Rating: 4.6
Author: Noizefield

Celemony was kind enough to provide us a copy of Melodyne 4 Studio and we had the great opportunity to review their musical audio manipulation software.

What is Melodyne?

In very basic words, Melodyne is a software that allows the user to directly manipulate audio waveforms in a very musical way. After the audio signal is analysed with Melodyne, you have access to notes, the harmonic content and its dynamics.
Since the very first Melodyne which came out in 2001, Celemony constantly improved the software and added more and more stunning features. This review will focus mainly on the new features of Melodyne 4 studio.

The different editions

Melodyne is available the 4 different versions essential, assistant, editor and studio.
With Melodyne 4 essential you get only the basic editing functions for pitch and timing for monophonic material.
Melodyne 4 assistant offers almost all functions that are available in the editor or studio version but also like assistant only for monophonic content.
Melodyne 4 editor offers the possibility to edit also polyphonic content and contains almost all features of studio.
Melodyne 4 studio is the Melodyne flagship and combines all available features.
For more details checkout the Melodyne website at: http://www.celemony.com/en/melodyne/editions-and-technical-matters

What is new in Melodyne?

In Melodyne 4 are several new features like the brand new Sound Editor that opens a new world of sound design and sound manipulation possibilities, Multi-track Note Editing with Direct Note Access (DNA), new track macro functionality, a very precise tempo detection with a new algorithm that detects tempos, time signatures and any changes in tempo, better note detection algorithms, time stretching and lots work flow improvements.

A sound designers delight

One of the most stunning features of Melodyne is for sure the new Sound Editor. This editor offers several options to modify the sound.

The EQ

First there is an EQ section that reminds on a classic graphical EQ. The big difference to an usual EQ is that Melodyne has access to the harmonic contents of the recording. The Melodyne EQ is very precise and acts in a musical way as the spectrum is separated in semitone bands. Therefore the EQ allows to edit individual keys within the scale or spectrum and the EQ settings can even be applied on each individual note or segment/ blob. The great thing is that this does also work on polyphonic recordings.
To make the editing more easy and intuitive there are the 4 macro controls Brilliance, Contour, Tonality and Comb available.

Harmonics

The Harmonics section provides access to the harmonic spectrum and can be used to change the root note or key note and all the overtones of a recording. The harmonic content can even be changed for lower and higher registers individually. With these features the sound can be modified in lots of different ways. For example the
Like in the EQ section the Harmonics section also has macro controls for Brilliance, Contour, Odd/Even and Comb. They are not exactly the same like in the EQ section and they also sound different.

Synth

In the Synth section there are three different areas to change the sound with envelopes so that the sound changes over time like on a classical synthesizer. One envelope changes the spectrum, one the format and the last one the amplitude of a note. Below the envelopes there is another two macro controllers called Magnitudes and Phases that can resynthesize the sound. With these two sliders the sound can be morphed from natural to very static and synthetic – a enormous playground for sound design.

Formants and global macros

Finally there are 3 global parameters available in the Sound Editor. Emphasis, Dynamics and Formants. The formants can be changed in the EQ or Harmonics section. This changes the character of the sound – if it is a voice or vocal the formant changes resonances in a specific range of the spectrum and the formants are responsible if a voice sounds male or female. (More details on formats can be read on Wikipedia here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formant )
The Emphasis slider makes a sound more precise and clear or in the opposite direction more soft and distant. The last macro slider Dynamics changes the dynamics of a note. A decrease of the Dynamics slider is useful to amplify the release of a note. An increase will make silent signals even more silent and the result is more plucky or staccato like. It is best to compare with a compressor.

Watch the new Sound Editor in Melodyne 4

Watch this video on YouTube

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Push the tempo

Another quite impressive feature of Melodyne 4 is the new tempo detection. Basically you can record directly into Melodyne without playing to a metronome or click track. Melodyne will analyse the tempo, the time signature and even all the tempo changes of the recording. If the recording is finished Melodyne displays the tempo in a separate tempo track and shows the time signature and every little tempo change. The tempo track can be modified afterwards with macros. A recording can set to a fixed tempo for example or you can draw your own custom curves and tempo changes in the track.

Watch Tempo Detection in Melodyne 4

Watch this video on YouTube

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Better than ever before!

To sum this review up – Melodyne 4 Studio is an stunning piece of software and with the release to version 4 Celemony has showed again that their competence in audio processing is top notch. The new features are integrated seamlessly and work perfect.

More information to Melodyne 4 at: Celemony

Melodyne 4 studio –
Give Away

Celemony was so kind to give away a copy of Melodyne 4 studio to one happy reader. We run the give away on Facebook. All you have to do is to comment on our Melodyne Give Away Post on Facebook.

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