I do not want Melodyne, but CbB keeps wanting to download it.

[Philip Jones]

OK, when I installed CbB I chose not to install Melodyne, as I do not want to and will never use pitch correction, if a singer can't sing in key, then I won't record them, anyway, now, every time I start CbB, I keep getting a slide out saying "Update Available (Melodyne Installer), Update Melodyne Trial Plugin", if this is Bandlab's way of harassing me to buy Melodyne when I don't want it, then it's time to find another DAW.

There has to be a way to stop this from happening, and I don't want to hear "Well, install it and it will stop asking, you don't need to use it", that's beside the point, the point is if I don't want a piece of software on my computer, I shouldn't have to install it and not use it just to stop any constant reminders, if that's the case, then I'll be running out of disk space within a week.

[HOOK]

You could start by shutting off notifications.  It's in the manual....page 205.

[scook]

 

[Jacques Boileau]

2 hours ago, Philip Jones said:

OK, when I installed CbB I chose not to install Melodyne, as I do not want to and will never use pitch correction, if a singer can't sing in key, then I won't record them, anyway, now, every time I start CbB, I keep getting a slide out saying "Update Available (Melodyne Installer), Update Melodyne Trial Plugin", if this is Bandlab's way of harassing me to buy Melodyne when I don't want it, then it's time to find another DAW.

There has to be a way to stop this from happening, and I don't want to hear "Well, install it and it will stop asking, you don't need to use it", that's beside the point, the point is if I don't want a piece of software on my computer, I shouldn't have to install it and not use it just to stop any constant reminders, if that's the case, then I'll be running out of disk space within a week.

But Melodyne in CbB is used for much more than vocal pitch correction. In fact, I don't think it is used for pitch correction if you only install the trial plugin and it ends its trial.

Someone may correct me, but it is also used for other Cakewalk functionalities and I don't know how these are performed without Melodyne installed. The two that comes to mind is tempo detection using an audio track. That is when you drag an audio track to the time ruler. And when you want to convert audio to midi.

You shouldn't see Melodyne as only a vocal correction tool as it does much more. You do not have to buy Melodyne for this and Cakewalk is not asking you to. Just the free trial version will do the trick.

I do own Melodyne, it is installed, so my experience may be different. For me Melodyne is much more than a vocal tuning utility. I used it on many things including bass, guitars, or any other instruments when a small imperfection is detected and access to the performer is not available anymore. Sometimes I use it to simply detect a song's key or chords. But once I got to know all the power of Melodyne, I started to find very useful uses in my day to day work.

[Craig Anderton]

What many people don't realize is that even the Essential version can do polyphonic MIDI guitar. Yes, polyphonic. You can't edit polyphonic parts, but Melodyne will parse the MIDI data, which you can then use to trigger virtual instruments. You will have to clean up the part unless you play very cleanly, but simply deleting all notes shorter than a particular duration, and all notes under a certain velocity, will get rid of most of the glitches caused by false triggering.

Like Jacques Boileau, I also use Melodyne with electric bass but let me explain why. The pitch of electric bass strings varies considerably as a note decays. There's nothing you can do with your playing to fix this, because bass strings are freaks of nature - they should be a lot longer than they are to produce notes that low in pitch, given a proper amount of string tension.  Melodyne can even out those variations. This is important because at those low frequencies, the beating of the out-of-tune pitch with other instruments is noticeable.

I even use Melodyne to do envelope-controlled flanging on drums. Melodyne can also move timing around. It's pretty awesome, actually.

[Starship Krupa]

On 1/16/2023 at 8:43 AM, Jacques Boileau said:

drag an audio track to the time ruler. And when you want to convert audio to midi.

Just guessing, I'd say that the OP likely isn't much of a tempo extraction or audio-to-MIDI conversion person either.

The things that Melodyne does in Cakewalk, I like having access to them, but I rarely (if ever) use them. The use cases just don't seem to come up.

I don't tempo extract because I play everything to a click (and if I wander, I play it again rather than making the rest of the song wander with it). The audio-to-MIDI sounds cool, but I just never use it. If I want MIDI, I bang it in from a keyboard.

[Craig Anderton]

One more thing about pitch correction. I use pitch correction (admittedly, selectively) because it adds life to my music. Say what? Here's why: I can sing with more freedom, knowing that if a part were far better than other takes but there’s one bad note, pitch correction can fix that one note. It’s not necessary to re-record or punch, and potentially lose what made that take my favorite.

[Lord Tim]

^^ yeah, this is something I appreciate pitch correction for - it lets me get better performances out of the singer.

Instead of worrying about absolutely nailing the pitch, the singer can worry most about nailing an incredible performance. I can fix a slightly flat note, but I can't fix a less than stellar delivery, and if you're having to do 20 takes to get the pitching right, you might be having to throw out some gold to get there. Nobody hears how many takes you've done, they only hear the final performance you've kept.

In a perfect world you wouldn't need to use this stuff - throw Celine Dion or John Farnham out in front of a mic and never think about vocal tuning again - but for the rest of us, it's just another tool, like a compressor to even out dynamics, to get the best possible final take out of an artist.

[Craig Anderton]

1 hour ago, Lord Tim said:

I can fix a slightly flat note, but I can't fix a less than stellar delivery.

...which reminds me of the famous line from the movie Spice World, where the producer (IIRC) says: "That was absolutely perfect...without actually being any good."

[HOOK]

8 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

^^ ...I can fix a slightly flat note, but I can't fix a less than stellar delivery, and if you're having to do 20 takes to get the pitching right, you might be having to throw out some gold to get there. Nobody hears how many takes you've done, they only hear the final performance you've kept.

THIS... 100%.

And I'll add....nobody cares if you used a little pitch correction here and there as long as it's not audible.

Sometimes, a client will sing better and take more chances if he/she knows that you got their back like that.  And good things happen when a singer is feeling confident.

Hell.  I've even (fairly often) fixed a vocal line for a singer if they keep delivering one note wrong.  It's REALLY hard to get a singer to deliver it differently if they've been practicing wrong.  Once they hear it right they have an "aha moment".  Then, they can run though it and practice with the tuned take and get the muscle memory rewired....and they nail it on the next take.

[Lord Tim]

That's a good point too - often I'll get a vocalist to go out and sing the part, dramatically over tune it so it's completely locked in and then get them to sing along with it as a guide. More often than not I won't need to even touch the proper vocal - having the tuned guide there is enough of a nudge to rein in any rogue pitchiness.

[Craig Anderton]

2 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

That's a good point too - often I'll get a vocalist to go out and sing the part, dramatically over tune it so it's completely locked in and then get them to sing along with it as a guide. More often than not I won't need to even touch the proper vocal - having the tuned guide there is enough of a nudge to rein in any rogue pitchiness.

That's a great tip, to which I'd add one more variation: I often copy the vocal, and play around with Melodyne to create one or more harmony lines. Then, I learn the harmony lines, and sing them.

[Lord Tim]

Indeed! I do that as well - super useful creative tool!