Melodyne - Direct Note access. Wow...

[Dave Bryce]

Clonk me

 

 

Dave Horne will be psyched.

 

dB

[linwood]

That looks great. I think I'll buy it in the fall. I've been wanting to try melodyne, but never have gotten around to it. I'm using auto tune. I don't know why, but, for me, the last few vers of AT, the graphic mode hasn't been that stable on my machine. The auto mode works fine, but I'd rather use the graphic mode in most cases. Time to try something new.

[Dave Bryce]

I have the plug in, but I don't think I've ever used it. I just don't think of it, you know? That may change when I get this version.

 

This looks like some fun...the idea of being able to do an acoustic piano take knowing that if there's a clam or two in an otherwise amazing take I can grab/change/delete said clam(s) seems worth exploring.

 

dB

[kanker.]

Man, the Melodyne guys are really sick

[linwood]

I agree or if the guitar player's gone and you need to alter a chord because you had to change the melody or something else, well now you can without having to call him back. Save's time/money and the client wont know the difference. I like that. On big budget stuff of course you'd call him back, but I don't live there.

[marino]

Absolutely stunning.

I've worked with Melodyne several times, using it on voice, violin and sometimes fretless bass; with some experience, you get unbelievable (that is, perfectly believable) results. But this new development is, well... POLYPHONIC! If it really works, it's a revolution.

 

 

This looks like some fun...the idea of being able to do an acoustic piano take knowing that if there's a clam or two in an otherwise amazing take I can grab/change/delete said clam(s) seems worth exploring.

 

dB

 

Right... no more restrained playing, for fear of hitting a clam. You just play at full steam, and fix mistakes later, MIDI-style! Well, not exactly... I can witness that making Melodyne sound realistic requires a bit of effort - not easy as changing a note-on value in MIDI. But it's going to be a godsend anyway, especially for improvised music.

 

 

[BluMunk]

That's pretty awesome.

 

It's also a great promotional video. It very clearly shows features and applications without any unnecessary verbiage or flashiness.

[cnegrad]

Wow; that's amazing.

[mildbill]

Holy crap - audio might catch up to midi someday.

[Jim Alfredson]

Yeah, got the email today. I use Melodyne Cre8. I bought it because I was recording this acappella group but I've found that it's pretty neat to play with when you're coming up with melodies and the like.

[Mark Schmieder]

Not sure what use this is, except to people who don't like to work with MIDI. Though there could be times when it's more expedient than doing a one-bar overdub or merging takes.

 

I downloaded Melodyne yet again last summer to try it out, after a few years since the previous trial. I couldn't make head or tail out of it. One of the most nonintuitive programs I've ever used. I literally accomplished almost nothing after several hours; though I was at least successful enough in doing a transposition of a half step for a vocal line to decide that it sounded artificial. And normally a half step is considered doable (certainly the TC Helicon gear doesn't break down until at least a whole step or three half steps).

 

With Melodyne, it probably helps to have a powerful CPU, lots of memory, and a large screen. I could barely keep it from crashing even when just attempting to scroll the display enough to see what was going on.

 

Transposing MIDI is very different from transposing audio, and a good MIDI musician will do more than just transpose. Using a tool like Melodyne is no substitute for musicality. A half step is about as far as one can transpose any audio and have it sound remotely realistic. With MIDI at least, one can tweak it further if the envelope or other parameters need minor adjustment after the transposition, and then use a sound source that is at the correct pitch (presuming either physical modeling or a sample library that was recorded at each half step).

 

With audio, it's so much simpler to do it over, or at least do over the few wrong parts. To suggest as the presenter does that it is a substitute for tuning BEFORE a session vs. doing so afterwards, ignores all of the nuances of how, for example, the strings on an acoustic guitar interact. And the results show it.

 

The only case where I can see legitimate use of the note extraction functionality that is now being added for harmony instruments in Melodyne, is archival material where it is not possible (or practical) to even overdub one or two small corrections. If anything more than a small correction is needed, for goodness sakes, just do it over! And if everyone is dead, accept the imperfections and relish them.

[Geoff Grace]

AT LAST I can realize my dream of transforming contrapuntal lines within Glen Gould's recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach's Partitas into melody lines from The Sound of Music!

 

 

 

 

 

Okay -- if it really works -- it'll be quite an impressive accomplishment.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

[Analogaddict]

i just said "WOW!" out loud. In some of the guitar phrases, I thought I could tell something had been altered, it sounded a bit like a sampled guitar. Maybe it's just in my head. Anyway, it's a stunning accomplishment. I wonder how it handles glissandos and vibrato..?

[Afrokeys]

Oh my god. So much for sample libraries. I wonder what kind of sampling law will follow this revolution. Is the sound recording still theirs if you change all the notes?

[Hobo]

Wow that's scary, now I can play the guitar! And I'm not sure if that's a good thing.

[Joe Muscara]

That's really impressive and it will be interesting to see how it works, especially after it gets refined over time.

 

But what's this "meadee" the announcer keeps talking about?

[cnegrad]

Yeah, but just be thankful that he didn't call it "M One D One". Some kid once walked into Sam Ash asking for it...

[burningbusch]

I have Melodyne Cre8 and have found it to be a very useful tool. There are times when you might only start working with the recording data weeks after it was done. Going back in to fix things minor things doesn't make sense. I like being able to grab a few notes and only pull those up into tune, vs. processing the entire track through pitch correction. Also timing issues are easy to correct and even using it to change a phrase around. Anyway great tool and the polyphonic addition is something else. As Carlo pointed out, the idea that you could take an absolutely inspired acoustic piano take that's 99.9% there and use it to correct a few glitches is really something.

 

Ueberchall has the Liquid Series which is based on the Melodyne technology. These are sax, trumpet, guitar, bass, etc. phrases that you can tailor to your own using Melodyne. I have the saxophone and it's very useful for adding a sax phrase here and there (there are restrictions as to how far you can go).

 

http://www.ueberschall.com/en/home.html

 

Busch.

[Floyd Tatum]

Brilliant!

[Magpel]

The time has come for the militant celebration of imperfection.

[iLaw]

That was an amazing video demonstration.

 

I have been extremely sceptical in the past of Zenph Studios' claims to be able to extract MIDI-like data from old Art Tatum and Glenn Gould audio recordings and turn them into new MIDI'd performances. But this video makes me think that maybe Herr Neubäcker can do it.

 

I definitely need to see more of this.

 

Larry.

 

[Mark Schmieder]

Yes, it is against the law to "resample" or otherwise process a sample library an d repackage/sell it as your own. This is clearly stated in the fine print for every sample library I have ever seen. Not sure why you would think this technology from Celemony would require any new laws regarding sample library usage.

 

Of course it is perfectly legal to use Melodyne to alter a recorded part that used a sample library, and release that altered sound in your music/songs.

[DonaldM]

I was blown away by that video. The very concept of it is mindboggling. Think what could be done with, say, a choir track. Or a simple 5 part vocal quintet where the alto is a bit off on a couple of notes.

 

Amazing stuff!!!

[NoahZark]

Wow. Very cool.

 

Noah

[Bill Heins]

Has anyone ever tried recording the Midi output of a live singer, piano, guitar amp, etc.?

 

There's a reason for audio manipulation.

 

Bill

[DanS]

This is amazing!

You can do this to an extent within the loops in Stylus RMX but this is way cooler.

[Ed Stanley]

I just know I'm going to get roasted for this but I can't help myself. While this is unarguably an amazing technical advance, am I the only one who sees it as another digital nail in the coffin of musicianship?

[Mark Schmieder]

I didn't really have time to duplicate postings in two forums, so am forgetting what was said in which, but did receive a PM from a friend who does much of the voicing for Korg, Yamaha, and Dave Smith synths, and he convinced me this is a legitimate tool and has some very useful purposes when used in a more focused way than the rather extreme expectations that the video and marketing hype tend to promote (such as not bothering to tune your guitar before a session).

 

I think my main concern is that extracting a note from a guitar chord has ramifications beyond just that note, due to sympathetic resonance, etc. But if only an isolated note here or there is manipualted, it is no different from a restarined usage of pitch correction on vocals, or a formant-modulated pitch shift of maybe a half step to a step to extend one's vocal range without making it sound too obviously fake.

 

As my friend is also a pro producer in L.A. and gets a variety of clients at all levels and all genres, he reminded me that a pro studio can't always get someone to redo or overdub a part or a phrase or even a note, due to attitude, aptitude, or time/money in the main session. So Melodyne can be a life-saver in such circumstances.

 

I also didn't realise at first that the Studio version can also convert audio to MIDI, which could allow one to, for example, strum a guitar and later assign it to lute. This could be easier to work with than a MIDI guitar converter with a hex pickup -- but it would be useful once the final release is out, to compare a dual-tracked audio and MIDI guitar (just as one example), manipulate a note or two for each, and maybe use them both to trigger a sample library and compare the quality of the results (or even just open and compare both MIDI files -- the original and the one produced from Melodyne -- in a notation editor and a MIDI event viewer).

[Ed Stanley]

So ..... you agree with me?

[DanS]

I just know I'm going to get roasted for this but I can't help myself. While this is unarguably an amazing technical advance, am I the only one who sees it as another digital nail in the coffin of musicianship?

 

I suppose it could be looked at with a diabolical slant, but I see it as just midi for audio, an editing tool. If you use it with audio loops, it's a means to customize those loops for your own purposes.