Regarding Melodyne Essentials

[PapaRaptor]

In the 12/11/2020 AAP session, @Griff did a conversion of a piano audio track to a MIDI track using an upgraded version of Melodyne. Griff's version is upgraded from the one that comes with Studio One Pro.

The version that comes with S1 Pro does not do polyphonic (chord) conversion. It is strictly a single note function. It's still a powerful tool, but the magic Griff performed requires an upgrade.

 

[MikeS]

In the 12/11/2020 AAP session, @Griff did a conversion of a piano audio track to a MIDI track using an upgraded version of Melodyne. Griff's version is upgraded from the one that comes with Studio One Pro.

The version that comes with S1 Pro does not do polyphonic (chord) conversion. It is strictly a single note function. It's still a powerful tool, but the magic Griff performed requires an upgrade.

Bummer. I really liked the way he completely transformed the bass from upright to electric just by dropping it in.

 

[MikeS]

Yikes! $899? Nope. not for the silly crap I do.
When I try to launch the version "included" with S1v5, It takes me to the Melodyne site and wants me to upgrade (lowest price is $99 and I don't think that will do what I want it to do).

 

[MikeS]

Hmmm, I think I may have confused what Melodyne does with just dropping a new instrument on the track so... Never mind...

 

[PapaRaptor]

Bummer. I really liked the way he completely transformed the bass from upright to electric just by dropping it in.

You can do that. Melodyne will convert a good solid single note track to MIDI. Check out the A minor track I just posted in the VJR. What @Griff did with the bass track can indeed by done by Melodyne Essentials. Just select the (bass) track and select Edit with Melodyne. After Melodyne has analyzed it, you can create a new Instrument track with Presence and drag the track into Presence's lane. Then you can operate on it within Presence just like you can with any other MIDI track.

What Melodyne Essentials won't do is take chords and convert them to MIDI, like @Griff did with the piano track. That trick requires the high-priced spread.

I did a MIDI conversion of a guitar solo in the VJR. I was very careful to mute and try to never have two notes ringing at once. I almost succeeded. I think I had three instances where there was more than one note ringing. Melodyne just ignored both of the notes and left silence. It also picked up some string noise and gave me some out of melody notes (mainly lower pitched).

 

[MikeS]

I had the process cornfused. I got it to work now.

 

[MikeS]

You can do that. Melodyne will convert a good solid single note track to MIDI. Check out the A minor track I just posted in the VJR. What @Griff did with the bass track can indeed by done by Melodyne Essentials. Just select the (bass) track and select Edit with Melodyne. After Melodyne has analyzed it, you can create a new Instrument track with Presence and drag the track into Presence's lane. Then you can operate on it within Presence just like you can with any other MIDI track.

What Melodyne Essentials won't do is take chords and convert them to MIDI, like @Griff did with the piano track. That trick requires the high-priced spread.

I did a MIDI conversion of a guitar solo in the VJR. I was very careful to mute and try to never have two notes ringing at once. I almost succeeded. I think I had three instances where there was more than one note ringing. Melodyne just ignored both of the notes and left silence. It also picked up some string noise and gave me some out of melody notes (mainly lower pitched).

Strange. I've been messing with it all morning and I think I got it to convert a keyboard track(chords) to midi, then change the instrument.

This one is with me playing on my crappy old Casio keyboard:
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/h3xs37vbo0xlc7m/Life By The Drop-Backing-old.mp3?dl=0

And this one is after I convert to Midi and then drop some Presence keys in (two tracks Full B3 + Pop Rhodes)
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/ehp8vmnlr4wkspb/Life By The Drop-Backing.mp3?dl=0

 

[dvs]

Did some looking around and for my purposes, as cool as it is to watch, I'm not going to pursue it further, at least for now. However, from what I found, I think Melodyne Essential does only single-note stuff and Assistant and higher versions can do chords. Essential costs ~$99, Assistant ~$240, Editor ~$400, Studio ~$700. You don't need the most expensive version to do what Griff did.

S1 Artist doesn't come with Melodyne, just a 30-day trial. S1 Pro comes with Essential. Upgrades from Essential are available at lower prices.

 

[PapaRaptor]

Strange. I've been messing with it all morning and I think I got it to convert a keyboard track(chords) to midi, then change the instrument.

This one is with me playing on my crappy old Casio keyboard:
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/ay1qua9zy1un2ki/Life By The Drop-Backing.mp3?dl=0

And this one is after I convert to Midi and then drop some Presence keys in (two tracks Full B3 + Pop Rhodes)
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/ehp8vmnlr4wkspb/Life By The Drop-Backing.mp3?dl=0

The file with the "crappy old Casio keyboard" is returning a 404 not found error.

 

[MikeS]

The file with the "crappy old Casio keyboard" is returning a 404 not found error.

oops. I overlaid the old one. The link is fixed now.
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/h3xs37vbo0xlc7m/Life By The Drop-Backing-old.mp3?dl=0

 

[MikeS]

Did some looking around and for my purposes, as cool as it is to watch, I'm not going to pursue it further, at least for now. However, from what I found, I think Melodyne Essential does only single-note stuff and Assistant and higher versions can do chords. Essential costs ~$99, Assistant ~$240, Editor ~$400, Studio ~$700. You don't need the most expensive version to do what Griff did.

S1 Artist doesn't come with Melodyne, just a 30-day trial. S1 Pro comes with Essential. Upgrades from Essential are available at lower prices.

Odd, I have S1 Artist and it has Melodyne, but after using Melodyne and overlaying a different keyboard, it sounds like it worked to me. Of course, I'm half deaf with so much ringing in my ears, I'm never sure what I'm hearing.

 

[dvs]

Odd, I have S1 Artist and it has Melodyne, but after using Melodyne and overlaying a different keyboard, it sounds like it worked to me. Of course, I'm half deaf with so much ringing in my ears, I'm never sure what I'm hearing.

From everything I found, the Melodyne Editor software that comes with Artist is a trial version - maybe I'm wrong about the time and it's longer than 30 days, idk. It would do everything that Griff did, but only for a limited time. Again, I didn't install the trial version and I haven't tried it myself.

 

[PapaRaptor]

The MIDI recording sounds like you're trilling between two notes. It makes me wonder what the Melodyne track looks like. You certainly can get away with an arpeggio. I ran a bass guitar track through it and it cloned it perfectly

 

[PapaRaptor]

From everything I found, the Melodyne Editor software that comes with Artist is a trial version - maybe I'm wrong about the time and it's longer than 30 days, idk. It would do everything that Griff did, but only for a limited time. Again, I didn't install the trial version and I haven't tried it myself.

Yes, the version with Artist is a 30 day trial. Pro comes with Essentials. Celemony's site certainly doesn't make it crystal clear what the differences are between the versions. I watched a few videos with some pretty cool chord recognition and compliance capabilities, but they were all shown in Studio, with kind of short shrift given to Assistant and Editor. The Studio version is one incredible piece of software, but I certainly can't justify it for the plunking and plinking I do here on the farm.

 

[Griff]

I think things have changed a lot in that particular bundle. When I first started with S1 (version 2) Melodyne's simplest offering came with it. I, however, already had the higher version (not the best, the one in the middle) because I used it with Sonar for pitch correction. Back then it was priced a lot lower... I'm glad I got in when I did!

Anyway, just because the simple Melodyne doesn't do polyphonic doesn't mean it will always fail. I've seen a monophonic analysis come up with multiple notes... so @MikeS it's now out of the realm of possibility that it worked. It just probably won't work on anything very complex.

 

[MikeS]

The MIDI recording sounds like you're trilling between two notes. It makes me wonder what the Melodyne track looks like. You certainly can get away with an arpeggio. I ran a bass guitar track through it and it cloned it perfectly

I'm not sure what it's telling me but here's a screen capture of the Melodyne output.

 

[PapaRaptor]

Wow! That's impressive.

It looks like it is quickly alternating between notes, but it most certainly is picking up more than one note at a time. You could definitely fix that on the MIDI piano roll to get rid of the trill sound. It's actually a lot easier to read than it appears at first glance. It's a timeline and all your notes are listed on the left. Your first chord (read vertically, bottom to top) is F#, A, C# (F# minor) , then G, B,D (G Major), A, C#, E, (A Major).
Each of those blobs within a string (left-to-right) is what Melodyne sees as a new note strike. So it's detecting one note, then detecting another note, and moving among the triad you are playing, kind of like the guy you used to see on Ed Sullivan who kept the plates spinning on top of sticks. It's certainly a lot better result than what I got with a canned piano track.

You'll notice that all the blobs are perfectly centered within their horizontal line, which indicates they are at (or very near) perfect pitch. Do this analysis with a voice recording and you'll see the blobs will be high or low in a pitch. You can actually grab those and move them around. On a voice, you can usually change them by a full semitone without the voice sounding altered. It's great to nudge a slightly off pitch back into pitch, too. I haven't spent any quality time with it, but it definitely qualifies as another rabbit-hole to explore.

 

[MikeS]

Another rabbit-hole?


You're welcome. LOL

 

[MikeS]

You said "You could definitely fix that on the MIDI piano roll to get rid of the trill sound."
I'm not sure how. I'd expect I'd need to stretch one "blob" over the duration of the string of "Blobs", but I'm not sure how to change the duration of a blob.

 

[CaptainMoto]

You guys are gonna make my head explode.

Messed around with Melodyne a few times for vocal pitch correction........that's it.
Midi conversion, whoa, that's above my pay grade.

The deeper I get into all these programs, the less music I'm making.

My computer crashed a few days ago ( still in the shop for repair) so, I've been actually playing guitar, It's magic!