I've been messing around with the included Melodyne Essential and am very impressed! Got the offer to upgrade to Editor for $149 and am very tempted. Is moving up to Editor worth it as compared to Essential?
If you upgrade to Editor, is Essential still available for use, too, or does the upgrade overwrite it?

i wrote this in a different thread but it might be helpful:
 
sorta off topic but I'd like to recommend to anyone who doesn't know about it yet:  this integration of Melodyne into X3 is stunningly cool. especially if you spring for the editor upgrade. record an audio file, say a bassline , then Without even needing to load Melodyne, drag the audio file to a MIDI track and presto audio to midi conversion!! yes the midi track might need some clean up, but how long have we been waiting for audio to midi that works this well and this simply?!

in fact if you take the extra time to load the audio file into melodyne before audio/midi conversion and clean up the timing and length and especially pitch correct the notes (polyphonically in Editor upgrade) you get a near perfect midi file WITH the feel that you played the original. it doesn't just convert to notes it also translates the velocity of the notes

so even if i play kinda bad ( which is the case when playing fast) i can get a perfectly timed audio file without time stretching artifacts etc

anyway...not trying to do a commercial here. just thought i would mention it

i absolutely thought so. mostly cuz editor is polyphonic. so you can edit notes within a chord and audio/midi conversion is then polyphonic

that's wierd somehow my second post came before my first. anyway just combine them for the full effect

studiodude1
If you upgrade to Editor, is Essential still available for use, too, or does the upgrade overwrite it?

I believe that you already have editor installed, it's just not unlocked. Meaning, when you install Melodyne you are installing the full editor version. Your license file dictates what features you have access to. At least that's how I think it works.

That's it exactly.
You only end up with one program, ie one licence when you upgrade, that's what upgrading is.

I upgraded to editor. I was on the fence for a while given that VVocal (that I know well and like) and melodyne essential pretty much covered everything I needed. You're pretty much at melodyne assistant with those two. In the end I decided that I wanted the polyphony (esp. with midi conversion) bad enough and that it was better to learn melodyne well instead of using two quite complex tools with the same basic functionality in this realm. The price for editor is good though, and it would have been a no brainer if I didn't like VVocal.
 

Melodyne Editor is extremely powerful.  If you can afford to upgrade, do it.  It is too valuable a tool once you know how to use it.
 
Rimshot
 

It's definitely worth it IMO. It's an astounding program.

With the ARA integration it makes Sonar/Melodyne a hugely powerful tool.

Great price, too.

The upgrade to Editor sounds cool.  As beltrom posted, I have been using Vvocal for many tracks, but I think I should do the upgrade to Editor.