I was having disappointing results with Melodyne Editor on a particular bass track yesterday. It did a great job on centering pitch but the rendered results sounded dead and flat. It did and awful job of working with pitch drift. After adjusting for pitch drift there were dozens of misinterpretations that not only sounded bad but couldn't be effectively hand edited with the specialty tools.
The renders also exhibited some timing idiosyncrasies that ruined the groove of the playing. Natch.
For the past couple of years I have seen the internet bullies claim that Melodyne Editor is great but you really have to spend the time to learn how to use. :-)
What ever.
Yesterday, I ended up dragging an old DAW out of the closet and booting it up. I used a Acronis disc image to restore that DAW to a point where it had the original Melodyne Plugin installed and licensed.
I put my Bass Track wave file on a usb stick and transferred it to the cobweb DAW and ran the track through Melodyne Plugin. The results brought back fond memories. I was able to center the pitch, AND correct pitch drift just as one should expect it to work.
I did find a bunch of timing discrepancies with the render I made with Melodyne Plugin, but the overall sound was pleasing, it was locked to tune, and it still sounded lively and natural.
I don't know if Autotune is any better. What I do know is that a bunch of my colleagues use it with their work, have never tried Melodyne, and look at me funny when I ask them if they have ever tried it.
I'm ready for some greener grass. :-)
Thanks for the info about the pricing!