Is the latest Melodyne broken?

[msmcleod]

I suspect that if and when CbB supports ARA-2, the problem will likely go away.

CbB is probably making the same ARA-1 calls it always has. It's Melodyne that has changed, and I suspect as a result, they've subtlety broken ARA-1 backwards compatibility.

[Grem]

10 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

they've subtlety broken ARA-1 backwards compatibility.

 

And don't want to admit it.

Edited March 11, 2019 by Grem
spelling

[S.L.I.P.]

5 hours ago, Skyline_UK said:

My emails to Melodyne produced zilch - their position is that it must be a problem in Cakewalk. It's certainly a pain; I keep meaning to un-install and re-install the old version.

I think it is something to do with Cakewalk. I've been using Reaper with ARA2 and it has worked perfectly. 

[msmcleod]

Just noticed the following on Wikipedia: (Note Celemony's "get out" clause in bold)

Version 2 of ARA was announced during NAMM in January 2018, introducing new features such as the simultaneous editing of multiple tracks, transfer of chord track information, and undo synchronization with the DAW.  DAWs which use ARA version 2 are not automatically backwards compatible with plug-ins using version 1. The first DAWs to support ARA version 2 were Logic Pro (version 10.4, released in January 2018)[6] and Studio One (version 4, released in May 2018).

Of course Cakewalk is the other way around - it's a DAW using version 1, which is using plugin version 2.

But it does raise doubts about backwards compatibility.

[Royarn]

Nice catch msmcleod, went back to version 4.1 months ago to keep it working properly. guess they wont be taking my money anytime soon.

Roy

 

[marcL]

18 hours ago, S.L.I.P. said:

A good video to understand the complexity of vocal editing. 

 

IMHO the video only shows a small part of the complexity. They touch the challenge at the beginning when they split a blob. There you see how Melodyne recalculates the pitch of the two halfs. I have found out that in many cases when I had moved the starting points or introduced new split points the notes were almost perfect! So I find that my older Melodyne pitch corrections were absolutely wrong. I really had tampered some vocal performances! That's because I relied too much on Melodyne's blob starting point and split detection (that is simply bad).

Since about 1 year I do a lot of manual work in the detection mode first. That has led to almost no pitch corrections, i.e. I use Melodyne primarily to tighten the vocal rhythmics. Now the results are much better!

It is also crucial to understand that a singer can set the accentuation on completely different points of a syllable. Very often Melodyne's detection mode computes this totally wrong for a blob. Thus a lot of manual work is required in the detection mode first, before you can change the vocal performance. My advice is to trust more in the singer's skill than in Melodyne's detection mode, i.e. search the blob's emphasis near proper beat positions!

[S.L.I.P.]

15 minutes ago, marled said:

IMHO the video only shows a small part of the complexity.

I couldn't agree more. In fact, I've gone through pretty much what you have. The reason I posted the video was to show the splitting of the blobs, and too trust your ears, and not what the blob is showing.  If something sounds way out, I'll try to correct it, or sing it over.  

[Peter C]

Agreed. There is such a thing as over-producing using Melodyne. I hold my hands up - guilty as charged. Melodyne will not make an iffy vocal into a good vocal (will it?). What I think the multitrack version does brilliantly is help tighten up timing. Being able to see the blobs for each track and adjust them is great. But the tuning needs real care and attention and I always tend to overdo it before either going back to the original or re-record the take.

Interestingly I am using v. 4.2 and because of the way I work with it haven't come upon any real problems other than the algorithm detection being inconsistent.

[John Vere]

Question, does our lowly version have the features shown in the Video or do you require Studio? Sorry I'm a long ways away from my DAW right now otherwise I check. But as I said I think I'll be taking the plunge soon and finally learning to use this tool.  

[Craig Anderton]

A lot of times, like when creating uniform vibrato, I don't split at blobs but split based solely on waveforms (e.g., if two half cycles look the same and the next two half cycles look the same, but different from the first two, I'll split between them at a zero-crossing). So far that approach has worked reasonably well.

[Stavv]

I have the latest Bandlab of cakewalk 2020 version and I also just added Melodyne Studio 4.......Since  I added Melodyne, I have had so many issues with Cakewalk freezing up. I have called/emailed both Melodyne and Bandlab. but as you say both blame the other. or 'try in a new project'. I cannot do this every time I find a new issue.  I have songs to record and running into these issues every time is frustrating. I guess with Bandlab you get what you pay for but as  a Long time customer all the way from 12 tones days, its disappointing.  I did offer to Beta site these programs for both companies but have not been taken up on my offer.

 

I have started to keep a list of the issues with Both programs. I will publish here when I update it.

 

Does anyone else have a lot of issues with Cakewalk freezing up??