From the studio: Melodyne

I am in the middle of recording my new project and last week, took some time to learn Melodyne. Melodyne is an amazing piece of software that allows you to manipulate individual notes inside of a sound file. That sounds like a big deal because it is.

Think of it this way. Let’s say that you record a song and it is perfect except maybe you messed up one note in the middle. Maybe you rushed it or maybe you just played it too loud. Or maybe you played an F instead of an F#. Melodyne allows you to see into that file and manipulate that single note.

To put it mildly, this kind of technology is a huge step forward in the world of acoustic performing. It is not as clean as editing midi data but for those of us that want to record acoustic pianos rather than digital ones as much as possible, Melodyne-like technology can be extremely helpful.

Like anything, Melodyne has its detractors. There are many that say that it does not leave the original audio file in the same condition it started, lessening its quality. I don’t hear that myself (at least with my particular situation) but it is something to consider.

I did a little video demo of how I used Melodyne on a song over the weekend. If you don’t see it below, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJk3fY2DvJk