Ian
Campbell |
Melodyne 2.0 Studio Review
By Saved By Technology Product Specialist Ian Campbell
"You can't do that! That hasn't been invented yet!"
That was my studio partner's reaction to Celemony's Melodyne when I showed it to him a few
months back, and he wasn't kidding. In fact, just about everyone who's seen and
heard this program in action has
been awe-struck by the results.
So what does it do? Simply put, Melodyne is a very powerful audio editing tool.
You could use it as a mulitrack recorder, much like Pro Tools, but that might be
missing the point. Where Melodyne really
shines is as a specialty vocal editor.
I'll explain this in a little more detail. If
you've ever used Cubase or Logic Audio, you know how easy it is to open up a "piano
roll"-style editor and be able to edit the pitch, timing, and length of any note of
any given MIDI track. Now imagine being able to do that with a vocal track, or for
that matter, any monophonic audio
track. That's Melodyne in a nutshell.
Melodyne saved me from potential disaster a month ago when a session singer I'd hired had
serious trouble harmonizing with a playback of his own lead vocal. While his lead
vocal performance was more than
good enough, the harmonies were all either too high or too low for his range. He
gave them his best shot, and said "I'm sorry - think you'll be able to work with
those harmonies?" I assured him I could, and he
left.
Not to worry. With my copy of Logic Audio still running, I was able to open up
Melodyne in Bridge mode (you can also use Rewire, a la Propellerheads Reason). This
synced Melodyne to my Logic song. Next, I internally rerecorded the vocal tracks from
Logic into Melodyne (which is Bridge mode's other main function). Then, I used
Melodyne's "Detect Melody" function so that the program would "learn"
the exact musical pitch and duration of each note my singer had performed.
Now it was time to have some fun. Melodyne showed me exactly where my singer was
sharp or flat, and allowed me to correct each wrong note. (There are several ways to do
this, but in this case I simply dragged
the note up or down as needed.) Then I noticed a section where he had slightly
hesitated on a word and come in just a hair late. No problem - I just grabbed the
front end of the waveform and moved it back to beat 1 of the bar. I also noticed a
sustained note that needed to be extended by half a beat. Again, this was not a
problem. I was able to stretch the duration of the note with just a couple of mouse
clicks.
After a little work, I was able to use all of the harmonies my singer had recorded, but
there was one small touch missing. "An extra high harmony on the last chorus
would be really nice," I thought. So, I copied a line from the lead vocal onto
a black track, and proceeded to create my own harmony, simply by grabbing the notes and
moving them up or down!
It's worth mentioning that the program, when used properly, does not make your vocals
sound overly-processed - none of the "Cher"-style vocoding here! (Unless
you really want it to!) They simply sound
better.
Ian
Campbell Melodyne 2.5 |
