my Melda experience

[StroboMarc]

Hello Meldaproduction & community,

after a poll in a facebook group on why Meldaproduction plugins have a bad reputation and don't get used often/widely I decided to take the bait and make experiences myself. Please note upfront that changes/fixes won't affect me because I stick to other companies but maybe they would help this community or other beginners when they look into it. I also had not known Meldaproduction before thus these are really newcomers impressions and some of the issues could of course be user error. I tested on a Windows 10 machine with FL Studio 20.7, Studio One 5 and Reaper 6.13.

Sorry for the wall of text that will spread over multiple posts but I wanted to make it comprehensible

The only plugin that somehow gained my interest to test was MCharacter. Looking for the download I noticed a full installer > 400MB I needed to download for a single plugin test. That already was a first hurdle.
Starting the installer made my antivirus spit out warnings (never experienced before with any plugin installer/control center/manager). After a system backup and a deep scan by multiple av software I ran the installer.
What to say, the blue-greenish style with this big cheap looking 3d status bar is something I'm not gonna forget Jokes aside, the x86 mandatory installation is bad practice. Same goes for copying all kind of files which didn't belong to the plugins I selected.

The UI was pretty small on my screen so I resized it. If not done, there were cropped texts every now and then similar to this (notice the Side-chain): https://imgur.com/a/FFG9uGG.
Well, it was not what I expected. Unlike with almost any other plugin Meldaproduction plugins rather changed the layout!? These were the results and I don't know what purpose or more of a value it has in that state: https://imgur.com/a/zowvJxr or https://imgur.com/a/ukh0S71.

Something immediately noticable is the massive amount of windows that open at every occurence. Even something as simple as entering a parameter value needs to be a popup. Further more these windows are always on top of everything and with focus. Multiple times I was not able to stop playback of my DAW or opening other plugin editors because those were always in the way of something. I was even unable to react to message boxes from my DAW and got stuck "in a loop" because Meldaproduction windows were upfront overlaying these. So no way to close either one or the other

[StroboMarc]

One of the simplest thing to test was MMetronome. Why does it have A-H preset slots? It's just a metronome... But what actually was quite unpleasant is the rhythmically flashing display. I do not suffer from epilepsy but it still triggered an uncomfortable feeling.

Went on to test another common plugin type, MAnalyzer. I've found it not much useful. First issue was it being small of size and not resizable. I don't know why there is a need for selling a "free" bundle and putting a fairly big nag screen in it. But the small size made this analyzing plugin not more useful than my usual guesswork.
Further more there were readouts in the analyzer view and I don't know how am I supposed to read them. Not only are they wildly jumping around, they also overlap with each other at worse: https://imgur.com/a/CFGir02.

Next was a plugin I was easy able to compare: MUltraMaximizer vs. waves L3 Ultramaximizer. The Meldaproduction one distorted very quick. I thought it might be an issue of the saturation stage so I disabled it. Strangly it made no difference. I then went on and checked if my output is clipping, which it was. Turning the Output gain down to around -1 (a pretty standard ceiling value), MUltraMaximizer was still clipping. So I guess this isn't an output ceiling knob? If so I don't understand the function of the plugin. The waves one worked as expected - push the input, setup output, done maximizing. Anyways I was not able to push a signal further than 3-6 dB before it became useless. That not comparable to other ultra maximizers.

The documentation was needed (not a good sign because I think plugins should be self explanable) and oh boy, what a mess. There were all kind of informations but only small bits of what actually the plugin does right in between. Duplicate content and funny pieces like this: https://imgur.com/a/eXmCCK0
A well written documentation should have a clear structure. Usually plugin specific stuff first and common explanations (and there are many things being the same in every plugin) in some sort of an addendum, if not extra at all. You might have guessed it, I did not read through it.

Finally the plugin that gained my attention MCharacter. Maybe I had too high expectations but it didn't work well. Putting it on static drums resulted in a sonic mess (much randomness, much smearing, even emphasized resonances till clipping in just one of 8 hits or so). Similar results for plucky synth sounds. I played with the spectral settings and made it even sound less good. Small buffersizes did not create any effect at all, high buffersizes created wider resonances, more smearing, less dynamic response.
Unfortunately I had similar results with MTransformer. Which was worse in terms of altering the sound when only being inserted and the default preset being loaded (I mean the one from the preset menu). I admit I don't know what the thought process behind these were or what's the intended use case. The product descriptions sounded more promising tbh.

[StroboMarc]

One word I have read often in the plugin list was "turbo" so I tried this product line. Though I see the idea behind it didn't click with me. I noticed for example MTurboComp being more CPU intense than a simple compressor despite doing the same basic processing (MTurboComp 4-5%, FabFilter ProC2 1%, DMG Audio TrackComp 2 which I consider similar from the idea still only 1-2%). MTurboEQ and MTurboReverb were not different. Especially MTurboReverb was heavy. MTurboEQ still quite heavy compared to being able to load multiple FabFilter ProQ3, tonebooster EQ or some waves emulations without leaving the 1% mark.
Since I stepped more often through the presets in this series I noticed clicking/popping/dropouts during the switch while playing back. After some investigation of the top right "on/off" readout I disabled the intelligent disable thing and it worked much better.

MAutoAlign was another plugin I could test and compare to one of my favorites: SoundRadix AutoAlign. And here I have to say eiher I am dumb as hell or it just didn't work properly. Loading up some drum files, putting MAutoAlign on each track, ensured they're in the same group and pressed the align button. Soundwise it got worse and the display showed what has been changed. I would call them unrealistic changes like 2 snare drums mics being apart 45cm!? I played with analysis length and max delay but I was not able to get results I would consider acceptable. Btw my DAW and the plugins became unresponsible during analysis, like no visuals updating, not being able to stop playback, not being able to cancel anything.
So first I thought I messed something up. I removed all instances and tried again. To my surprise the results differed from the last analysis. Some instruments were estimated closer, some others farther away. I hit analyze again and got other results and again and again. To double check I removed all instances again and put in SoundRadix AutoAlign, put the tracks into groups and let it analyze the material. It was -2 tom mics aside- on spot. I hit analyze again and reliably came to the same results.
Back to MAutoAlign I created a new project, put in a single file, duplicated it, delayed it manually by 50ms, put the Meldaproduction plugin on, and analyzed it multiple times. This should be a ideal test case - aligning a signal to itself. The results that came up the most were 85ms and 22ms. To double check, the SoundRadix one was on spot as well as faGuitarAlign (usually dedicated to guitars). I had to give up on it then.

The last effect plugin tested was MSuperLooper and after trying to wrap my head around it (had some issues resetting/syncing slots), it crashed during recording. Reaper just closed, no error shown, no log file written, PC restart needed. I was able to reproduce it in the other DAWs too by just recording stuff. It took way longer though but eventually crashed the same way.

MSoundFactory was the last plugin on the journey. I did not download its instruments (I remember I saw the option in the installer but did not know what it was for) and the edit screen was quite overwhelming. Though I love working with u-he Zebra, MSF and I will not become friends They might have a similar concept, but (don't know how to describe better than) Zebra supports the workflow of creating sounds, MSF not so much. Just a few issues I had with MSF: too much searching, windows and scrolling. The latter one even became a big problem because like with a additive oscillator I needed to scroll to set it up but that suddenly many of my settings were messed up because the mousewheel changed their settings. Finding a spot where scrolling is possible at all was a hard task. I later saw I could pop out modules but then I would had another window mess. Sometimes control names or values were cropped. The further I was in patch creation the more I felt it would run out of sync. And indeed rendering a short clip showed MSF lagged. Even a basic patch had it running a few ms running behind. Adding some effects even delayed it more. I then found the bug: MSF just did not report its latency to the host.
MIDI learn was an act of itself. When being used to rightclick a control and "MIDI learn" or enable a "MIDI learn overlay" in synth, the way in MSF felt cumberstone. Somehow I found MIDI learn in a pop-up in a pop-up but didn't know how to attach a controller then.

These were the highlights of just testing the plugins for 2 days. Please take it with a grain of salt, but I now experienced why they might not be peoples first choice. Maybe you can make something out of this feedback.

All the best, Marc

[chk071]

[Ploki]

Damn chk, who would’ve thought there’d be a time here i’d agree with you

[Ploki]

Think of Melda plugins as a sandbox.
They open parameters wide, they open settings wide.
Admittedly it’s easy to make a lot of them sound bad, but at the same time, they also sound great and can do things other can rarely or even ever do.

Especially experimental plugs like character and transformer.

Device modes are designed to alleviate that imo

[chk071]

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Damn chk, who would’ve thought there’d be a time here i’d agree with you

Seems obvious though... a negative wall of text, by a user who just registered here today, loads of subjective impressions, like the opinion about the GUI, reports about crashes which happens on his System, and which are surely not representative for every system, and lots of "I focus on every single point that bugs me, and make a novel out of it" attitude. Frankly, I stopped reading after a few sentences, because, if you had your fair share of internet troll-ism, you smell those cave dwellers from miles.

[marzelli]

Some love'em, some hate'em, at least he tried them. Subjective true, that's why he wrote experience, but doesn't make some points invalid. Still reading post #3 though XD

edit: you better have written that in a generic forum not the melda sub. Usually the ones that like melda will defend anything in here. Though there are some pretty normal guys waiting for feedback and responding nicely.

[SneakyBeats]

Can't relate.. Been using Melda for years and it's good. Everything is good. That "review" is like playing with a rock, then switching to a cone and then whining that cone is different than a rock.

[Magnut]

Some things (documentation, installer) already have been pointed out by other users in a "wishlist" thread. Maybe things can get fixed. I know at least the MSF latency report issue was a discussion once here and is made on purpose like that. Mautoalign has been disucssed many times in other subs. Superlooper crashed often in beta stage, maybe there's still a bug left.

[ralfrobert]

Can't relate.. Been using Melda for years and it's good. Everything is good. That "review" is like playing with a rock, then switching to a cone and then whining that cone is different than a rock.

+1

I think sometimes certain software does not fit with the lifestyle, workflow or attitude of a certain user. I have had a very positive experience with Melda, but I am used to fiddling with lots of controls as I come from a technology background. People are different from each other after all.

[chk071]

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[Held]

Some of your issues are known, and some are trade-offs. To some, the plugins offer enough value to put up with the issues, while others don't take advantage of the things that make Melda unique, so the issues are not worth it and other plugins are better suited for them.

There's no need to justify your choice, though, so writing this was pretty pointless, especially here. Maybe post it in your Facebook group if you're looking for agreement.

[StroboMarc]

I knew this would attract some of the very sensitive users, but I can live with that. Took the chance to read through some topics in here and I see praise is more welcome.
I did not mention some things that I thought were too subjective. But on the other hand issues like cropped text, overlapping textboxes, funny pieces from documentation were some facts. Great that some of the things already have been mentioned.

Mautoalign has been disucssed many times in other subs

Any idea where to look? This one bugged me indeed the most because it made me feel like doing something fundamentally wrong multiple times in a row.

[Tagirijus]

I absolutely do not get the point of writing this down in the developers own forum. What's the point of such a ... well, ... "critic"? It's not even representative and also not that constructive, unluckily. It feels like a mixture of "this happened on this very specific system and at least I did never had such experiences (crash wise) with Meldaproduction" and "I just don't like it". It's totally ok to post an opinion and the length might be that big, because you seem to have a weird system on which so many strange things occur ... but again: with what intention? It's not even like you paid for something you now do not get or so !? ...

I would even be able to say something to the most points, I guess. But somehow I assume this wouldn't make a difference.

Again: I can totally understand that there are different kinds of tastes and workflows, but I absolutely cannot understand or even guess the intention behind these posts and critics, which I even find rather unfair at this point. Maybe you could elaborate it a bit, so at least I can understand what the whole point is? Seriously: maybe something inside you just wants to like Melda, but cannot do so due to some technical issues or so? Might sound ironic at this point, but: Meldaproduction sure does help, if there is an issue with their tools. Everything every developer needs is just a clear way to reproduce issues and then they will get fixed.

Sure you might think now "okay, another Melda fanboy" and yes I am, because with all these tools I was able to work very smoothly for many years now already. That's just my experience. And the reason why I took time to post in this thread is that I find it sad and unfair, when such posts appear and just throw a rather bad light on such a great and eager company.

If you mainly do not like it: simply do not use it. If you would like to use it, but there are technical problems: contact the support and get help. It's that easy!

PS: I somehow do not fully find your posts "unlegit" or so, since it's mainly your experiecne after all. I just would agree that such postings would have fit into another forum than the developers one.