REALLY COOL (well, at least I think so) Melodyne Essential technique!!

Maybe everyone already knows this and I'm late to the party, but I stumbled on this technique by accident and it's pretty mind-blowing.
 
I was recording an audio example for gibson.com of how to use the QuadCurve EQ to shape the piezo sound of a J-35 acoustic guitar. The audio example involved strumming chords (no arpeggiation, single notes, etc.) - the kind of rhythm guitar part you'd play behind a singer/songwriter.
 
By creating a Region FX and invoking the Percussion algorithm, I can transpose an individual chord as one "unit." It's not the same as polyphonic mode in that the notes aren't broken out separately, but I was able to transpose individual chords and entire tracks up and down 4 semitones with acceptable audio quality. After that you start to get the Darth Vader/Mickey Mouse effect, but in many cases it's still useable.
 
So yes, you read it right - polyphonic acoustic guitar rhythm track transposition with Melodyne Essential!
 
 

Which iZotope are you using for this? It sounds interesting, but I'd still rather play my guitar parts(bass, mandolin, etc). I suppose there are all kinds of other uses for it. The fact that Melodyne can do it, is good to know.
 
Michael

AND...you can turn off snap to grid and transpose using intervals smaller than a semitone! An X-Series first!
 

pentimentosound
Which iZotope are you using for this? It sounds interesting, but I'd still rather play my guitar parts(bass, mandolin, etc). I suppose there are all kinds of other uses for it. The fact that Melodyne can do it, is good to know.
 
Michael

I'm using the iZotope pitch transposition algorithm in Sonar. But maybe I wasn't clear - I'm applying this to a rhythm guitar part I already played. The cool thing is that I was able to transpose the entire part up or down with decent sound quality. The fact that Melodyne breaks the part into individual "blobs" so you can transpose some chords or sections but not others individually is just icing on the cake.
 
And the option to transpose by only a few cents is really helpful, too.

Yes, like chopping the track up and using clip FX bin (or automation) except relying on Melodyne blobs instead of chopping up the track.

scook
Yes, like chopping the track up and using clip FX bin (or automation) except relying on Melodyne blobs instead of chopping up the track.

Exactly, and it's a lot less effort to drag blobs than apply transposition individually to a bunch of cut-up clips.
 
The next thing I'm going to try is really twisted but I think it will work. 
 
So can I put on my resume that I found a Sonar technique scook didn't know about? That would definitely enhance my reputation 

I'd like to know more about the technique to deal with piezo quack Craig if that's possible / link.
 

Thanks, I'll be on the lookout for it.

The next thing I'm going to try is really twisted but I think it will work.

 
Well, it sorta worked...what I wanted to do was play all the same note on guitar but with the desired phrasing, thenmove the blobs around to create a melody. However, any interesting melody required moving some blobs to an interval that was out of the "comfort sound" for sound quality. Another issue was all the little resonances and sympathetic vibrations in the guitar, which I'd never really noticed that much before, became transposed and therefore obvious.
 
However I did experiment some more with transposing chords and doing general transpositions of under a semitone, and it really does work amazingly well with a polyphonic sound sound. I also found out that parts didn't always require a hard attack - some chords that had more of a strummed beginning worked equally well. Slight pitch transpositions also worked well for adding interest to background vocals.
 
Fun stuff with Melodyne...I gotta upgrade to the Editor version!! The more I use Melodyne, the more I like it.

pentimentosound
I am surprised you don't have it. I figured you would, "knowing the boss and all"! LOL
I can't wait to hear/find out what you discover with that!
Michael

I don't upgrade third party versions immediately so that articles and tips use the same setup that most users have. For example the recent blog posts I did for vocal month on ADT and generating harmonies only needed Essential. However...with all the cool Melodyne tips floating around that are based around Editor, upgrading from Essential just jumped to the top of my personal stack. Gonna do it tonight...