djjhart@aol.com
For an additional $400 , Get a singer that can sing, and if you need it for instruments , get a musician that can play. 
 Its a great tool no doubting that .. But way over priced !!!  Music has been made for decades without having a tool as such. You can do without it. Its called redo!

What matters isn't the pitch, but the performance. If there's an inspired performance but a few notes are off, that's when pitch correction comes into its own. Sure, you can punch and create frankenparts, but to my ears, that often impacts the integrity/continuity of the performance. Or you can redo performances in the hope that the redo will be better. If it is, great. But if it's a choice between a redone performance that has perfect pitch but lacks emotional impact, or a great performance with a few fixes, I'll take the latter and correct the pitches.

Scoot
Thing is, I'm the musician that I want to correct. I play 3 different wind instruments, and contary to popular belieif, just tuning them does not make them pitch perfect. Every wind instrument has it's intonation problem areas.
 
Being able to turn that into midi is fantastic for layering and harmonising part

Upgrading to Melodyne Editor is a slam dunk value.

If you need to correct something, all of the this audio editing software is all about that. Melodyne is an amazing tool to have available as you need or want.

Yes, the audio-to-MIDI function is great. I often play bass into SONAR, then use Melodyne when I want that to turn into a synth bass part.

Thanks for all the inputs.
I do still have X2 but I have done a clean install of X3 on a brand new laptop, I guess I am asking for trouble installing X2 just for V-Vocal.
I used the pencil tool a lot but I am happy to learn new ways of working with Melodyne if that's the supported option.
I really appreciate all the feedback but see no reason for anyone to have to justify why they need to use Melodyne, or indeed why they choose to use any tool or process which works for them. I nearly always have to slow the tempo down to play any half interesting keyboard part because I'm simply a crap player!
I think I will stump up for the upgrade and see where it takes me.
Thanks again.

percepto
I do still have X2 but I have done a clean install of X3 on a brand new laptop, I guess I am asking for trouble installing X2 just for V-Vocal.

Actually, no.
 
Just do a custom install of X2 and *******ONLY********* install V-Vocal.
 
Simples.

Unfortunately V-Vocal is not a separately installable plug-in. In order to install V-Vocal, a minimum install of SONAR is required. In order to perform a minimum install of X2, select the advanced install option then select SONAR from the pick list and uncheck everything else unless you also want R-Mix and VC-64 which were dropped from X3.

I have X1, X2, and X3 installed on my computer and they get along fine. I think sometimes they go out for drinks at night when I'm not around.
 
If you want V-Vocal you don't need to install all of X2, just the base program. But mess with Melodyne for a while. You may find, as I did, that V-Vocal became irrelevant.
 
Be forewarned that Melodyne looks simple but it is deep. For example, the Split Notes tool is what allows you to really tame vibrato correctly - flatten it out, emphasize it, etc. The combination of note splitting and the modulation tool is what replaces the pencil.
 
You'll probably go through a "is this all there is?" phase, then dig deeper, watch the videos, and find out how much you can do with it.

Anderton
Yes, the audio-to-MIDI function is great. I often play bass into SONAR, then use Melodyne when I want that to turn into a synth bass part.

Just a shame and a real stinger for me, that you have to upgrade to the full Studio version to get pitch modulation in the Midi conversion. I expected (my fault but as you get a time limit to decide on buying x3, I just went with it) that mono processing would be greatly expanded and Polyphonic processing provided as basic in the mid level Editor. I can't get me head round why they omitted pitch bend data from the Editor level, something they add that extra life to midi.  

lawajava

Scoot
Thing is, I'm the musician that I want to correct. I play 3 different wind instruments, and contary to popular belieif, just tuning them does not make them pitch perfect. Every wind instrument has it's intonation problem areas.
 
Being able to turn that into midi is fantastic for layering and harmonising part

Upgrading to Melodyne Editor is a slam dunk value.

If you need to correct something, all of the this audio editing software is all about that. Melodyne is an amazing tool to have available as you need or want.

 
No need to quote me, I did the upgrade.

Something that blew my mind with the Editor version an polyphonic processing, is I took the intro of 'Moaning' by Charlie Mingus. The intro is played Pepper Adams on Baritone Sax and is a fiery start to that piece. Melodyne decided to treat it as Poly by accident, and what it gave me was the harmonic intervals of a monophonic instrument. Allowing my to change the harmonic characteristics of a of a harmonically rich mono sauce.
 
When I first arrived in Vietnam I met these 2 bamboo flute players. They had a real interest in the folk music of Vietnam. Often in Vietnam, you get a young girl accompanying and collecting money for a blind bamboo flute player, who is generally doodling. These 2 guys I met though, played some beautiful pieces, and I was surprised at how one of the more upbeat songs was so similar to an Irish Jig. With YouTube you can find Vietnamese guys playing songs that are traditional to their area of the country. Being able to put these Youtube videos into Sonar as MP3s, convert in Melodyne, adjust for the fact they are not tuned to 440, and then back to sonar as midi and to staff, will give me something I can learn.