[SOLVED] Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies?

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Houndawg
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2015/03/19 09:16:33 (permalink)

[SOLVED] Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies?

Several videos online about how wonderful Melodyne is for creating vocal harmonies. It looks rather simple and intuitive, but I'm not having the same experience.
 
For example, select a note inside the Melodyne plug-in (after enabling it as a Region FX), and right-click copy. Place the now marker at the beginning of the note in Melodyne and paste the note. It may look as if nothing happened because the new note is placed directly on top of the original note. Using the Pitch Tool, you SHOULD be able to grab the new note and move it up to audition potential new harmony notes.
 
That all works just as expected. However, according to most of the tutorial videos I've seen, you should be able to hear the original note playing at the same time as the new potential notes while dragging the new note up or down. This is a fantastic feature if I can get it to work, but no matter what I try, I can never hear the original note -- the only note sounding is the new note. 
 
I have a friend with the same setup, Sonar X3e and Melodyne Editor. Anyone experience this? Searching both Cakewalk and Melodyne forums hasn't shed much light at all on the subject. 
post edited by Houndawg - 2015/03/19 15:27:54
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    bluzdog
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    Re: Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies? 2015/03/19 10:21:59 (permalink)
    Wussup Dawg (just had to say that). I have no answer for your Melodyne polyphony problem but an easy work-around would be to clone the vocal track, split the clip(s) as needed to isolate the areas where you want to create harmomies, select region fx as before but just drag (not copy) the notes as needed and mute the clips not being used.
     
    Rocky
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    cryophonik
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    Re: Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies? 2015/03/19 12:33:25 (permalink)
    That's exactly what I do.  Create a clone (new track) for the part you want to harmonize.  Open it in Melodyne (select clip and CTRL-M), and move the blobs up/down to create the harmony.  Personally, I prefer to use Melodyne's mute tool to mute individual notes, rather than muting clips, but I'm not sure if that's available in the bundled version (I have the full Editor version).  One last tip: the harmonies will be pretty robotic/chipmunk sounding in isolation because the formants get messed up, but the formant tool can help restore the harmonies and make them sound a little more realistic.

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    Lynn
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    Re: Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies? 2015/03/19 12:56:20 (permalink)
    Yes, clone the track or you'll have two vocal parts in the same track and will be unable to process each one individually.

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    Houndawg
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    Re: Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies? 2015/03/19 13:18:20 (permalink)
    Thanks for the reply bluzdog. I kinda have a workaround now involving two solo'd tracks, one to hear the original vocal note, and other track to play around with harmony notes. I am just completely dumbfounded why Melodyne Editor, which is supposed to be the best that Melodyne has to offer, doesn't seem to work as advertised.
     
    Check out this video starting at 3:45, the user is dragging a copied harmony note up and down, and you'll notice that while doing so you can hear BOTH the original note and the new proposed harmony notes. THIS is an awesome feature because you can instantly use your ears to choose a note that is a pleasant harmony or interval that you're targeting.
     
    But, no matter what I do in Sonar, or even in Melodyne Standalone, the original note never sounds -- all I can hear is the new note being moved. Very frustrating, and I also find it hard to believe that there seems to be no one else discussing this on the Sonar or Melodyne forum.
     
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LjrYMi5NjE
     
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    Houndawg
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    Re: Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies? 2015/03/19 13:20:44 (permalink)
    Cryophonic, I also have the full Editor version. Are you able to hear both notes as shown in the YouTube clip in my previous post?
     
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    Houndawg
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    Re: Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies? 2015/03/19 13:22:56 (permalink)
    Lynn, thanks for the reply, and I agree. Ultimately I'll want the harmonies on separate tracks. However, the process of initially creating the harmonies from a single lead vocal line would be so much easier/faster if it would perform as shown in the YouTube video.
     
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    sven450
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    Re: Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies? 2015/03/19 13:47:22 (permalink)
    I didn't watch vid., but cloning a track takes about 5 seconds.  Do that, and then use melodyne on clone.  very, very easy.

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    cryophonik
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    Re: Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies? 2015/03/19 14:04:19 (permalink)
    Houndawg
    Cryophonic, I also have the full Editor version. Are you able to hear both notes as shown in the YouTube clip in my previous post?



    I'm at work and haven't seen the vid, but I'll check when I get home this evening.  I've never been able to hear the original when editing it in Melodyne, though, and I can't think of a reason why I'd want to.  If you're creating a harmony, you'd want that as a separate track from the lead vocal anyway and you'll usually process and mix it differently, so it doesn't make sense (to me, at least) to try to create a harmony on the original track, rather than cloning it.  As sven mentioned above, it's simple and quick.

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    MorganT
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    Re: Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies? 2015/03/19 14:57:15 (permalink)
    Houndawg, in Melodyne editor you can set it for polyphonic OR monophonic analysis.  The default is monophonic - check to make sure you're in polyphonic mode if you want multiple notes in the same Melodyne clip.

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    Houndawg
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    Re: Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies? 2015/03/19 15:25:00 (permalink)
    Morgan T... OMFG... I can not believe I was that much of a bonehead to miss something so obvious! Makes PERFECT sense. Yes! Polyphonic mode!
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    MorganT
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    Re: Melodyne for creating vocal harmonies? 2015/03/21 13:27:35 (permalink)
    Easy to overlook! Glad it helped.
     
    Polyphonic mode has some other cool uses, like cleaning up stray notes.  I had a guitar bridge lead using a tremolo, in places the tremolo movement/harmonics of the unplayed strings was too audible.  So I used polyphonic assessment, deleted the offending notes, and Viola! - clean lead!

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