Melodyne Questions

[fgimian]

hello guys, thinking of grabbing Melodyne Uno but I notice a few things I can't figure out how to do ...

- Adding a generated vibrato to a note with dedicated waveform, frequecy and depth. Sometimes I find the original vibrato bad and wish to remove it and create a vibrato using something like a sine wave. Autotune has this and even V-Vocal does.

- Is there a way to actually draw the pitch with a pen ? Sometimes I find the note is almost perfect but the singer has spiked a little and I see a quick jump in pitch which I wish to remove without removing all the modulation for the note. Again, this is possible with V-Vocal and I think also with Autotune. I thought a pen tool would definitely be available ...

- Are there any problems in rerequsting activation keys when changing hardware. I upgrade my computer almost 2 times a year and am a little concerned about their challenge / response system. Is there a limit for how many times you can request a new key for a different system configuration ?

Your help would be most appreciated guys

Thanks a lot
Fots

[fgimian]

Bump

[Yossarian]

Disclaimer: I don't have any experience with Melodyne Uno - my answers are based on my knowledge of Melodyne Cre8.

hello guys, thinking of grabbing Melodyne Uno but I notice a few things I can't figure out how to do ...

- Adding a generated vibrato to a note with dedicated waveform, frequecy and depth. Sometimes I find the original vibrato bad and wish to remove it and create a vibrato using something like a sine wave. Autotune has this and even V-Vocal does.

Melodyne can increase or reduce the amplitude of the vibrato (or completely remove it) but AFAIK it can't add vibrato if there's none to start with.

- Is there a way to actually draw the pitch with a pen ? Sometimes I find the note is almost perfect but the singer has spiked a little and I see a quick jump in pitch which I wish to remove without removing all the modulation for the note. Again, this is possible with V-Vocal and I think also with Autotune. I thought a pen tool would definitely be available ...

Melodyne has a tool called "Pitch Wide Align Tool" which will align the pitch curve of a note to the note center without canceling out the vibrato and the fine pitch structure.

- Are there any problems in rerequsting activation keys when changing hardware. I upgrade my computer almost 2 times a year and am a little concerned about their challenge / response system. Is there a limit for how many times you can request a new key for a different system configuration ?

I haven't had any problems getting licence keys from Celemony but then I don't change hardware that frequently. I would suggest contacting Celemony support directly about this.

/Yoss

[fgimian]

thanks a lot Yoss

[bobby yarrow]

I'll just add that you could always carve a note up and reduce the modulation just in the section where you find it too much.

On the question of adding vibrato where there is none, I don't think melodyne can do this. Antares tries, but it sounds pretty bad in my limite experience. In melodyne, you certainly could carve out 1/32 notes and wobble them a bit, but I'm not sure it would sound like good vibrato.

[fgimian]

thanks for the advice bobby. Yep, I noticed that melodyne definitely likes to keep original character in tact which is why I LOVE it so much. I am currently awaiting an email regarding the authorization question. If that passes ok, I'm definitely buying this tool, just brilliant ! Melodyne UNO (in my opinion), is the equivalent to Autotune ... except that it's way easier to use, half price and has no ugly iLok protection ...

Thanks guys
Fots

[bobby yarrow]

Nice. I'm really blown away by this thing. It doesn't do everything the autotune can -- no cher effect, for instance -- but it does a lot that nothing else I've seen can.

[fgimian]

totally agreed All the things it can't do seem to be the artificial things that people use autotune for. End of the day, all I want is good vocal correction while maintaining original timbre. Whether we like to admit it or not, there will always be a use for this sort of plugin when we encounter amatuer / less experienced singers. I just find that it also helps to touch up a good performance and make it more of an EXCELLENT performance.

I don't want the CHER effect !! lol ... who really would ?

Thanks again for your help bobby, is there anything important that autotune does which melodyne doesnt ?

For me it goes something like this...

-= Autotune =-
Pros
- Awesome sound quality
- Auto mode is sometimes useful
Cons
- iLok makes my system really unstable, I heard crackles as soon as I installed the demo of this plugin.
- Expensive
- Hate the way that manual mode integrates into the sequencers, takes so long to do something when working like this.

-= Melodyne =-
Pros
- Sound quality, editing features and ease of use.
- More powerful than Autotune ... allows for formant editing, timing, amplitude...
- Easy integration via ReWire ... only thing that beats this is V-Vocal integration i think.
- Good price
Cons
- Copy protection scheme is annoying, but way better than dongles (I always prefer a serial or key file).
- Less flexibility in generating artificial sounds

Cheers
Fots

[jess123]

...

-= Autotune =-
Pros
- Awesome sound quality
- Auto mode is sometimes useful
Cons
- iLok makes my system really unstable, I heard crackles as soon as I installed the demo of this plugin.
- Expensive
- Hate the way that manual mode integrates into the sequencers, takes so long to do something when working like this.

-= Melodyne =-
Pros
- Sound quality, editing features and ease of use.
- More powerful than Autotune ... allows for formant editing, timing, amplitude...
- Easy integration via ReWire ... only thing that beats this is V-Vocal integration i think.
- Good price
Cons
- Copy protection scheme is annoying, but way better than dongles (I always prefer a serial or key file).
- Less flexibility in generating artificial sounds

Cheers
Fots

I was going to start a topic on thsi comparison. Thanks, the info here has been great. I just aska couple of questions, please: -

1. Has anyone used or heard of Antares Vocal Toolkit
http://www.antarestech.com/products/avox.html

Any good to compliment with Melodyne?

2. Really aftering intonation and singer singing a bit off problems. My music is mainly hardrock/nue metal (screams and rap). Melodyne is still better?

2. I'm quite a newbie, I use Cubase SX it doesn't seem to support RTAS. Antares product seems to like run using that, although VST and DirectX do comes up occasionally. Was wondering what sequencer actually supports RTAS nicely?

[bobby yarrow]

One side note: I haven't got the rewire rig working very well at all. I imagine it's a cubase problem, but I can't seem to get SX3 to play back while the rewired melodyne screen is 'in front.' I do have SX3 set to release asio in the background, but other than that I haven't spent much time messing around with it.

When I used to use reason, I also found getting rewire to work with cubase to be a bit of a hassle. I don't know, probably it's me.

[Hink]

...

-= Autotune =-
Pros
- Awesome sound quality
- Auto mode is sometimes useful
Cons
- iLok makes my system really unstable, I heard crackles as soon as I installed the demo of this plugin.
- Expensive
- Hate the way that manual mode integrates into the sequencers, takes so long to do something when working like this.

-= Melodyne =-
Pros
- Sound quality, editing features and ease of use.
- More powerful than Autotune ... allows for formant editing, timing, amplitude...
- Easy integration via ReWire ... only thing that beats this is V-Vocal integration i think.
- Good price
Cons
- Copy protection scheme is annoying, but way better than dongles (I always prefer a serial or key file).
- Less flexibility in generating artificial sounds

Cheers
Fots

I was going to start a topic on thsi comparison. Thanks, the info here has been great. I just aska couple of questions, please: -

1. Has anyone used or heard of Antares Vocal Toolkit
http://www.antarestech.com/products/avox.html

Any good to compliment with Melodyne?

2. Really aftering intonation and singer singing a bit off problems. My music is mainly hardrock/nue metal (screams and rap). Melodyne is still better?

2. I'm quite a newbie, I use Cubase SX it doesn't seem to support RTAS. Antares product seems to like run using that, although VST and DirectX do comes up occasionally. Was wondering what sequencer actually supports RTAS nicely?

I have AVOX and Auto-tune 4, I also have Voxformer...I suggest you try the demos for avox and I would suggest auto-tune as well. I really like avox, but others feel it's way over priced and all things considered that is probably accurate. However in my years of being a musician I have way over payed for things far too often anyhow...yah get use to it.

Even though it was pricey, for me it was in fact worth the money (but again try the demos). But there are factors I have learned along the quest to make something fair come out of my throat.

First, any and all vox processors are subtle beasts, like compressors very small changes may not be very noticable at first but soon you develop your ear for it and you find that you can identify what you are doing much better. I have yet to use AVOX on anything, but I've played with it quite a bit so I'm prepared for the next vocals tracks I lay down.

The second thing that is critical is the signal of vocals being processed. Especially with the auto-tune, it will try to read noise on a noisy track and throw off the correction. However when taking a vocal sample and using Voxformer then noise reduction applyed to the sample, it gave it a signal that it could read well and again subtle changes.

I haven't tried Melodyne (sp) but with all the talk about it no doubt it will appear high on my "to get" list...I wish to have every vocal tool I can to give me the boost I need. When you consider how much I have tied up for my other instruments and tools I feel spending an equal share on my vox is logical..

BTW it's a host you desire not a sequencer I believe...

[ClownOthorns]

Melodyne 4 president!!!

[fgimian]

1. Has anyone used or heard of Antares Vocal Toolkit
http://www.antarestech.com/products/avox.html

Any good to compliment with Melodyne?

2. Really aftering intonation and singer singing a bit off problems. My music is mainly hardrock/nue metal (screams and rap). Melodyne is still better?

2. I'm quite a newbie, I use Cubase SX it doesn't seem to support RTAS. Antares product seems to like run using that, although VST and DirectX do comes up occasionally. Was wondering what sequencer actually supports RTAS nicely?

Hey Jess here are my answers to these questions, ppl, feel free to also post your own thoughts...

1) I think that AVOX tools are stunning. There are a few clones lying around but nothing touches these in terms of quality. I think that they are mostly useful in pop music. You should try out the Choir processor, its absolutely AMAZING ! seriously ! I personally don't believe they're overpriced but I don't think you'll find them useful unless you have a specific requirement for them, I would call them specialist tools. But end of the day, yes, I think they complement Melodyne REALLY well, if you are planning to use them.

2) Melodyne may only help when the content is melodic, so percussive screaming and rapping won't benefit from it. However, normal vocals and pitched screaming would.

3) The AVOX tools and Melodyne are supposed to work well with Cubase even though a lot of people haven't had any luck with Melodyne. I have yet to ReWire it to Cubase ... i'll try that tonight

One side note: I haven't got the rewire rig working very well at all. I imagine it's a cubase problem, but I can't seem to get SX3 to play back while the rewired melodyne screen is 'in front.' I do have SX3 set to release asio in the background, but other than that I haven't spent much time messing around with it.

When I used to use reason, I also found getting rewire to work with cubase to be a bit of a hassle. I don't know, probably it's me.

hey bobby, yeah, rewire is a little tricky to begin with, but I use it day to day and it's flawless, really stable with SL3 and SX i presume. I'll give Melodyne rewire a shot tonight and let you know if I succeed

Hink, i love the voxformer too

Melodyne 4 president!!!

I thought melodyne was on version 2.6 ? lol

Cheers
Fots

P.S.: Anyone tried http://www.leapfrogaudio.com/Products.aspx ?

[bobby yarrow]

Re: rewire. I gave it a real try this morning. Works like a champ. I don't know what I was doing wrong.

Re: leapfrog. Couldn't figure out the demo. Too bad.

[Hink]

I think that AVOX tools are stunning. There are a few clones lying around but nothing touches these in terms of quality. I think that they are mostly useful in pop music.

yea!!!!!!!!! I'm not alone ...but I disagree with last part, but then it would depend on how you define pop music. My "good ol' R&R works well with it.

However you do have to deal with pace and ilok...and like I said I had troubles with it. But I have heard so many others that like it...again like I said before, the concept of ilok is a good thing in my opinion, all your codes on one key.

However there was the suggestion made that this should be a reason not to buy it because it still isnt perfect and has issues with some people. But then please show me an app that is perfect, so I should be used to it. I know that pace is growing and improving. Just as Antares will be developing AVOX more as time goes on, having my foot in the door now allows me to grow with the software...