Melodyne for guitar chord pitch correction.. impressive!

equalsql

Late yesterday I downloaded the 30 day trial of Melodyne Studio to have a play with.

I'd read about it's polyphonic ability in that it can split chords into their component notes and correct any that are off tune.  Given the natural out of 'tuneness' of the guitar, especially with the B string up the scale I thought I'd test it to see to if it would be subtle enough to correct some guitar  and bass tracking I'd done, without sounding unnatural.

I was pretty wowed by the results, the corrections were subtle and had no effect on the feel or tone of the tracks but the end result was that in the mix everything gelled much better.  I used to think that auto-tuning was heresy, but in the context of this type of pitch correction I am having a radical rethink.

Here's a very quick dump of the track I made to Soundcloud, which is work in early progress. But it shows how even distorted extended chords ring clear.



Do any of you folks use Melodyne for this type of instrument editing in your recordings? 

guitarfishbay

Yes but there are some caveats.

First is administrative - it doesn't always assign notes correctly.  Sometimes you can spend as much time assigning the notes to their correct values as it would take to just re-tune to the part and re-record it.  This usually happens on the polyphonic stuff, I find it's generally very good at mostly monophonic material.  After the fact though, I'm not aware of anything that works as well as Melodyne.  In fact I don't know anything else that works on polyphonic material.  When it comes to tuning single notes, like bass, I find Melodyne usually finds the notes better than Autotune does.

Second is tone.  I do think it changes the tone.  It's most noticeable in the high end.  So there's a decision to be made there.  I've completely stopped using it on voice for this reason, autotune is a lot more transparent if you're using graphical mode.

Personally I've found if more accurate intonation is needed on guitar that evertune does a great job.  It won't correct for the issues caused by frets being straight (look at a true temperament board to see where they 'should' be) but it will correct for pitch envelope by dynamic and any fretting issues higher up the neck.

As with everything, it's all about what you want the end result to be.  I do think in general a more in tune recording sounds nicer, but something that's 100% in tune won't have the same character as something that has a little bit of variation, so there's arguably a range or sweet spot per style/song.  There is something pleasing about slightly imperfect pitches in unison - think choirs, vocal harmonies, even synths with their detune on unison modes.

These days if I'm going to use it I'll most likely throw it on bass.  Can be a quick way of just pulling certain notes in to pitch a bit more nicely, as sometimes keeping a complete performance and editing it can be nicer than doing something with a load of punch is.  I tend to leave acoustic guitars alone, I find it changes the tone a bit too much for my tastes, but as with anything it depends.

equalsql

Thanks for that info @guitarfishbay, it's really useful to get an insight like that on such a piece of software. I was wondering about situations where you need those slight imperfections in pitch to achieve the chorus type richness you get with double strung instruments like the 12 string guitar.

I'm recording some 12 string today so it will be interesting to see what the effect is. 

Fretwired

I guess I was brought up on recordings with lots of out of tune guitar. Things that are too perfect can sound anodyne. A little dissonance adds tension and interest.

guitarfishbay

Fretwired said:

I guess I was brought up on recordings with lots of out of tune guitar. Things that are too perfect can sound anodyne. A little dissonance adds tension and interest.

It's definitely a thing.  Music, at least commercial music, has consistently got more and more polished, tighter, and more in tune over time.  It's very rare to hear anything that sounds out of tune to the casual listener these days, or out of time for that matter.  But yes the parameters of what is 'in tune' arguably was wider the further back you go, and that is definitely a part of the character of many recordings.

Fretwired

guitarfishbay said:

Fretwired said:

I guess I was brought up on recordings with lots of out of tune guitar. Things that are too perfect can sound anodyne. A little dissonance adds tension and interest.

It's definitely a thing.  Music, at least commercial music, has consistently got more and more polished, tighter, and more in tune over time.  It's very rare to hear anything that sounds out of tune to the casual listener these days, or out of time for that matter.  But yes the parameters of what is 'in tune' arguably was wider the further back you go, and that is definitely a part of the character of many recordings.

As the old joke went - 'Was Jimmy Page ever in tune?' .... some great riffs with bum notes.