Melodyne 5 & more

Plus, edit audio to fit your chord progressions with the new Chord Track mode

Sometimes, you just know that a piece of music software is going to be a gamechanger as soon as you see it, and that was certainly the case when we first clapped eyes on Celemony Software’s Melodyne at the NAMM Show in 2001. Since then, its abilities to play with pitch and time have steadily improved, and now we have version 5 of the software to consider.

“Better, faster, more musical” is the tagline here, with some key changes to Melodyne’s “core competence”. Specifically, the software can now detect unpitched sounds in vocal tracks – breaths and other noises, for example – and lets you process them separately in order to ensure you get a more natural sound from it.

The theory is that this feature, along with the improved weighting of pitch deviations, means that you can get a “musically perfect vocal performance” in no time at all. The volume balance between the pitched and unpitched sounds can be adjusted (on a syllable by syllable

level if required), so you’ve effectively got a detailed de-essing tool here as well.

The other major enhancement is the Chord Track, which, when used in conjunction with the Pitch Grid, can be used to make other recordings and samples follow the harmonic structure and chords of your songs. This could be a useful tool not only for songwriters, but also remixers, and no music theory knowledge is required to use it.

Elsewhere, version 5 adds new tools including the Fade Tool and Leveling Macro, which give access to adjust the dynamics of individual notes, even in polyphonic material. There’s a new Percussive Pitched algorithm too, for working with material that falls into the divide between drums and musical material. We’re told there have been improvements to the software’s existing algorithms too.

Melodyne 5 runs in standalone mode as well as with 64-bit DAWs on PC and Mac. DAW integration is via ARA, VST3, AU or AAX. The update costs $49/€49 for Melodyne

Assistant, $99/€99 for the Editor package and $149/€149 for the Studio version. For Melodyne Essential owners and users who registered Melodyne after 1 March 2020, it’s free of charge. For new users it’s €99 for Melodyne 5 Essential, €249 for Assistant, €399 for Editor and €699 for Studio. A 30-day free trial is available too.