Can I punch-record into an existing Melodyne track?

Current state: I have a vocal track on which I’ve applied Melodyne and as a region effect. Simple enough. I’ve done quite a bit of editing in Melodyne. But upon further review, I now want to replace a small phrase in the vocal, which is where I’m hitting a snag.
 
What I thought I could do, but apparently can’t:

• In track view, split the vocal track before and after the phrase
• Delete the phrase
• Punch-in record the new, replacement phrase
• Apply Melodyne to the new phrase as a region effect.

I thought this approach would allow me to incorporate that new phrase into the existing Melodyne "effects region" that contains the rest of the vocal track. And it seemed to allow that. BUT…
 
It interpreted the phrase as “percussive” instead of “melodic.” (Maybe because the phrase wasn’t long enough for Melodyne to correctly analyze that it’s melodic?) I thought, “Okay, I’ll just tell Melodyne it’s melodic.” But when I did, it warned me that changing the algorithm from percussive to melodic would require it to re-analyze the audio, and any changes I had made would be lost.
 
I hadn’t made any changes yet to the new phrase; I had merely brought it into Melodyne as a region effect. So, I assumed I would lose all my work on the entire vocal track. I stopped because that wasn’t exactly clear.
 
My workaround is to render my original Melodyne-ized track to produce a flattened audio track, and then punch in with the new phrase, and then apply a region effect with Melodyne on that new phrase only.
 
The problem is, rendering the Melodyne region will lock everything in (flatten) it before I’m ready to have it locked in. Additionally, my workaround makes for a very inefficient and brittle workflow.
 
Would very much appreciate hearing ideas about how others have approached this issue.
 
Thanks so much! This forum is a life-saver.
Billy

ChuckC
 
I wish we could go in and tell melodyne "hey there are two notes here! I need to split this blob riiiight.... here"  and split a single note into two.   Just my own frustration with a few little things.  Sorry!   I hope that may help.

Actually you can split the blobs. Just hover over the upper half of the blob - you'll see the split tool appear then double click - can be quite helpful.

Billy86
 
The problem is, rendering the Melodyne region will lock everything in (flatten) it before I’m ready to have it locked in. Additionally, my workaround makes for a very inefficient and brittle workflow.

Hey good day,
 
My first thought for a short answer was to just say "no".
 
I would have to wonder why your reluctance to render modifications already made? What your saying as your "work around" and as ChuckC says is really how you should be using Melodyne. Just clone the track or better save a new project version to play around with?
 
Melodyne isn't meant as an "active" effect, to be left on, its to go in make modifications, and render, and move on. If you've cloned the original and modified tracks to work with, there's nothing to worry about rendering Melodyne region, you can always go back to the original and/or modified versions, and re-apply Melodyne to re-modify again, and actually better/safer way to retain what you've already modified? Typically the largest region I would do is a full verse or chorus at a time, but may occasionally rough "tune" a whole track, as a starting point, (or to modify an entire tempo), then go back to smaller sections to fine tune or modify.
 
I wouldn't even waste your time trying to "punch" into an existing track/clip section, just record to a new track normally, at an appropriate musical section, then as ChuckC says, use normal cut and past functions to insert new recorded phrase/word into your working (cloned) track, (without Melodyne region applied) as close as possible to blend in, bounce it to clip, then re-apply Melodyne region to that clip/phrase section, so you can more finely modify and blend one word or phrase in with adjacent notes/words.
 
Hope this helps a bit.
 
Cheers
   
 
 

Thanks everyone for the replies. Based on the comments, I'll rethink my whole approach to working with Melodyne. the suggestions make great sense. Gave me "doh!" moments! As my GPS says: recalculating...

Thanks again!