I have been a user of Melodyne for several years now, I started with the plug-in, and recently (about 4 months ago) updated to ME. The appeal of DNA seemed enticing enough to try it out, and since my upgrade was free, I thought "why not?"

Much to my dismay, as I have a client sitting next to me wanting her vocals tuned, as I move her pitch around OR try to flatten out a bit of extra vibrato that she had, we were both shocked to hear an absolutely atrocious "robot" sound every time. I wrote the team at Celemony, and Lars sends me an email back telling me I am one of TWO people total who has had an issue with this feature.

How can ANYONE listen to this while tuning and not be horrified by it? Any client that hears an engineer doing this is going to be pre-disposed to think that their vocals sound robotic, even if ME were to tune it flawlessly.

Please tell me that others are bothered by this added feature in ME, and that the team at celemony recognizes this as, at a minimum, a "feature" that can and MUST be allowed to be disabled if the user should desire it.

Thank you in advance,
Mike

Oh dear....one man's meat etc.

Personally, I find this a useful feature - my ears pick up whether or not I'm on the right note much quicker than my eyes see it on the screen.

Being a person who intentionally tries to arrange/produce/mix with what I hear (as opposed to being tempted to making everything tidy with neat round values on the screen , I would know intuitively whether or not it was the pitch I was aiming for in my head. Whereas only seeing the blob(s) on the screen would require me to play the passage back, only to find that perhaps I was not on the intended pitch.

Thinking about your situation, I think there is a simple fundamental difference between our usages of Melodyne.

Me - the guy that is perhaps using DNA as a creative tool to correct and evaluate new/wrong melodies and harmonies - whereby note shifts of more than a semitone are quite common (and I would often be using diverse instruments other than the human voice)

You - trying to get a flat/sharp singer shifted less than a semitone - so the 'robot' serves little purpose

I can understand why a non-technical singer might take some sort of artistic umbrage when hearing their voice mixed with a synthesised pilot tone. But in my world, that's when I would use the opportunity to politely suggest that some vocal technique improvements could make Melodyne redundant.

I wonder whether a sine-wave pilot tone would annoy a singer less? Probably not, as pitching to a pure tone without harmonic content is quite difficult.

If you continue down that route, we'd probably start asking Celemony to allow us to configure the sample of our choice for use as a pilot tone.....How far should they go?

If my view of our difference usage types is right, the only thing that is required would be an on/off toggle?

Have I got the right end of the stick?

Hello Mike,

so you're not talking about a robotic sound on playback, but the acoustic blob monitoring when editing? This was a frequently requested feature by our users back in the days of Melodyne plugin. Is this what you find distracting?

By the way, we don't have anyone called Lars in our team. Must have been someone else you spoke to.

PBryant -

I'm not arguing that it couldn't be a useful feature - especially in the case that you are describing with writing new melodies and harmonies with DNA. All I'm suggesting is that the user have the ability to turn off the "acoustic monitoring" while editing if they so choose.

Claudio - Yes, I am definitely talking about the "acoustic monitoring" while editing and not on playback. And you were right, where I got Lars, i must have been smoking something. Jorg was the one who got back to me the first time about this issue.

I find it amazing that I am one of only a few who would like to see this as an "option", but hey - crazier things have happened

Thanks for your replies, all.

-mP

Yes, Mike, the synth issue is driving me crazy too.
It would be a simple matter of "Turn on/off" as an option. Many times I hit play before fixing just not to hear it.
But the biggest problem to me is when tuning a long note, I still hear the robot sound on the tuned file...

Cheers,

Gabriel

mdproctor, I agree, that "acoustic monitoring" 'robot feature' while editing is revolting and distracting; completely kills the moment, should be an option to turn off.

I guess that I am one of those few people who are annoyed by blob monitoring which couldn´t be switched off. It would be nice to have a button to toggle between monitoring on and off.

Thanks,
Andreas

Hello guys,

I will move this thread to the Features Wish List.

please add a simple on/off button.
this is my MAIN bad thing about this absolutely great piece of software.
I use my ear to correct pitch, and this orrible sound makes my ear out of tune every time. As i need to correct only monophonic lead vocals, in the studio, i requested to use the older Melodyne Plugin instead the new Melodyne Editor just for this thing.
Think about.

Agreed - really problematic here too, for the reasons you state, and the fact that the audition pitch is not always accurate and can make the process more difficult.

As a feature, it's useful to me about 25% of the time, the rest it's either annoying or counterproductive.

best,
rich

I wish to be able to set a 'custom edit-volume' when moving notes around. I take advantage of hearing sound but while editing the long 'standing' tone can get to loud.

Yea, that's probably the best solution - adjustable level from where it is now to all the way off.

best,
rich

I too want to request to have the option of turning note monitoring OFF. I can see how it can be a benefit in a few situations, but there is nothing that can kill the vibe of a session more than having that inhuman sound come blaring out of your speakers when you've got the singer sitting right next to you. They want to hear their voice in tune, not dehumanized. I don't think anyone's requesting to get rid of it. Just let us turn it off so we don't have to keep using the older version.

Also, is there some way we can change the subject of this thread from "Am I seriously the only one bugged by this?" to something more descriptive of the issue? I think more people will find it that way and you'll see how bad the problem really is. Thanks.

I don't understand the problem with this. The part where you are pointing to is the part that's playing when you drag it. How can this feature be so disruptive to someone ? It's like saying if you tune a guitar "omg that sine tone doesnt sound anything like my guitar, so that guitar will probably be tuned bad".

Concentrate on the height of the tone that you hear though, don't let the timbre distract you.

+1,000,000

This thing is so terrible in front of clients. Keep in mind that most clients are already freaked out about the fact that they are using pitch correction on their voice. Many clients emphasize that any pitch correction needs to sound 110% natural. Then after importing the vocal track, I go to fix the first note and this ugly robotic sound of their voice plays loudly through the speakers.... Do you think they are convinced? I currently have to make sure that playback is going every time I adjust a note to avoid them ever hearing their vocal as a robot. This is a painful workaround. Please give us the option to turn this off as others have requested.