My guess is the OP had an issue with the upgrade because he registered Melodyne 4 Essential and then upgraded his old copy of Melodyne 3 Studio to Melodyne 4 Studio. This is a different scenario than having one registration with Celemony and upgrading that version.

bitflipper
Yeh, I figured out that it's the exact same set of files (executable, plugin and help) for all editions. I use the same scheme in my own software. What threw me was I expected it to re-read the license when I started it up. Rebooting didn't do the trick for me, though. I had to de-authorize Essential. Only then could it be convinced to run as Studio.
 
All's well that ends well. I've got my familiar Studio back and I can run it from within SONAR. It's fun to drag the mouse around multiple clips and have them all pop up in Melodyne with a single keypress, then render them all at once after editing. No more file transfers, communication VSTs or lost synchronization.
Yup, it was worth the 99 bucks.

Pretty cool, aye?    The upgrade to Studio v4 was one of my best upgrades in a long, long time.   Not just for detailed correction work, which is what I mostly use it for, but for sound design too.   And it is great to have multiple clips/tracks aligned in a single instance - makes timing corrections a breeze. 

henkejs
Taming vibrato was one of my favorite features of V-Vocal. For pitch correction Melodyne sounds more transparent, to my ears at least. Has anyone tried using V-Vocal on vibrato either before or after pitch editing a clip with Melodyne? I'm wondering whether it would be worth the trouble of digging out my old SONAR discs just to install V-Vocal. Of course, I could just buy a Melodyne upgrade. . . .

V-Vocal would be a suitable stopgap for this purpose if you don't want to spend the $200 on a Melodyne upgrade. You could do the pitch correction with Essential and then do vibrato editing with V-Vocal, in that order. However, I'd suggest splitting the clip to isolate the smallest piece possible for editing with V-V, because V-Vocal can produce artifacts even if you don't make any edits.

I desperately need ad Vocal editor but the Melodyne Essentials is not going to be enough.   How much better is the Melodyne Assistant?
 
I was told that I just can't select the V-Vocal from a previous installation DVD and have it install by itself, but there is more.  I am not certain of what more is?   Any insight?
 
What would be the better Choice? Taking my Chances with V-Vocal installation from an old DVD or Upgrading to Melodyne Assistant and possibly getting more features to totally edit vocals?
 
I need Help.

Jesse G
I desperately need ad Vocal editor but the Melodyne Essentials is not going to be enough.   How much better is the Melodyne Assistant?
 
I was told that I just can't select the V-Vocal from a previous installation DVD and have it install by itself, that there is more, however, I am not certain of what more is?   Any insight?
 
What would be the better Choice? taking my Chances with V-Vocal installation from an old DVD or Upgrading to Melodyne Assistance and possibly getting more features to totally edit vocals?
 
I need Help.

IIRC, you have to install the basis of SONAR (X2?), choose advanced install, and choose V-Vocal.
Others may know better.
All the best.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3611717
 

Jesse G
I desperately need ad Vocal editor but the Melodyne Essentials is not going to be enough.   How much better is the Melodyne Assistant?
 
What would be the better Choice? taking my Chances with V-Vocal installation from an old DVD or Upgrading to Melodyne Assistance and possibly getting more features to totally edit vocals?

The better choice is definitely a Melodyne upgrade. I wouldn't bother with V-Vocal except as a stopgap measure while filling my piggybank for the Melodyne purchase.
 
I don't have any experience with the Assistant edition, but there is a features matrix here. From what I see in that chart, it appears the only big omissions from Assistant are the ability to edit multiple tracks in one window, and polyphonic editing. The latter isn't something you'll probably care about if vocal editing is your main objective. However, being able to overlay multiple vocal tracks is a huge help when doing double-tracked parts and harmonies.
 

I went with assistant after audio to midi was removed from essential. As you point out that small upgrade gives you a lot of features for your money. I felt it was the most bang for the bucks.

ampfixer
I went with assistant after audio to midi was removed from essential. As you point out that small upgrade gives you a lot of features for your money. I felt it was the most bang for the bucks.

Hi. When did they remove that option?
I hadn't noticed

A tad off the question, but I will add that I use the "vibrato" tool (the one that looks like a triangle wave) a lot in conjunction with the pitch drift tool (that looks like a shallow sine wave).
 
If a note varies way off pitch, I use the drift tool to center it on the note as much as possible, and then use the vibrato tool to reduce the magnitude of the variance.  Old stuff to you Melodyne pros, but a good trick for newbies.
 
Arguing aside, people's ears now expect dead-on pitch.  On the other side, doubled and tripled parts can be fattened by using Melodyne in the other direction, or by correcting different amounts (or by moving a part as a whole up or down a few cents after it is corrected).