Direct Note Access - or something similar?

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Permalink Reply by Joseph T Lyons on March 20, 2010 at 8:16am

I have been wondering this exactly. Now that we know that polyphonic tuning is completely possible, is Antares going to try to incorporate it into their next update? Im going to be buying melodyne editor if they dont, but Id really wish they did so I can stick with one plug in.

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Permalink Reply by Art Flanagan on March 21, 2010 at 4:26pm

Antares releases professional vocal processing products. Polyphonic tuning isn't very applicable in this arena. Polyphonic tuning is used in the... uh... I really don't know where you would use it. I'm not against it but beyond the initial "that's nifty" factor, it gets tucked away. And, if you've ever tried it, it's pretty poor at what it supposed to do.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Jansen on March 21, 2010 at 5:14pm

True, Antares has been focusing on vocal processing more in recent years (discontinuing some of their older plug-ins and such), but there still are, for example, "Instrument" and "Bass Instrument" settings in Auto-Tune (functions that I often use).

I have actually tried the Polyphonic tuning in Melodyne Editor, both as a beta tester, and after purchasing the release version. And actually, it functions quite well, and has actually saved a couple of projects I was working on. Granted, you need to spend time with it to get good results. It is NOT a "set-it-and-forget-it" type of plug-in, or "pull up a preset and go". You really have to get the analysis right so as not to mistake notes for overtones (or vice versa) and such.

In one case, I had an acoustic guitar player who after tuning his instrument (open strings), put his Kyser capo up around the 7th fret, causing the whole instrument to go significantly sharp. And due to the fact that this performer lived a few states away, re-recording the part wasn't going to be an option in the time frame we had. Without Melodyne's polyphonic tuning capabilities, the track would have been unusable.

On a second project, I had an electric guitarist playing some arpeggios. It was a nice part, or, it would have been if he had fixed the intonation on his guitar (it was in dire need of a set up). Again, Melodyne saved the day. No other tool can currently do that, and without it, these two projects might have died (or just sounded so bad that I WISHED they would die... hehehe).

I'm not just trying to sing its praises, I'm just saying that it is not just a gimmick, it is a project saving tool in certain circumstances. FWIW, I still use Auto-Tune for monophonic sources, because I can work the graphical mode to get very natural sounding results.

Just my experiences, YMMV

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Permalink Reply by Art Flanagan on March 22, 2010 at 2:52pm

Well, my experience hasn't been quite the same. To my ear it filters the sound making it un-natural and with all the harmonics it pops up during analysis you've really got to sift through all the blobs to figure out what's remotely going on. I can't say that it's completely useless or else I wouldn't have it, but I haven't found a place for it as of yet-- maybe I've just been a little more lucky with my takes.

We'll see what the future holds for Antares but I don't see them adopting this type of practice, IMO.

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Permalink Reply by Joseph T Lyons on March 22, 2010 at 5:25pm

I feel that they're going to have to incorporate in order to not fall behind. I understand that Auto Tune was and is still the choice of pitch correction, but customers are going to start complaining...wanting this feature, regardless of how well it works. We know that things get better throughout time. The first auto tune was horrible compared to evo. We have to have this kind of mindset for polyphonic tuning. Whether or not you agree on how well melodyne's polyphonic tuner works, you have to be mature enough to know that it will most likely get better as time passes. I feel that Antares will have to incorporate it in order to satisfy their customers now that we know it's possible.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Chase on March 27, 2010 at 8:12pm

yes, i think it's important to keep up with polyphonic intonation. just had a string quartet that could have benefitted at a few points at mixdown stage, wrong notes played.

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