David Kahne

David Kahne produced among others: The Bangles, Fishbone, The Strokes, Tony Bennett, Paul McCartney, Lana Del Rey, Sugar Ray, Regina Spektor and Cher. He has also worked on songs for Vanilla Sky, Orange County, The Beach, Clockstoppers, and a variety of other films and television shows. He is a Melodyne power user.

How is your workflow?

I use Nuendo and Logic to record, and I mixed The Strokes in Nuendo. I also use Sequoia to mix. I did a couple of Paul McCartney songs on Sequoia.

Did you use Melodyne on these projects?

I use Melodyne all the time in all three programs. Not only for vocals, but also for guitar harmonies, building instrument stacks and changing the pitch of the kick drums and snares, sometimes also bringing down the pitch of the kick drums to resonate with the bass more. I'm always moving pitches and timings of little tiny moments.

Could you explain some more, how you work with kick drum and bass?

I separate the kick drums out from the kit or a loop and select them all. As I play back the song, I move the kicks up and down in pitch until they sit right with the bass. That creates a lot of resonance in the low end.

How did Melodyne change the way you work with audio files?

It changed things a lot for me. I never really used other pitch correction programs much because they didn't have enough control. They change the audio too much. The Mean Pitch tool in Melodyne is genius. I can shape pitch perfectly and enhance the relation of (eg.) a voice to a guitar part rather than pull the two slightly apart, which is what happens in the other programs I tried. The overtone resonances seemed to separate.

What do you like especially about Melodyne?

The amazing detail I'm able to get to so easily.

Did you try Melodyne editor already?

I'm fascinated by the possibilities! Been changing chords around, making new progressions, and of course fixing things too. I love being able to see the gray areas, the overtones that are floating around in the ether of it all that can be turned on and off, moved, stacked and modeled. With Melodyne editor, a world of new sounds awaits!