Celemony Melodyne DNA Editor | Audio Examples
From Celemony Melodyne Editor December 2009
Reviews : Software: Effects+Processors
Mike Senior
Here is a selection of audio files to accompany this month’s Celemony Melodyne Editor review (
www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec09/articles/melodynedna.htm).
PickGuitarOriginal
MP3 WAV This is a picked acoustic guitar phrase, before any Melodyne processing at all. You can compare this with the other examples to judge the quality of the processing and the acceptability of any artifacts. (For the most revealing comparisons, import the WAVs into your sequencer and A/B them side by side.) This file comes courtesy of Big Fish Audio's Guitar Studio sample collection.
PickGuitarDNA_Buffed
MP3 WAVHere I've imported the guitar phrase into Melodyne Editor and used the Amplitude and Formant tools to give the loop a more musical phrasing, as well as replacing the twelfth note (the third high 'C'), which was slightly mis-struck, by copying the cleaner-sounding fourth note (the first high 'C') into its place.
PickGuitarDNA_Additions
MP3 WAVFor this file I've continued working from where I left off in PickGuitarDNA_Buffed. I've reversed the positions of the second and third notes in each four-note group using the Timing Tool; copied and pasted upper harmony parts for the third and fourth notes in the resulting pattern; rearranged some of the pitches to introduce some harmonic movement; and then adjusted the subjective balance of all the notes with the Amplitude tool.
PickGuitarDNA_AdditionsNoBass
MP3 WAVThis file is the same as PickGuitarDNA_Additions, with the exception that I've now used the Amplitude tool's muting function to completely remove the bass line from the pattern.
HarpOriginal
MP3 WAVA harp phrase from Ultimate SoundBank's Classical Boom Box sample collection. As before, this has no Melodyne processing for comparison purposes.
HarpDNA_Reduction1
MP3 WAVHere I've imported the file into Melodyne Editor used the Amplitude tool to mute out the lower harmony of the main melody line.
HarpDNA_Reduction2
MP3 WAVNow I've muted the open fifth which underpins the harmony as well, and have compensated for a loss of attack on the very first note by replacing it with a copy of the note of that pitch which occurs later in the phrase.
HarpDNA_Reduction3
MP3 WAVBy the time I've also muted the repeating G# as well, you can hear that Melodyne is beginning to struggle a little bit, and I've had to do a bit of careful Amplitude tool work on the two melodic G# notes that remain to try to make them sound more natural. Bear in mind, though, that by this point I've removed about two thirds of the original phrase's notes!
HarpDNA_Swung
MP3 WAVThis is another processed version of HarpOriginal example, but this time I've used the Timing Tool exclusively to bring about a swung feel in the rhythm and also to adjust the positions of some of the melody notes. I've tried to minimise the artifacts within Melodyne, but as I mentioned in my review, you can still hear that the transients are generating some swirly digital side-effects.
JazzKeysOriginal
MP3 WAVHere's a piano loop from Big Fish Audio's Jazz Quartet construction-kit sample library. For comparison purposes, this has had no Melodyne processing at all.
JazzKeysOriginalMix
MP3 WAVThis is a mix of the same loop balanced in context against the other three loops in the construction kit: drums, bass, and guitar.
JazzKeysDNA
MP3 WAVFor this example I've imported the loop into Melodyne Editor and done two things: in the first half I've used the Amplitude tool to mute the major seventh (note 'D') from both initial chords, clearing out the texture; and in the second half I've used the Pitch tool to change the chord to a dimished seventh, which involved shifting nine of the pitches sounding. While the processing artifacts generated by the Amplitude tool edit are fairly minimal, you can hear more obvious evidence of how hard Melodyne is having to work later on in the file.
JazzKeysDNAMix
MP3 WAVWhile the processing artifacts in JazzKeysDNA probably wouldn't be acceptable if the part were heard on its own, within the context of the mix they become much less apparent. So even though Celemony's DNA processing isn't always completely transparent, especially when you push it hard as I have here, this is often not a significant concern in many real-world mix situations.
SlideGuitarOriginal
MP3 WAVA pedal steel guitar part with mild tuning issues. No Melodyne processing has yet been applied, for comparison purposes.
SlideGuitarDNA_Tuning
MP3 WAVIn this example I've imported SlideGuitarOriginal into Melodyne Editor and used its three pitch-manipulation tools to sweeten the tuning of most of the notes.
StrumGuitarOriginal
MP3 WAVThis DI acoustic recording has more serious tuning issues, but is currently free of Melodyne processing for comparison purposes.
StrumGuitarDNA_Tuning
MP3 WAVFor this file I imported StrumGuitarOriginal into Melodyne Editor and used the Pitch and Pitch Drift tools to try to sweeten the tuning. Although the process is clearly not without some processing artifacts, the improved tuning makes it at least usable in a mix, where the original part wasn't. 0
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