Celemony Melodyne 4 Essential

The musical view of audio
Melodyne is a software application for OS X or Windows with which you can edit audio in a more musical way than was ever thought possible. In Melodyne, you work with notes “ and not with a meaningless wave form. You don't just see where the music gets louder or quieter but also where notes begin and end and at what pitch they lie.

You can modify each note and thereby influence directly the intonation, phrasing and dynamics and do this not only with vocals and monophonic instruments but with polyphonic instruments such as pianos and guitars as well.

Working with Melodyne is like being able to say to a vocalist using this note a bit longer or to a pianist give slightly less weight to the third in this chord hours, weeks, even years after the recording session.

The right tool for every case

• Manual or automatic correction of pitch and timing errors
• Reshaping of melodies, harmonies, timing and rhythms
• Modification of diverse note parameters like volume, vibrato and formants
• Transposition with or without scale adjustment

Creation and editing of scales, extraction of scales from recordings

• Detailed editing of timing including that within individual notes
• Pitch shifting and time stretching
• Quantizing and re-quantizing
• Audio-to-MIDI with MIDI file export

Melodyne and vocals
Vocals pose the most crucial challenge to correction software because nowhere else are editing artifacts so obvious. In this sensitive area, Melodyne is considered the reference because it sounds so natural. There are two reasons for this:

With vocals, it isn't necessarily a good thing for every note to be perfectly in tune. There are fluctuations and subtle deviations that enhance the expressiveness of a performance. Thanks to Melodyne’s three separate pitch parameters, you can correct those things only that detract from the overall quality. As a result, the musical expression and vitality of performances are retained and not sacrificed in favor of something robotic and sterile.

Good singing is also about more than just intonation: timing, phrasing, the volume and length of notes, pauses, breathing all these are just as influential in determining the character and quality of a performance. And with Melodyne, you can shape and reshape these, too, with the same sensitivity as the intonation.

Melodyne and instruments
From bass to piccolo, from piano to guitar. Recordings of absolutely any instrument can be corrected, optimized and reshaped using Melodyne and, with DNA Direct Note Access, this extends even to the editing of single notes within chords without reducing the quality of the sound.

A good and expressive take no longer has to be thrown away simply on account of one small error, because with Melodyne you can correct that error. This makes musical quality the paramount consideration when choosing takes rather than freedom from mistakes. In the studio, this saves time and spares nerves and makes your music better.

And besides correcting errors in and optimizing instrument tracks, Melodyne makes it possible to reshape them at will to create new musical content. Whether it's adding lines, voices or completely new parts, your creative options with Melodyne are virtually infinite.

Melodyne and drums
Fine-tune your grooves. Melodyne breaks down percussive material into beats that you can edit individually using the full range of tools: pitch, timing, length, internal time path, volume, formants ‰– with microscopic precision, stroke by stroke, until you get exactly the results you desire.

With just the same flexibility, you can edit rhythms in their entirety: You can adjust the tempo over a very wide range, tighten up, shuffle or fully re-quantize the rhythm, rearrange the beats using Copy & Paste, and double or replace sounds using the audio to MIDI function.

A further significant advantage is this: Since Melodyne's intelligent time stretching preserves the transients, the sounds retain their punch and presence even when manipulated extremely.

Melodyne and composing
A ready supply of suitable samples. Melodyne makes the sketching of song ideas and construction of arrangements far simpler and faster. For Melodyne makes your collection of loops and samples many times more flexible and fruitful.

Since the tempo, rhythm, melody and harmony can be modified and reshaped at will, you can adapt every sample in your library to the demands of the arrangement you are working on.

This means that when selecting samples, you can concentrate on finding the right style and expression, and obtain better-sounding results with less effort.

Melodyne and sound design
From subtle to drastic. Melodyne is considered inaudible when performing typical correction tasks. But it does not have to be: The tools also have a wide control range that allows the realization of charismatic effects that no other tool can match.

Stretch short notes to a thousand times their original length and you'll be astonished by the layering effects you can obtain. Shift the pitch or formants by several octaves. Use Copy & Paste to double voices at the unison or octave, create extreme layering effects and unusual echoes. Using DNA Direct Note Access, isolate overtones to edit them individually.

Melodyne is an inexhaustible source of fresh sounds. But however alien, however weird, the effects, they nonetheless spring organically from your music and remain at all times and in every detail under musical control.

Melodyne and remixing
More magic, less work. Melodyne allows you to accomplish typical remix tasks fast and achieve results of the highest quality. Stems and samples of all kinds can be matched effortlessly to the desired tempo, and the rhythm and groove shaped with complete freedom. It goes without saying that you can change the key (or tonality) of the samples, but you can also alter their melodic content and, with DNA Direct Note Access, even their harmonies.

Using Copy & Paste, you can reorder notes and phrases to create variations, breaks and musical collages. With the tools, you can remodel the musical content at will, whether to introduce subtle enhancements or to create from it something unrecognizable. And with DNA Direct Note Access, you can within limits extract individual voices, instruments or sounds from complete mixes and integrate them into your remixes.

Melodyne offers you not only a far more streamlined workflow but also a spark of magic with which you can make your remixes unique.