It occurred to us that a song mixed with extreme pan settings, like The Beatles’ “I’m Looking Through”, would give better results, but Melodyne wasn’t convincing enough because you cannot edit each channel of the stereo signal separately.
It is still a long way to go for the de-mixing grail, even if no other tool can go as far as Melodyne. With the Beatles’ song, you can try to edit the left channel first and then the right channel. Maybe the result will be more convincing.
With a complex mix like Air’s “Electric Performers”, you won’t be able to edit the guitar arpeggios, but you will achieve very interesting sound textures editing time and pitch parameters.
Celemony’s technology could almost be a totally new type of sound synthesis. Listen to Electric Performers
.
Conclusion
Melodyne Editor is indeed the revolution we expected, thanks to its DNA technology. The algorithm is not infallible and (still?) doesn’t allow to entirely de-mix a song, though it was probably never intended for full mixes.
Nevertheless, there has not been such an exciting invention in the audio industry ever since the creation of Autotune – and the invention of samplers before that. Melodyne is available for a very affordable price considering the huge R&D efforts Celemony had to make to achieve these results.
We strongly recommend Melodyne Editor to sound engineers (to repair an acoustic guitar recording when the guitarist already left the studio), to musicians who work with loops (and never find the right sample in the right key) and to all sound designers. You will undoubtedly have lots of fun discovering the huge possibilities it provides.
However, there is still one thing that remains unclear: what happens to the copyright of the processed samples? If I change all the notes of a Miles Davis phrase, will he still be the owner of the melody I use in my song?
Celemony Melodyne Editor Overview
* Technological feat that revolutionizes audio editing and sampling
* Ease of use
* Stunning results when used for the right application
* Price (considering the R&D investment)
* Amusing and creative tool
* One of the best monophonic time-stretching & pitch-shifting tools, maybe even the best
* CPU consumption: you’ll have to bounce!
* Left and right channels cannot be edited separately
* Not multitimbral
* Disappointing results with some audio material
Los Teignos is a “rêveur à temps partiel” and contributor to Audiofanzine.
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