Melodyne 4 Assistant

[Meinard Hartmann]

Melodynecomes in four different editions, the smallest being Melodyne essential and the largest Melodyne studio. All of them use the same algorithms and tone generation technology; they differ only in the range of functions offered. All editions share the following features:

Note-based, musical operation: Melodyne identifies the individual notes within an audio file and understands the place of each within the overall musical context. Thanks to its intuitive operation, it affords you easy access to every detail of every note, giving you an incomparable degree of control over the performance.

Intelligent macros for pitch, timing and volume: Intelligent macros make remedying defects and enhancing recordings a simple, fast and intuitive task, reducing to a bare minimum the number of clicks required.

macOS and Windows: You can run every edition either as a stand-alone application or as a plug-in (VST3, AU, AAX). DAW integration using ARA Audio Random Access is especially user-friendly.

All editions are compatible with one other: A project begun in Melodyne essential can be opened later in Melodyne studio and edited using the larger function set of the more powerful edition. By the same token, a project edited using Melodyne studio can be opened and played back in Melodyne essential with all the earlier edits faithfully reproduced. However, if you wish to do any further editing there, it will be using the more limited function set of Melodyne essential.

If you want to perform vocal editing at the highest level, refining and enhancing every aspect of musical expression, however subtle, Melodyne assistant has the very features you need.

Melodyne editor employs the patented DNA algorithms that allow you to edit any instrument track or sample and reshape it musically in any way you like. You can change not only tempos, rhythms and melodies but also the harmonic structure of the music.

Advanced tempo functions: You can edit tempos and tempo progressions with the same musical sensitivity as notes. Synchronize overdubs to tempo fluctuations in a live performance or, if you prefer, eliminate these altogether.

In a nutshell: Melodyne editor is also perfect for vocals. But even more remarkably, with this edition you can edit polyphonic instruments like the piano or the guitar and samples of all kinds. With Melodyne editor, you can take ordinary library samples and turn them into something unique, perfectly tailored to the rhythm, tempos and harmonies of your entire song.

Melodyne studio is the largest edition, designed for professionals working with multiple tracks. Also, in the field of sound design Melodyne studio opens up new vistas with its unique function set.

Quantize to a reference track: With the Quantize Time macro, you can use the timing of one track as a reference for the quantization of others, turning a ragged ensemble into something tight and disciplined in next to no time.

The Sound Editor: Melodyne knows the overtone structure of every single note, and the access the Melodyne Sound Editor gives you to the timbre of your voices and instruments is just as far-reaching. Ranging from ingenious overtone macros to an exceptionally musical EQ, morphing and much else besides, the sound design possibilities are unique.

In a nutshell: The unparalleled efficiency of its multitrack workflow and comprehensive capabilities for the editing of vocals and all instruments make Melodyne studio the ultimate professional tool for state-of-the-art audio editing. Musical, intuitive, and awesomely efficient.

Just choose from the menu the edition that interests you and select your DAW. Straight away, the Help Center will display a dynamically generated guide tailored to your request. With precisely the information that applies to your chosen configuration. Updated regularly, so only the latest data is displayed.

Based on its analysis of the audio material, Melodyne assistant will have chosen to use either its Melodic or its Percussive algorithm. When the Percussive algorithm is used, all the notes are displayed in a single horizontal line; when the Melodic algorithm is used, on the other hand, the vertical position of the notes represents their pitch.

If your audio material is not displayed the way you want, you can select a different algorithm from the Algorithm menu. Please note, however, that if you do this, any editing of the track you may already have done using Melodyne will be lost! That is why, you should always make sure that the correct algorithm has been selected before you begin editing.

Whilst the tools are used primarily to solve specific problems with individual notes, the macros allow you to edit multiple notes and even entire recordings in one go. The macros affect only the notes currently selected, unless none are, in which case they affect all the notes of the current audio file. There are three macros:

Correct Pitch, which moves notes to, or towards (you decide how far), the nearest semitone. How far they move also depends upon how badly out of tune they were to begin with. With the second slider, you can rein in pitch drift within notes.

Note Leveling allows you to make loud notes quieter, or quiet notes louder, or both. In this way, you can smooth out disparities in volume and give your recordings greater homogeneity. It is also the perfect way to optimize input to any compressor after Melodyne in the signal chain.

I have assistant, tried it and it worked for me. I created an instrument track and dragged the audio from a guitar track to it. Melodyne converted it to midi notes. I used the Polyphonic decay algo. The results were rather poor though. It probably depends on how complicated the guitar track is.

i use the Melodyne get MIDI from guitar parts for adding bass, piano, organ, pads, solos, etc especially where its quicker to just lay down parts i know will be used for something else while i have my guitar in hand. because it's sourced from the guitar, keyboard parts will be different than if i played them on the keyboard. and if i use a keyboard to drive a guitar instrument VST (e.g. Strum GS-2 or the Kontakt Session Guitarist), those parts also have differences you don't normally get from a guitar performance. so like anything, it depends on the effect you're going for...

Last night i opened a 12 yr old song to redo and i melodyned the guitar chords to see what chords i had used as my written notes were unclear. It is 4 chords simple ones like c dsharp d c sharp according to melodyne studio 5 findings, but the blobs are everywhere. This is electric guitar with many fx so I wanted to comment that i think the nature of the guitar part will also matter very much when rendering in melodyne, like this one with blobs octaves both up and down from the main notes are likely representing reverb distortion etc. i think a clean guitar part would render much better.

Yes I totally understand the "very squeaky clean" part because I played guitar synth back in the 80's on my Roland GR 50 which I still have. I've had this ability for years. Now you can do it for free with Midi Guitar VST -

while you're trying it... yes, unless i'm really sloppy, the conversion works quite well and editing the individual notes - pitch, timing, noises, etc all work as expected. i have the editor version but presumably the studio version (multi track polyphonic vs single track polyphonic)

I tried both the Polyphonic Decay and Polyphonic Sustain and results seemed identical to me. But it did create a midi track that sounded about 70% correct. Mostly timing artifacts and jumped octaves, just like the Bass tracks I've made a hundred times..

BUT_ I wasn't exactly sure which version the 30 day trial was so I created a regional effect and opened the Melodyne screen. I checked and it was showing I was still using Assistant? So this tells me that even though Assistant is Monophonic it still creates a Polyphonic midi track with drag and drop!

Truth be told I had never just tried this before as my understanding was I won't work unless you had Studio. I guess @Jacques Boileau was correct when he said he used assistant. I read into that post that it gave them pour results and that's because it was not studio.

It seems there's no point in the upgrade if this is all you want to do. I will explore the audio editing a bit which is what I now think will be the only difference. It's not a feature I really need.

If you look at my screen shot you can see that both midi tracks look the same. The top red one is with Studio, the lower Green one is with Assistant There is a small difference because I had worked on the Assistant track and moved a few notes to correct timing..

John, wondering what you think about how the rendered midi sounds to you when you play it with strum session? You say its about 70% accurate and has artifacts and jumped octaves. Since it is a clean guitar recording with no fx ( unlike mine) i just wonder if how it sounds at 70% is acceptable to you?

Yes, that was my understanding. The functionnality is the same to convert to midi. Since you can 'see' the polyphonic notes in Assistant, it has already the info to convert to midi. What Studio bring, as far as polyphony goes, is the possibility to edit the notes. Which you don't need in the task you are doing.

@John Vere One more thought - since you own MIDI Guitar 2, you may want to try that to convert the the audio to MIDI by playing the audio into the VST and capturing the MIDI, though I'm not certain that Cakewalk has all the audio and MIDI routing needed.

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