Celemony MELODYNE ESSENTIAL User Manual

essential
user manual
2
Melodyne essential user manual
Melodyne essential user manual rev 2
This documentation refers to Melodyne essential 1.2.
Authors: Uwe G. Hoenig, Stefan Lindlahr, Alex Schmidt Translation: Ewan Whyte Layout: Saskia Kölliker
Celemony Software GmbH
Valleystr. 25, 81371 München, Germany www.celemony.com Support: support@celemony.com
The manual and the software described therein are supplied under formal licence. They may be used and copied only under the conditions of this licensing agree­ment. The data contained in the manual only serves for information purposes and may be changed without prior announcement. The information contained in the manual does not constitute a legal obligation of Celemony Software GmbH. Celemony is not responsible for any eventual faulty or inaccurate information con­tained in the manual. The manual and any parts thereof must not be reproduced or transmitted without the prior and explicit permission of Celemony Software GmbH.
Melodyne, Celemony and DNA Direct Note Access are registered trademarks of Celemony Software GmbH. All other trademarks are the property of their respec­tive owners. Apple, Mac and Mac OS are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. Intel is a regis­tered trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries. AMD is a registered trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Pro Tools and RTAS are registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. ASIO and VST are registered trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.
© Celemony Software GmbH München, 2010 All rights reserved
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Melodyne essential user manual
Content
Content
Installation and Activation ........................................................................6
Melodyne essential Introduction .........................................................11
For those in a hurry: Melodyne essential in 10 minutes..............16
Loading, transferring and saving
Transferring audio material to Melodyne essential ..................................................22
Plugin in the DAW The Transfer button Performing multiple transfers Playback regions
Loading and saving audio in Melodyne essential Stand-Alone ..................................25
Menu command ‘Open …’ Menu command ‘Open Recent’ Menu command ‘Revert to
Loading files by drag-and-drop Menu command ‘Save’ Menu command
Saved’ ‘Save As ...’
Recording audio in Melodyne essential Stand-Alone ...............................................30
Audio and recording settings Setting the tempo The metronome and starting/stopping the recording
Displaying, navigating and playing back audio
Playback, navigation and zooming ........................................................................34
Window size Playing back blobs Playback and scrubbing using the Bar Ruler The Scroll and Zoom tools
Activating and setting a cycle range ......................................................................39
Defining and moving the cycle range Adjusting the cycle limits
Select display options .........................................................................................41
Auto Scroll Show Pitch Curve Show Note Separations Show Blob Info Show Intended Notes
MPD format
Punching in and out, and canceling a recording
Scroll bars Scrolling and zooming using the mouse and keyboard
Show Playback Regions
Checking and editing the note detection
Checking and editing the note detection within melodic material .............................46
The Note Assignment Tool Changing note assignments Editing note separations
Checking and editing the note detection within rhythmic material ...........................51
The Note Assignment Tool Editing note separations
Setting the Time Grid and the Pitch Grid
Time Grid selection .............................................................................................53
Activating/Deactivating the Time grid Mesh widths and the dynamic grid Relation of notes to the grid
The [Alt] key for grid-independent movement
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Content
Defining the Pitch Grid, Scale and Reference Pitch................................................56
The ‘No Snap’ and ‘Semitone Snap’ grid options Choosing a tonality and scale Use of the [Alt] key for grid-independent movement
Selecting a reference tone
Selecting and copying audio notes
Selecting notes ...................................................................................................60
Standard selection techniques Snake Selection Selection using the Note Ruler
Copying notes .....................................................................................................64
Copying notes Pasting notes with and without target selection The significance of the Time Grid when pasting notes
Editing notes using the Macros and Tools
Correcting intonation with the Macro ....................................................................70
Edit only selected or all notes Opening the Correct Intonation macro Pitch centers and pitch drift
Include notes already edited manually
Correcting timing with the Macro ..........................................................................73
The intended position Edit only selected or all notes Opening the Quantize Time macro
The groove references and the intensity of timing correction Include notes already
edited manually
Working with the Main Tool ..................................................................................77
Modify pitch Modify timing Modify note lengths Edit note separations
Special functions of Melodyne essential Plugin
Adjusting to Tempo Variations ..............................................................................81
The Chain icon Constant or Varying Tempo? Playing tempo changes through Stretch­ing/compressing audio to reflect tempo changes
Managing transferred audio files and assigning missing files ...................................85
The storage path for transfers Deleting unused files Reassigning missing files
The Preferences of Melodyne essential Plugin .......................................................89
Language of the interface Frequency of the reference pitch Checking for updates
Special functions of Melodyne essential Stand-Alone
Matching the Time Grid to the audio .....................................................................91
Set Bar 1 to start of file The Tempo window in Melodyne essential Stand-Alone Multiply Tempo
Define constant Tempo
The Preferences of Melodyne essential Stand-Alone ...............................................95
Language of the interface Frequency of the reference pitch Checking for updates The default path for transfers
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Melodyne essential user manual
Welcome!
Many thanks for your interest in Melodyne essential and a warm welcome to the circle of Melodyne users!
Melodyne is at home in all the great studios of the world and has for years been appreciated for its intuitive editing possibilities and the high quality of its sound. In actual fact, there must be very few professional productions in recent years in which Melodyne, at one point or another, has not been used – whether for unobtrusive correction, for the generation of second voices and variations, or for the creative restructuring of audio material. What does that mean for you? Simply that as a Melodyne user, you are in the finest – the most illustrious, even! – of company.
Melodyne essential offers you the essential functions of Melodyne for the editing of pitch and timing in a particularly intuitive and compact format: as a plug-in directly within your DAW environment. Melodyne essential respects fully the tradi­tion of the previous editions of Melodyne but has been redesigned and repro­grammed from the bottom up. As a result, Melodyne essential is faster, easier to use and sounds even better than previous editions of Melodyne.
We at Celemony have worked hard to make Melodyne essential as pleasant to use, as powerful, and as useful as possible. We really hope that Melodyne essential will make your life in the studio easier, be a delight to use, and inspire you to greater heights of creativity. Let us know how you like it and what we could improve. And don’t hesitate to contact us if anything doesn’t work quite the way it should – at www.celemony.com we’re always there for you.
We hope your work with Melodyne essential will be productive and that you’ll have fun with it at the same time!
Kindest regards, all at Celemony
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Melodyne essential user manual

Installation and Activation

Installation and Activation
Installation and Terminology
Melodyne is extremely easy to install: just launch the installation program (either from the program CD or the download) and follow the onscreen instructions. The whole installation takes, at most, a few minutes. Before using the program, how­ever, you must register and activate Melodyne. Here is a brief explanation of the terminology:
Serial number: Your serial number represents your license for Melodyne and determines which Melodyne edition you possess and to which functions you are entitled.
Registration: Registration involves the creation of a myCelemony account linked to your serial number. To register you must enter certain personal details and state whether you wish to receive a newsletter from Celemony and, if so, what type. If you purchased Melodyne from our web shop, the registration is already complete.
Activation: Once registered, Melodyne must be activated before it will run. We offer, as standard, a computer-based activation for two computers, and, as an alternative, the transfer of your license to an iLok.
Before we come to the details of the activation procedure, we should take a quick look at the installed software and its characteristics.
Melodyne “singletrack” – and what that means
In the course of the installation, Melodyne is copied as a plug-in into the relevant plug-in folders and as a stand-alone program into your program folder. The plug­ins are called, quite simply, “Melodyne”, and the stand-alone implementation: “Melodyne singletrack”. You may be puzzled by this name – after all, your edition of Melodyne has a different one: “Melodyne editor”, “Melodyne assistant” or “Melodyne essential”.
From Version 1.2 onward, however, these three editions of Melodyne are delivered as a single program package. It is only your serial number (your license) and the activation triggered by it that determine which edition in fact runs from the in­stalled program. Since the identity of this is not known prior to the activation, and since it is not possible to change the program name subsequently, all the plug-ins
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bear the name “Melodyne” and all the stand-alone editions “Melodyne single­track” (to distinguish them from the multi-track ‘Melodyne studio’).
The name of the current edition is displayed between the tools and the macros in the user interface. You may need to increase the size of the Melodyne window to see it.
The common program code primarily serves to make full compatibility between the Melodyne editions editor, assistant and essential possible. It is no problem to open in Melodyne assistant or Melodyne editor a project begun in Melodyne essential, and work thereafter with the expanded function set of the larger edi­tion. It works the other way round as well: a project begun in Melodyne editor can be loaded into one of the smaller editions, played back and edited using the functions available there. It is only when Melodyne editor’s DNA functions for the editing of polyphonic material have been used that the document created can merely be played back but not edited in a smaller edition. When this occurs, we say Melodyne is running in ‘Playback Mode’.
Melodyne also runs in Playback Mode when it has been installed but not acti­vated. It is still possible to open and play back all existing documents in such cases, but you cannot edit them. Playback Mode can be very useful when you want to pass on a project, as it allows you to play back tracks edited in Melodyne – without having to bounce them first – on a computer on which Melodyne has either never been activated or has subsequently been deactivated. Playback Mode can be used at any time – without registration, activation or even an Internet con­nection.
The common program code also allows you, when working with a smaller edition of Melodyne or an installation that has not been activated, to switch to Melodyne editor’s Trial Mode. In Trial Mode, you can use Melodyne editor’s entire function set for a limited amount of time. When this trial period expires, Melodyne reverts to the original license or switches to Playback Mode. You can only take advantage of the free trial period once on a given computer. To register, and each time you launch Melodyne editor during the trial period, you will need an Internet connec­tion.
The common program code also makes it possible to upgrade at any time, and without a fresh installation, from Melodyne assistant or Melodyne essential to Melodyne editor. It is enough for this purpose simply to purchase a license for
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Melodyne essential user manual
Installation and Activation
Melodyne editor and then activate it – all of which can be done with a few clicks in our Web Shop.
Important Information Regarding Activation
The first time you launch Melodyne, the Activation Assistant appears. If you purchased your Melodyne from our Web Shop, a single click in the Assistant is all that is required and your Melodyne will be activated and ready to use. If your Melodyne came in a box, the Assistant will guide you through all the steps that are necessary for registration and activation. The activation is performed on line. If your computer is not connected to the Internet, the Assistant will propose a method of activating the program offline.
You can reach the Activation Assistant whenever you need to via “License ...” in Melodyne’s Help menu. All the options offered by the Assistant are explained in the Assistant itself. The following sections explain how these options relate to one another as well as providing important background information regarding activation. Please read them through carefully as they are concerned directly with such questions as when, why and how often you can install and use Melodyne on computers.
Two computer-based activations: Melodyne activation is, by default, computer-
based; in other words, the activation is tied to the computer upon which it is performed. A Melodyne license entitles you to activate and use Melodyne on two different computers simultaneously, such as your studio computer and your laptop. The activations are managed and granted by our server. You will see how many activation credits you have at any given moment in your myCelemony ac­count as soon as you log in.
Deactivating a computer: We allow you complete control over the allocation of
your activation rights by allowing you the option also of deactivating comput­ers. Suppose, for example, that you have already activated Melodyne on two computers but wish to use a third one temporarily. No problem: all you have to do is deactivate one of the computers currently activated. This will free up one activation credit, which will then be transferred to our server. You can use this then to activate the third computer. If, later, you wish to go back to your original pairing, just deactivate the third computer and reactivate the one you deacti­vated earlier.
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So our server provides you with two activations that you can share freely between your various computers. This makes it very simple, for example, to switch to a new music computer. Instead of having to worry about whether or not you will be en­titled to activate Melodyne on the new computer, you just deactivate the old one, thereby automatically freeing up an activation credit for the new one.
This possibility also means, however, that you need to act in a carefully consid­ered way! The activations are intended exclusively for you and are tied to your customer account. Do not, therefore, give away an activation to a third party. Please bear in mind also that the procedure for removing an activation from a computer can only be performed on that computer. If you no longer have access to an activated computer, the activation, as far as you are concerned, is lost. This is something you need to bear in mind, for example, before selling or throwing away a computer upon which Melodyne is active. Be sure to deactivate Melodyne first!
You have nothing to worry about, on the other hand, if all you are doing is chang­ing or formatting your hard disk in order to reinstall the operating system. Your activation in this case will not be lost. The first time you launch Melodyne after doing either of these things, it will contact the Celemony server, which will recog­nize the computer at once and reactivate it—without this costing you an activation credit.
The iLok alternative: Melodyne editor and Melodyne assistant (but not Melo-
dyne essential) can, as an alternative to the computer-based activation system described above, be activated using an iLok copy-protection dongle (for more information, visit www.ilok.com). This procedure involves transferring your Melodyne license to your iLok account, from which you can then download it to your iLok copy-protection dongle. With the iLok dongle, you will then be able to activate and operate Melodyne on any number of different computers, but only on one at a time: that is to say, only on the computer in which the dongle is inserted.
However, before opting for iLok activation, please bear the following in mind: the iLok system can be used as an alternative to (but not parallel with) computer­based activation. Once you have switched to the iLok system, you will not be able to obtain any further computer-based activations. It is not possible to go back to computer-based activation once you have made the switch to iLok. If you do opt for iLok activation, you will obtain *one* Melodyne license for *one* iLok dongle that can be used at any given time on *one* computer only – whereas the
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Melodyne essential user manual
Installation and Activation
computer-based activation method affords you the possibility of running Melodyne on two computers at once.
One further point: if you are selling Melodyne, you cannot just transfer the license to the iLok account of the purchaser; instead you must contact our support. Besides saving you money, as you normally would have to pay to transfer a license from one iLok account to another, this system allows us to create a myCelemony account for the purchaser, which we would otherwise be unable to do. If you were to perform the transfer yourself, the license would remain tied to your own myCelemony account.
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Melodyne essential user manual

Melodyne essential Introduction

Melodyne essential Introduction
About this manual
This manual deals with the actual operation and use of Melodyne essential. You will find information about the installation and activation of the program in a separate document.
We know no one likes reading user manuals. It’s far more exciting just to dive in and pick up the essentials as you work. So as not to bore you unnecessarily and as far as possible reduce your error rate as you investigate Melodyne essential, we have condensed the essence of everything worth knowing into a short section that you will find at the end of the introductory chapter: ‘For those in a hurry: Melodyne essential in 10 minutes’. Inveterate hater of user manuals or the most wised-up of pros, we do still urge you to read this section, because at the end of the day, it will cost you more time not to read it than to read it.
For those of you that are rather more receptive to user manuals, we would like at this point to draw your attention to what else here is on offer:
This introductory chapter contains, in addition to the crash course already men-
tioned, a few general explanations that should help to give you a better picture of the operation and possible applications of Melodyne essential.
In the ‘Guided Tours’, we describe step by step various procedures for working
with Melodyne essential. This is where you can look things up if there’s some­thing particular you want to know or can’t for the time being remember how something works.
Fuller information on Melodyne essential can be found on the support pages of the Celemony web site (www.celemony.com), which you can access directly from the Help menu inside Melodyne essential. You’ll find there our Help Center with numerous video tutorials on the operation of Melodyne essential, more detailed information as well as the latest tips and workarounds for problems. In our forum, you can benefit from the experience of other users and exchange ideas. And if ever you’re still stuck for an answer, you can reach us any time via the web site or directly by e-mail at support@celemony.com.
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Melodyne essential user manual
Melodyne essential Introduction
What Melodyne essential is and what it’s for
Melodyne essential allows you edit and display different types of audio mate­rial – such as vocals, saxophone, flute or even drum loops and percussion – in a highly musical way. What’s special about it is that Melodyne recognizes the musical tones in the audio data and displays them on pitch and time grids. This is far more informative than the kind of display of amplitude values along a time axis offered by typical sample editors and audio sequencers. With Melodyne essential, you don’t just see which parts of a recording are loud and which quiet, you see where tones begin and end as well as the pitch of each. That is – obviously – a huge difference.
Melodyne essential
It is possible not simply to observe but also to seize hold of and modify the tones displayed. If a tone is flat, for example, you can drag it to the correct pitch; if it’s too short, you can make it longer; if it’s too quiet, you can make it louder; and much else besides. But as well as being a highly sensitive tool for correcting and optimizing your recordings, it also offers you the possibility of profoundly altering your audio material, restructuring it, and creating from it something new.
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Melodyne essential Introduction
Melodyne essential user manual
Melodyne has for years enjoyed an outstanding reputation for its editing of lead vocals, since corrections can be made in a musical and intuitive manner and are virtually undetectable by ear. And what works for this most critical of disciplines, works wonders as well with other instruments. Once you’ve worked for a while with Melodyne essential, you’ll realize that aside from the correction of errors there’s a wealth of other valuable applications for you to discover. A few examples:
the creation of second voices or entire ensembles simply by copying the original
track; the introduction of melodic variations when phrases are repeated; correcting and reconciling the timing of drums and bass; tidying up rhythms or using quantization techniques to alter them; creating breaks and variations in drum loops; and standard disciplines like pitch-shifting and time-stretching, too, of which
Melodyne essential offers complete mastery and outstanding sound quality into
the bargain.
With Melodyne essential you can edit monophonic (lead vocals, sax solos, flute…) and rhythmic/unpitched audio material (such as drum loops, percussion, ambient sounds and noise). These illustrations should give you an idea of what audio mate­rial looks like in Melodyne essential.
Melodic material in Melodyne essential
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Melodyne essential user manual
Melodyne essential Introduction
Rhythmic material in Melodyne essential
The willful use of ‘unsuitable’ material or editing of suitable material in ‘inap­propriate’ ways can yield a multitude of interesting effects. Melodyne offers you the highest possible sound quality and authenticity for ‘normal’ audio editing, but that’s not to say rewarding results can’t be obtained through the creative misuse of its functions, by transforming radically the sound or structure of the original track. Have fun experimenting!
Detection first, editing later – the governing principle
How does Melodyne essential manage to find the tones in audio material? The answer (or the crux of it) is this: through its analysis of the material. As soon as audio is loaded or transferred to Melodyne essential, it examines the entire file and seeks to detect the tones within it. This process takes place, mark you, not as but shortly after the file is loaded or the transfer complete. The time required depends upon the processing power of the computer.
As soon as you open or transfer a file, Melodyne essential detects the notes in the mate­rial – only this makes possible the unique editing possibilities the program affords
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Melodyne essential Introduction
Melodyne essential user manual
The need for this analysis explains why Melodyne essential cannot operate as a real-time effect like a reverb or an echo: only when the analysis is complete can the tones be displayed and the unique functions of Melodyne used. These, of course, do work in real time: every alteration you make to the audio tones in Melo­dyne essential can be heard instantly – with no delay.
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Melodyne essential user manual

For those in a hurry: Melodyne essential in 10 minutes

For those in a hurry: Melodyne essential in 10 minutes
The following section delivers in a nutshell everything you need to know in order to make successful use of Melodyne essential. The rest of the introduction con­tains more detailed information on each of the points addressed.
In this document, where we use the term [Command] key, we mean the key on the Mac described either as the ‘Command Key’ or the ‘Apple Key’: on a PC it is marked [Ctrl]. The other keys used have the same names on the Mac as the PC.
Stand-alone or Plugin
You can use Melodyne essential either as a stand-aloneapplication or as a plug-in in any compatible host. There you will find Melodyne essential Plugin among the audio-effect plug-ins (not the instrument plug-ins); you use Melodyne essential in the same way as an audio insert effect not as an instrument plug-in. You will find Melodyne essential Standalone after the installation in the Programs folder directly on your hard disk. This implementation can be used like a sample-editing program: you launch the application, open a file, edit it, and save.
Transfer
Before you can work with Melodyne essential, you must first transfer to it from your DAW the passages you wish to edit; each passage is played back by the DAW and recorded simultaneously by Melodyne essential; only then, after a short pause as the material is analyzed, is it ready for editing. The plug-in does not operate in any conventional sense like a real-time insert effect.
Activate the Transfer key in Melodyne essential, play the desired track segment
in the DAW and, when it’s finished, stop the playback in the DAW. You can
transfer multiple extracts from different regions of the DAW track.
Replace Ranges
During playback after one or several transfers, those passages that have been transferred to Melodyne essential will be played back by Melodyne essential; all other parts of the original track by the DAW. From the View menu, choose ‘Show Replace Ranges’. All sections or regions that will be played back by Melodyne es­sential (as opposed to the DAW will now be marked. Such regions can be extended simply by dragging their borders with the mouse. To shorten a playback region,
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Melodyne essential user manual
delete a few blobs and select ‘Set Replace Ranges to Notes’ from the context menu of the Bar Ruler.
Detection and algorithms
The audio material must first of all be analyzed by Melodyne essential so that notes within it can be detected and later edited. Melodyne essential can edit monophonic (melodic), and rhythmic/unpitched material. It is Melodyne essential itself that decides, based on its own analysis, what type of material it is. You can, however, manually select a different playback algorithm to force the program to reanalyze the material. This can be useful if the material has been interpreted in a way that makes it unsuitable for your editing needs. You might wish to switch from algorithm to algorithm anyway, simply to experiment with different representations of the material Melodyne essential affords.
Select the other algorithm from the Algorithms menu to force a reinterpretation
of the material.
Editing the detection
With melodic material, a tone may occasionally be confused with the same note an octave higher or lower. Before editing such material, you need to reassign these notes correctly; otherwise tonal artifacts could be produced when the material comes to be edited. Select the Note Assignment Tool, which is set slightly apart from the others, to switch to Note Assignment mode. To quit Note Assignment mode, simply select some other tool.
The Note Assignment Tool switches to Note Assignment mode where notes
detected on wrong pitches can be moved to their right pitches. The waveform icon beside it switches from the original sound to the Monitoring
Synthesizer, of which it is also the volume control. The Monitoring Synthesizer
makes it easier to discern whether or not the assigned notes correspond to those
actually played. [Shift]-double-click in the Bar Ruler switches the playback between the original
sound and the Monitoring Synthesizer.
User interface and navigation
All the detected tones are displayed as blobs in the editing area. The size of the editing area can be altered and the blob display zoomed and scrolled.
To resize the window (also in Plugin), drag the bottom right corner
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For those in a hurry: Melodyne essential in 10 minutes
Hold down the [Command] key and drag the editing background to move the
area displayed (same functionality as the Hand Tool) Use the Mouse Wheel to scroll up and down or else (holding the [Shift] key) left
and right Press [Command]+[Alt] and drag in the editing area to zoom the display hori-
zontally and/or vertically (same functionality as the Magnifying Glass) Press [Command]+[Alt] and use the Mouse Wheel to zoom both axes simultane-
ously
Press [Command] and double-click to zoom in on a blob or the current selection Press [Command} and double-click in the editing background to zoom back Drag the Scrollers to move the display horizontally or vertically Drag the ends of the slider to zoom horizontally or vertically Pull the left- or right-hand ends of the horizontal slider as far as they will go to
increase the length of the section displayed (important when for example you
have only transferred the first four bars and wish to confine navigation to this
area but wish to insert something at Bar 20) Double-click the scrollers to zoom horizontally or vertically on all notes The slider in the bottom right corner governs the size of the blobs
Playback functions
When the DAW is stopped, you can scrub through the material in the Bar Ruler and start the local playback of the plug-in by double-clicking on the Bar Ruler in the desired place. It is not possible to control the DAW’s playback functions from within Melodyne essential.
Playback functions (when the DAW is stopped):
Click in the Bar Ruler to position the Playback cursor Double-click in the Bar Ruler to start playback from the place you click [Alt]-double-click anywhere in the Bar Ruler to play back the current selection With most hosts, pressing the [Spacebar] stops the local Plugin playback Use the [Arrow] keys to select and play the next/previous blob. Click in the Bar Ruler to stop the playback and position the cursor Click and drag in the Bar Ruler to perform scrubbing
Cycle Mode
In addition to local playback, Melodyne essential offers a Cycle Mode, which again can only be activated when the DAW is stopped.
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Melodyne essential user manual
Drag horizontally in the lower part of the Bar Ruler to define the Cycle Zone Double-click in the cycle zone to toggle Cycle Mode on and off To move either of the cycle locators, simply click on it and drag Drag the center of the Cycle Zone to move the entire zone to the left or right If active, the selected Time Grid influences the position of the Cycle Locators Holding the [Alt] key as you drag the Cycle Locators causes the Time Grid to be
ignored [Shift]+clicking near a Cycle Locator moves it to the designated position [Shift]+double-clicking anywhere in the Cycle Zone moves the locators to the
first and last selected blob. [Shift]+[Alt]-double-clicking sets them exactly to
the selected notes
Note selection
Blobs in the editing area can be selected using all the standard techniques: clicking, [Shift]-clicking, marquee/lasso/rubber-band selection, etc. In addition, the Edit menu offers a Select All command. To make a selection, use one of the following techniques:
Standard techniques such as clicking, [Shift]-clicking and lassoing to select
and deselect notes [Shift]-click and then drag the mouse to enter Snake Selection mode Select notes by clicking or dragging in the Pitch Ruler; double-clicking selects
notes with the same name in all octaves rather than simply at the pitch clicked In the Pitch Ruler also, you can [Shift]-click or [Shift]-drag to add or remove
notes from the selection In the Edit menu, you will find the usual ‘Select All’ command
Copying and pasting
Melodyne essential allows you to cut, copy and paste blobs. If prior to pasting a blob (the ‘source’ blob) you select another (the ‘target’ blob), when you paste, the former will replace the latter. If no blob is selected at the time of pasting, the source blob will be pasted at the cursor position. If, however, the blob was offset from the grid prior to copying, it will be offset from the playback cursor after past­ing and by the same amount; if you want the insert point and the cursor position to coincide exactly, set the Time Grid to ‘Seconds’ prior to pasting.
Macros and tools
The pitch and time correction macros (reached via the buttons in the top right corner) can be applied to a selection. If no tones are selected, the macro in ques-
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For those in a hurry: Melodyne essential in 10 minutes
tion operates on all the notes. Manual editing is performed using Main Tool on the left in the Toolbox. This tool is context-sensitive, offering different functions when moved over different parts of a blob. For finer adjustment, hold the [Alt] key when changing parameters. You can also open the Toolbox by right-clicking in the editing area.
The shortcut [Command]+[Up/Down Arrow] applies the primary functions of the Main Tool: modification of the pitch and position to the selected blob(s). Hold the [Alt] key to change the values by finer increments.
Here you see an overview of the functions of the various tools, indicating how these vary depending upon which part of the blob is clicked or dragged and upon whether you single- or double-click. The shape of the mouse pointer provides a further indication of the function a given tool will perform in a given context.
Single-click Double-click
PART OF BLOB
Main Tool
Left
move start shift pitch/
Middle (main function) Right Middle
position
move end insert/delete note
separation (top of blob)
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Tempo functions
Next to the Tempo box, there is a button that opens a tempo dialog. The Tempo box and dialog have the following functions:
The Tempo box merely displays the tempo; this cannot be adjusted because the tempo is determined exclusively by the DAW. When the tempo in the DAW changes, you should open the dialog and tell Melodyne essential about the nature and intent of the change: Have you simply selected a new level tempo or is a grad­ual tempo change (e.g. a ritardando) intended? In the latter case, you need to play through the passage containing it to Melodyne essential so that it can learn about the tempo progression. In the Tempo dialog, you can also select whether or not time-stretching and time-compression should be applied to audio to take account of tempo changes.
Saving and making permanent your editing
The contents of Melodyne essential are automatically saved with the DAW project. If you want to render permanent the contents of Melodyne essential as an audio file, you must use the DAW’s Bounce function.
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Loading, transferring and saving

Transferring audio material to Melodyne essential

In this tour, you will learn how to transfer audio material to Melodyne essential as well as the fundamentals of its use.
Before any editing can take place, audio must be transferred from a DAW
track to Melodyne essential
The transfer-readiness is activated with the Transfer button; any number of
extracts from any part of the DAW track can be transferred
In the areas where material has been transferred, it is Melodyne essential
that is heard during playback; in all other places, the DAW track
SUMMARY
The playback regions for Melodyne essential can be indicated in the display
and edited in the Bar Ruler
Transferring audio
Open in the DAW the project you wish to edit.
Load Melodyne essential as an audio insert effect in the audio track containing the material you wish to edit. Position Melodyne essential above any insert effects you may be using in the track – if in doubt, put it in the first insert slot. For the analysis (or ‘detection’) to achieve the best possible results, Melodyne essential needs to be given as dry and clean an input signal as possible.
Move the playback cursor in the DAW to a point before the beginning of the pas­sage you wish to edit with Melodyne essential.
Click the ‘Transfer’ button at the top left of the Melodyne essential window to prepare it to accept the transfer.
Start the DAW to transfer the material, which Melodyne essential will import automatically. Stop the playback when the end of the passage you wish to edit is reached. Stopping the DAW automatically brings to an end Melodyne essential’s
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transfer readiness. You can also interrupt a transfer in progress at any time by clicking the Transfer button.
If you wish, you can transfer to Melodyne essential further passages from different parts of the DAW timeline. Clicking the Transfer button during playback by the DAW toggles Melodyne essential’s Enable Transfer function on and off, enabling you to transfer only the passages you wish to edit. In other words, you can punch in and out, as the playback proceeds. Alternatively, as you reach the end of each of the passages you wish to transfer, you can halt the playback in the DAW, find the start of the next passage, transfer-enable Melodyne essential again, recom­mence playback in the DAW, stop it again, and so on. If you wish, you can just transfer the entire track to Melodyne essential or even several tracks simultane­ously to multiple instances of the plug-in.
Replace Ranges
During playback, those passages that have been transferred to Melodyne essential will be played back by Melodyne essential; all others by the DAW. In other words, wherever it has material to play back, Melodyne essential’s signal replaces that of the original track.
From the View menu, choose ‘Show Replace Ranges’. All the passages that will be played back by Melodyne essential (as opposed to the host) will now be marked. Such regions can be extended simply by dragging their borders with the mouse.
To shorten a playback region, delete a few blobs and select ‘Set Replace Ranges to Notes’ from the context menu of the Bar Ruler.
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Loading, transferring and saving
Related topics
Checking and editing the note detection within melodic material
Checking and editing the note detection within rhythmic material
Working with the Main Tool
Managing transferred audio files and assigning missing files
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Loading and saving audio in Melodyne essential Stand-Alone

In this tour, you will learn how to open and save audio files in Melodyne essential Stand-alone and which data formats can be used.
Files can be loaded from the File menu with ‘Open’, ‘Open Recent’, or ‘Re-
vert to Saved’
Files can also be loaded by dragging and dropping them onto the program
icon or directly into a window
The first file loaded into a window determines the tempo
When you save for the first time, the ‘Save As ...’ dialog opens, from which
you can select a format for the new file; on subsequent occasions, the file will be stored automatically in this format
SUMMARY
The Melodyne Project Document format saves your edits separately from the
audio files and is recommended for saving provisionally when you are not yet finished working on a document
Opening files using the menu
Choose ‘Open’ from the File menu of Melodyne essential Stand-Alone and navi­gate in the file selection box to the desired audio file. Select this, confirm your intention to load it, and the file will open.
The ‘Open Recent’ sub-menu offers direct access to the last twenty documents loaded. Simply select the desired entry and the corresponding document will open (provided it has not been deleted from the hard disk or moved to another location in the meantime).
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Loading, transferring and saving
If you have already saved an edited document, you can revert at any time to the most recently saved version by selecting ‘Revert to Saved’, in this way discarding any changes you have made since the file was last saved.
Opening files by drag-and-drop
If Melodyne essential Stand-Alone is already open, you can drag an audio file into the empty window Melodyne essential displays when first launched (or that you yourself have created by choosing ‘New’ from the File menu). An outline will ap­pear, allowing you to drag the file to exactly the desired position in the Time Ruler.
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As soon as you release the file, it is analyzed and the notes detected are displayed in the editing area.
In this way you can also drag multiple files into the window, positioning them wherever you like, in order, for example, to compose a new sample from multiple takes. The tempo of the document is derived from the first file loaded, though it can naturally be altered at any time.
Saving your work
When, after editing a file, you choose ‘Save’ from the File menu, the ‘Save As ...’ dialog opens, allowing you to select a format for the new file. By default, the name and format of the original file will appear there; if you now click ‘OK’, the original version of the file will be replaced by the edited version. Don’t worry: the original file is still there; it is stored alongside the new file but now has an ‘.orig’ in its name. The saving of such backups is the default behavior of Melodyne es­sential Stand-Alone. If this is not what you want, clear the option ‘Backup existing file before saving’ in the Preferences dialog.
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Loading, transferring and saving
Once you have chosen a file format and saved the file for the first time, as you carry on working on the file, this dialog will no longer open. Each time you use the ‘Save’ command, the previous file will be replaced by a new file in the same format.
In the ‘Save As ...’ dialog, either the first time you save or at any time subse­quently, you can select another format and assign a new name to the file. You can choose between the commonest audio file formats as well as two special options: ‘MIDI File’ and ‘Melodyne Project Document’.
Save as Melodyne Project Document
The Melodyne Project Document offers a non-destructive means of saving your work provisionally and is comparable with the ‘One-Track-Song-File’ of a DAW.
What does that mean? Suppose you save your work as an audio file. In that case, your edits will be ‘burned in’ to the new file. If you later wish to change some­thing, you will have to load the file again, which means a new analysis of the file will have to be conducted, which in turn you may have to check through and edit once more before you can begin working on the audio file. Since your earlier work is burnt into the audio data, there is no way to undo your actions. Saving your work in the form of an audio file is therefore the preferred choice only when you have really finished working on a file and wish to use the edited file in another software application.
The format ‘Melodyne Project Document’, on the other hand, saves your edits separately from the audio data. In the resulting ‘.MPD’ document, Melodyne essential Stand-Alone saves not only data based upon its earlier analysis (or ‘detection’) but also a record of your editing. The audio file does not, therefore,
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have to be analyzed a second time and you can continue with your editing exactly where you left off last time. The audio file itself has still not been changed since your edits are always implemented by Melodyne essential in real time. If you want to continue your work later you should save the document in MPD format and only save it as an audio file when you are sure you have finished working on it.
One more note: The MPD format doesn’t contain the used audio file(s), it is only referring to them. If you want to transport your work to another computer or to somebody else, you have to transfer the MPD file and the used audio files. Melo­dyne essential makes an exception if you record audio in the program itself. In this case, when you save the MPD file, the takes will be placed in a folder called “Audio” and stored next to the MPD file.
Related topics
Checking and editing the note detection within melodic material
Checking and editing the note detection within rhythmic material
Working with the Main Tool
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Loading, transferring and saving

Recording audio in Melodyne essential Stand-Alone

In this tour you will learn how to record audio with Melodyne essential Stand­Alone and what you need to bear in mind when doing so.
Prior to your first recording, select the audio input you wish to use from the
Audio tab of the Preferences dialog
Use the metronome or set the tempo manually if you want a uniform tempo;
otherwise Melodyne essential Stand-Alone will track and analyze the tempo throughout the recording, updating the BPM display and the grid to reflect fluctuations as playback proceeds
To arm Melodyne essential Stand-Alone for recording, click the Record En-
able button in the Transport Bar followed by Play when you’re ready to begin;
SUMMARY
you can punch in and out at any time in the course of a take by toggling the Record Enable button on and off
Audio settings
Before you record anything for the first time with Melodyne essential Stand-Alone, you should take a look at the Audio tab of the Preferences property sheet to check the settings.
In the upper pane, you will see the general audio settings. If you have already loaded, played back and edited files with Melodyne essential and everything
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