Power to your partials
The new Sound Editor (Studio only) uses Melodyne 4’s analysis algorithm to apply “Polyphonic Spectrum Shaping” (direct manipulation of harmonics or ‘partials’) to each track, with three modes – EQ, Harmonics and Synth – accessed via a bottom panel.
EQ is a chromatic graphic EQ with a complex curve that averages the frequency spectrum of the track and is edited directly or via four macro controls that modify the curve as a whole: Brilliance, Contour, Tonality and Comb. Brilliance applies global shaping to the high frequencies; Contour globally influences the peaks and troughs; Tonality affects only notes that are part of the detected scale; and Comb reduces the gain of notes based on how far away they are from the key root. At the bottom of the curve you can also edit the formants.
Harmonics represents the audio in terms of its constituent harmonics, using a bar graph display with individual harmonic editing. Changing the second harmonic, for example, influences the second harmonic of all notes. Here, the macro controls are Brilliance and Contour (similar to EQ), Odd/Even (adjusts the balance of odd and even harmonics), and Comb (thins out the harmonic spectrum).
Synth provides three envelope options – Spectrum, Formant and Amplitude – for control of filtering, formant and amplitude characteristics. There are also two resynthesis sliders: Magnitudes and Phases. These gradually shift to a point (at their far right positions) where the waveform is generated solely from fixedamplitude, in phase harmonics, sounding very artificial.
Finally, the Sound Editor has two further global controls, Emphasis and Dynamics, that influence note timbre and dynamics respectively.