the entire track and works in Stereo and Mono. For notes inside the track, Melodyne Editor or Studio is required.

[bayswater]

Thanks everyone. I don’t do a lot of pitch correction, and it doesn’t look like I’d get a lot out of V5 Essentials V5.

I just heard from Celemony about a support ticket on Editor V2.1 in standalone mode. The answer was it is no longer supported and doesn’t work after OSX 10.10, They don’t want to talk to me until I update to V5. V2.1 does work with DP 11.3 as a plugin.

I guess a good deal on an update of Editor is the only alternative.

[mikehalloran]

Thanks everyone. I don’t do a lot of pitch correction, and it doesn’t look like I’d get a lot out of V5 Essentials V5.

I just heard from Celemony about a support ticket on Editor V2.1 in standalone mode. The answer was it is no longer supported and doesn’t work after OSX 10.10, They don’t want to talk to me until I update to V5. V2.1 does work with DP 11.3 as a plugin.

I guess a good deal on an update of Editor is the only alternative.

Though the web site says that the sale ended yesterday, it’s still showing the sale prices.

https://shop.celemony.com/cgi-bin/WebO ... 1.23.5.5.9

[bayswater]

Thanks Mike. I think I got it at the 2023 sale price. We'll see when I try installing it.

[sethares]

Like many in this thread, I didn't find the editing of single notes in Melodyne to be very different from editing using the built-in pitch editing. But adding in Melodyne Essentials also enables polyphonic audio-to-MIDI functionality in DP, which seems to be quite nice (though far from perfect!). Previously, when I wanted to do this, I would fire up Ableton Live. Being able to do it in DP makes it much easier.

[bayswater]

But adding in Melodyne Essentials also enables polyphonic audio-to-MIDI functionality in DP

Thanks, I’d forgotten about that. It was possible in Editor back in V2 and I did use it now and then.