Undo causes Melodyne Region FX to close (and lose work)

[Glenn Stanton]

if you have a Melodyne region created, do some edits, then click on another track, then click back on the track you have Melodyne active, hit Ctrl+Z, it's simply closes Melodyne and and you lose any work you've done. Presumably this is because Sonar only has the "Create region FX" as the last step in the history list.

not sure if there is anyway for Sonar to to cache the change list memory in Melodyne when you switch to another track and return, so you can use the undo on those Melodyne changes. (e.g. ala "marked dirty" when changes made so don't undo region fx unless ok'd by user)

this is the same regardless if Melodyne is docked or undocked. and there doesn't seem to be anyway to force Melodyne to consume the keystrokes or undo command (like you can with other FX).

a workaround - you must save your file to clear the undo history... so Ctrl+S is still your best friend...

 

 

Edited Saturday at 09:30 PM by Glenn Stanton

[Tim Elmore]

To verify your results, I created a Melodyne region, did some edits, and then switched to a different track. Then I clicked on the original track (that has the Melodyne region) and pressed Ctrl+Z. The Melodyne window closed and the edits were lost. This is the same result you experienced.

After that, I tried it a little differently. After I returned to the original track, I clicked inside the Melodyne editor window before pressing Ctrl+Z. I pressed Ctrl+Z, and Melodyne undid its most recent edit. Melodyne remained open and the other edits were still in place. I pressed Ctrl+Z a few more times. After each press, another individual Melodyne edit was undone, until I had undone all the edits.

I suspect that Sonar and Melodyne each maintain their own history lists. If that is the case, then it would work like this:

1. Sonar remembers only that it opened Melodyne, and does not track specific edits.

2. Melodyne maintains its own history of individual edit operations.

3. If you go to another Sonar track and then click on the original track (e.g. in Track View) instead of the actual Melodyne window, focus is still on Sonar. It will process a Ctrl+Z by undoing the last command in its history, which is "Open Melodyne."

4. If, however, you return to the original track and then click inside the Melodyne edit window, focus is then on Melodyne. From this point on, Melodyne (not Sonar) receives subsequent Ctrl+Z keypresses and applies them according to the edits in its own history.

In the past, I have switched back and forth between tracks this way a number of times, with consistent results. On occasion, I have decided to discard my Melodyne edits, so I simply clicked in the edited track (outside the Melodyne window) and pressed Ctrl+Z to delete the Melodyne region.

When you return to the original track (containing the Melodyne region), try clicking inside the Melodyne editor before pressing Ctrl+Z.

[Xoo]

Can you remap something other than Ctrl-Z to undo inside Melodyne?

[Tim Elmore]

Melodyne will not receive keystrokes unless it has focus. No matter what you do, it won't see the Ctrl-Z keystroke, or any substitutes, unless you first click inside its window.

Sonar will not allow you to unbind Ctrl+Z from its own Undo function. It is a dedicated keyboard shortcut. However, Melodyne will let you remap its Undo function. You could assign it to a keystroke that you don't have assigned in Sonar. Then, if you ever forget to give Melodyne focus before pressing your shortcut key for Undo, Sonar will ignore the keystroke, since it is not assigned in Sonar, and you won't lose your changes.

Rather than go to that trouble, I just use Sonar's Redo function (Ctrl+R) whenever I inadvertently delete a Melodyne region. This restores the Melodyne region and all the editing that has been done. After hitting Ctrl+R, I click the Rx indicator in the edited clip in Sonar and choose "open editor." The Melodyne editor reopens and I resume editing where I left off.

[Glenn Stanton]

i meant to reply per @Tim Elmore  you can use "Redo" - Ctrl+Y (or Ctrl+Shift+Z) once the Melodyne window is closed.

and if you save the file, later, you can re-open the region with the editor. 

once you go back far enough into the undo stack though, you will lose the region created.

use your fingers and make that Ctrl+S automatic 🙂 

[Noel Borthwick]

There is no way for Sonar to know what edits you did inside melodyne. Its a 3rd party plugin and Sonar has no knowledge of its internal undo history.
We handle this for our own plugins like XSampler.

On 8/9/2025 at 5:25 PM, Glenn Stanton said:

not sure if there is anyway for Sonar to to cache the change list memory in Melodyne when you switch to another track and return

No there isn't. Melodyne doesn't save its state as part of the normal plugin persistence. Its saved external to that as part of the ARA document. It would be prohibitive to cache and restore that state since it is large and slow to load.

  

On 8/9/2025 at 5:25 PM, Glenn Stanton said:

it's simply closes Melodyne and and you lose any work you've done

If you undo you should get back your changes made in Melodyne. The plugin is not destroyed so when you undo it gets its state back.
I think Melodyne has a UI bug where it doesn't show the edits but if you scroll its view the edits appear lol.

[Glenn Stanton]

agreed. after trying a number of different combinations, i think i can safely navigate the process.. 🙂  Ctrl+S is your friend though 🙂