The ability to correct the pitch of a vocal, or musical performance, has become a necessary tools in modern audio production. In this article we show you how to start using Melodyne in Pro Tools, and understand the fundamental workflow that makes it such a powerful tool. In part 1 of this 3-part tutorial series we cover the fundamentals needed to start using Melodyne in Pro Tools.
Getting Started With Melodyne 5 In Pro Tools
*Note: In this tutorial we will be using Melodyne 5 "Editor" and its plugin functionality in Pro Tools
Check out our 3-part series Quick Start Melodyne Manual explaining all the functions:
Launching the Melodyne plugin
- In Pro Tools, locate the track in which you wish to apply Melodyne processing.
- Click on the first insert point, Insert A, and select: plug-in > Other > Melodyne.
Note: Technically you can use any available insert, however, it is important to understand the signal flow of a Pro Tools channel strip. Pro Tools processes the audio on a track starting with Insert point A. The output of Insert A feeds the input of Insert B. The output of Insert B feeds the input of Insert C, etc. To guarantee the best results, it is recommended to start with the cleanest, least processed audio possible. By inserting Melodyne at the first insert point of your track, you ensure that no other processing is affecting your audio, before it has been analyzed by the Melodyne plug-in.
- Once inserted on a track, Melodyne will open in a separate floating plug-in window.
Transferring Audio
In order to begin editing, you must transfer the audio you wish to process from Pro Tools into Melodyne.
1. In the Pro Tools Edit Window, place the playback cursor at any point just before the start of the audio you wish to transfer.
2. In Melodyne, click the "Transfer" button at the top left corner of the Note Editor. This puts Melodyne in "Transfer Ready" mode
3. Press spacebar or use the Pro Tools transport to begin playback.
4. Once you have reached the end of the audio you wish to transfer, press spacebar again, or use the Pro Tools transport to stop playback.
5. Once stopped, Melodyne will analyze the transferred audio and display the visual content in the Note Editor.
Note: Once audio has been transferred, any further edits made to the audio clip in Pro Tools will not be reflected in Melodyne. If you need to make any edits to the original audio clip after the initial transfer, you must re-transfer the newly edited section back into Melodyne. If you "re-transfer" any audio from Pro Tools back into Melodyne, any edits in Melodyne that are "transferred over" will be lost.
Melodyne File Management
During the Transfer process, Melodyne "records" the incoming audio from Pro Tools and saves a copy to your system hard disk. This is necessary due to the fact that Melodyne does not access the audio files of the Pro Tools session directly, but instead, plays back from its own created files. This is a crucial part of the process to understand, in particular when it comes to transferring, archiving or delivering any session that includes Melodyne processed audio.
Where Are My Files?
In the plugin version of Melodyne, there is a drop-down menu in the Project Browser, indicated by a cogwheel icon. Here you will find "Set Path for Transfers…" This is where the destination folder for transferred files can be set. Most users prefer to create a designated folder for Melodyne transferred files in the same folder as the project created by the DAW. This is ideal and highly recommended in most cases.
Note: When working with Melodyne as a plug-in in Pro Tools, you will find that "Set Path for Transfers…" is greyed out, or in the case of Melodyne Essential, non-existent . This is due to the fact that Melodyne has already done this for you. At the very moment you insert an instance of Melodyne on a track in Pro Tools, a folder named, "Melodyne," with a sub-folder named, "Transfers," is automatically created in your Pro Tools session folder. This is the case with Pro Tools as well as some other DAW’s, however, not all, so if you are uncertain whether or not your DAW functions in a similar way, it is important to confirm this first.
Melodyne Algorithms
An algorithm is a set of steps or equations that a piece software applies to an input before sending it to an output. In the case of Melodyne, the algorithm determines the set of steps, or equations to perform, during the detection process as audio is being transferred from Pro Tools to the (input of Melodyne), before being displaying in the Note Editor (output of Melodyne).
Melodyne’s algorithm can be set manually, or it can be set to "automatic." When set to automatic, Melodyne will determine the best algorithm based on its analysis of the incoming audio during the detection process.
Algorithm Types
Universal
The "Universal" algorithm is primarily used for complex polyphonic material. You will notice in the illustration below, that the notes are displayed horizontally with no representation of "absolute" pitch. Only a visual representation of "relative" pitch is indicated and noted by the positive or negative semitones in the pitch grid ruler. For this reason, the Universal algorithm is most useful for global transposition of an entire ensemble or group of instruments, time stretching, or quantization.
Full Mix - Universal
Percussive
The "Percussive" algorithm is best suited for material with no strong pitch element. This is extremely useful for adjusting rhythmic timing, or tightening up a drum or percussion performance.
Snare Drum - Percussive
Percussive Pitched
The "Percussive Pitched" algorithm is best suited for percussive material that contains a significant element of pitch. Just like the standard Percussive algorithm, Percussive Pitched is great for adjusting rhythmic timing, but also works well for tuning, or re-pitching, instruments like 808-kicks, congas, or toms.
Udu Drum - Percussive Pitched
Melodic
The "Melodic" algorithm is the most commonly used and best suited for monophonic instruments, like vocals or horns.
Vocal - Melodic
Polyphonic (Melodyne Editor and Melodyne Studio version ONLY)
The Polyphonic Algorithms are best suited for complex polyphonic material, or harmonic instruments like piano, guitar or strings. Melodyne is able to detect and analyze individual notes of complex material allowing you to transpose to parallel keys, tune individual notes of a chord, or even modify a chord quality all together by easily changing a major triad to a minor triad, or a major 7 to a flat 7.
Polyphonic Decay
The "Polyphonic Decay" algorithm is best suited for harmonic instruments with an aggressive, or percussive attack, like piano, guitar, or pizzicato strings.
Piano - Polyphonic Decay
Polyphonic Sustain
The "Polyphonic Sustain" algorithm is best suited for harmonic instruments that are less aggressive or have a soft attack, like organ or legato strings.
Harmonium - Polyphonic Sustain
Playback, Looping, Scrolling & Scrubbing in Melodyne
The audio transferred to Melodyne can be previewed in context of the session by pressing spacebar or using the Pro Tools transport. Play from anywhere in the Pro Tools session and Melodyne will chase. Alternatively, the transferred audio can be previewed internally within Melodyne and heard independently of the Pro Tools session.
Playback in Melodyne independent of Pro Tools
1. Double-click in the Melodyne Note Editor at the location at which you with to start playback. This can be done with any tool, excluding the Scroll and Zoom tools.
2. Double-click a second time to stop playback.
Loop Playback in Melodyne independent of Pro Tools
1. Create loop points in Melodyne
- Click-and-drag the cursor along the Time Grid Ruler to select the area you wish to loop. This will create loop-start and loop-end locator points at either side of the loop selection. The loop-start and loop-end locator points are displayed as dark grey arrows. The loop selection is highlighted in white.
- The length of a loop selection can be adjusted by clicking-and-dragging either of the loop point locators along the Time Grid Ruler.
- A loop can be removed by double-clicking anywhere on the white highlighted portion of the loop selection.
2. To start loop playback, double-click anywhere within the Note Editor window, before the "loop-end locator point".
3. To stop loop playback, double-click anywhere in the Note Editor window.
Playback from Pro Tools
An easy way to quickly navigate and playback from the Pro Tools Session while editing in the Melodyne Note Editor is to use the "Main Counter" and/or "Memory Location" shortcuts.
Main Counter shortcut -“ Press the [*] key to highlight the Bars portion of the Main Counter, type the desired bar number, and press [ENTER]
Memory Location shortcut -“ With the numeric keypad, Press the [.] key, enter the desired "Memory Location Number", then press the [.] again.
Using these two shortcuts to steadily advanced or jump around your session, while using [SPACEBAR] to start and stop playback, can be very fast and very effective. With this method I find it easy to get into a comfortable editing rhythm.
Auto Scrolling
At the bottom right-hand corner of the Note Editor is the Auto Scroll icon. Toggling this option on and off will enable and disable page scrolling in Melodyne.
Auto Scrolling Disabled
When the Auto Scroll icon is un-lit, Auto Scrolling is disabled and the Note Editor will remain fixed at your current location regardless of playback.
Auto Scrolling Enabled
When the Auto Scroll icon is lit, Auto Scrolling is enabled and the Note Editor will jump to wherever you begin playing, and commence page scrolling as the audio progresses.
Auto Scrolling Enabled but Temporarily Broken
When the Auto Scroll icon is lit, but "broken," the Note Editor will remain fixed at your current location regardless of playback. This status occurs when Auto Scrolling is enabled, but there is a note, or group of notes selected. In this situation, Melodyne assumes that you are editing a selection and therefore will not scroll but instead remain stationary. Once all notes are deselected, Auto Scroll will return to its enabled, "non-broken," state.
Scrubbing
Playback scrubbing allows you to preview the audio in Melodyne by clicking-and-dragging left or right with the mouse across the Time Grid Ruler in the Note Editor.
Melodyne User Interface
Note Editor
The "Note Editor" is where you will find the visual representation of detected notes of transferred audio. The background of the Note Editor displays horizontal "pitch lanes", indicated by white strips representing natural scale notes, and grey strips representing flat or sharp scale notes. This is very similar to the piano roll in the MIDI Editor Window of Pro Tools.
Melodyne Note Editor: Pitch Grid Ruler - RED; Time Grid Ruler - Blue; Pitch Blobs - Green
Pitch Grid Ruler
Along the left side of the Note Editor, on the vertical axis, is the Pitch Grid Ruler displaying chromatic scale notes.
Time Grid Ruler
Along the top of the Note Editor, on the horizontal axis, is the Time Grid Ruler indicating the location of notes in time, and represented in bars. The resolution of the time grid can be changed using the Time Grid Settings dropdown menu located in the upper right-hand corner of the Note Editor and indicated by a musical note icon. The note icon changes to reflect the current Time Grid resolution setting. In the illustration below, the Time Grid resolution is set to eighth notes.
Melodyne "Blobs"
A "Blob" is the term Melodyne uses to refer to the visual representation of a single pitch, note, or non-tonal event in the Note Editor.
Note: For the purposes of this tutorial, we will be using the term, "note," in reference to all blobs, regardless of pitch, tonal or percussive content.
Blob
Pitch Center
The vertical position of each note against the white and grey background of the Note Editor, indicates the "average" pitch of a note’s entire audio content and can also be referred to as "Pitch Center." For the audio’s average pitch to be-in tune, the note should appear centered in a pitch lane (either a grey or white strip). If a note is slightly above a pitch lane, it can be assumed to be sharp. If a note is slightly below a pitch lane, it can be assumed to be flat.
Pitch Center - Assumed to be Flat
Pitch Curve
Pitch Curve is the line that runs through a note representing the exact pitch of the audio as it changes over time.
Pitch Curve
Pitch Sibilants
Pitch Sibilants is the vertically striped portion of a note representing any detected sibilance, fricatives, or non-tonal elements such as S’s and T’s, or F’s and Ch’s, etc.
Sibilance
Note Separations
Note Separations are vertical lines at the start and end of a notes, indicating where Melodyne has identified their beginning and end, in relation to the Time Grid.
Note Separations
For a more detailed look on using extensive Melodyne features, check out our 3-part series manual explaining all the functions
Brief History of Melodyne: Vocal Tuning and Voice Manipulation
Before we dive-in to using Melodyne, let's take a brief look at the history of Vocal Tuning and Voice Manipulation.
- 1928 - Bell Laboratories engineer, Homer Dudley develops the first "Vocoder" (Voice Encoder).
- 1939 - Bell Labs demonstrates the "Voder," (Voice Operating Demonstrator), at the World’s Fair in New York.
- 1975 - Eventide releases the "Harmonizer-H910."
- 1977 - Sennheiser releases the "VSM-201." EMS releases the "Studio Vocoder 2000."
- 1997 - Antares Audio Technologies releases "AutoTune."
- 2001 - Celemony releases "Melodyne."
- 2009 - Celemony releases "Melodyne 4" with DNA (Direct Note Access).
- 2020 - Celemony releases "Melodyne 5."
The Vocoder
The ability to correct pitch has become a necessary tool in the arsenal of any contemporary audio engineer. Without question, the most common application of pitch correction is the manipulation of vocal performances. The lineage of these techniques can be traced back to the first "Vocoder," (Voice Encoder), developed by Bell Laboratories in 1928. Although originally designed as a method of encoding speech for telecommunication transmission, the Vocoder became widely used in music and film production throughout the 1970’s and 80’s. This process of pitch manipulation, which transforms the human voice into a synthesized robotic tone, is still used today. From the Bestie Boys to Chromeo, Stevie Wonder to Taylor Swift, Imogen Heap to Big Boi, use of the Vocoder has crossed genres and spanned decades, weaving its way into the fabric of pop music history.
AutoTune
"AutoTune" by Antares Audio Technologies, released in 1997, furthered the evolution of audio manipulation with the introduction of "discreet pitch correction," (the ability to manipulate the pitch of an individual note, independent of the entire performance). AutoTune was originally intended to be unheard or "transparent" when used on a vocal, and may very well have stayed that way, had it not been for British music producer Mark Taylor and his work with Cher on her hit song, "Believe," released in 1998. This was the first successful hit song that highlighted the use of AutoTune as an "effect." The criticism of some regarding this technique was quickly subdued as the song became a global hit. Since then, AudioTune has been used to define the sound of artists like T-Pain, has maintained popularity due its use on "808’s & Heartbreak" by Kanye West, and even found its way onto songs like "The Circus" by Britney Spears and "Wood" by Bon Iver. Love it or hate it, it is safe to say that this is one tool in the producer’s tool kit that is here to stay.
Melodyne
The Grammy Award winning Melodyne application, developed by Peter Neubäucker, was first presented at Winter NAMM 2001 in Anaheim, CA., and released to the public later that same year. Since its introduction it has become one of the most widely used tools in modern music production. This is no surprise as Melodyne is extremely versatile. It can run as a stand-alone application or as a plugin-in via VST, AU or AAX, and for those DAW’s that support it, employs ARA (Audio Random Access) integration. The user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, the detection algorithms are highly advanced, and the pitch manipulation tools well-conceived and simple to use. With "DNA," (Direct Note Access) technology, Melodyne allows for manipulation of individual pitches within complex harmonic and polyphonic material and now, with the release of version 5, Melodyne discreetly detects and allows for independent level balancing of non-tonal content such as sibilant S’s, and T’s, or hard consonant K’s and Ch’s. Used judicially, Melodyne can tune and polish a vocal with complete transparency, or pushed to its limits, create some very cool and completely bizarre effects. Today both AutoTune and Melodyne are used to such an extent, they have become the norm rather than the exception in the process of music production.
Summary
With an understanding of the Melodyne interface you will be able to start using its powerful features to apply pitch correction, quantize audio, and edit with Macros. This tutorial should give you all the information you need to get started using Melodyne and be comfortable with how to transfer audio into the Melodyne editor. In our next article we will explore the power of Macros and how you can quickly apply pitch correction to your vocal or instrument recordings.
As with any "Tool", keep practicing and developing your technique to complement your own unique style. Although it may seem fairly daunting at first, you will be making singers shine, instruments sing, and maybe even have a few happy accidents along the way!
Chris Wainwright
Author: Chris Wainwright