Melodyne 2 and Saw 5.3

[Grekim]

So far so good! Only about an hour of intense use, but no crashes. I have not experimented with live mode, but in normal mode you need to keep SAW playing while Melodyne is processing after a transfer. If you don't, nothing crashes, but Melodyne doesn't finish processing. So, placing a region downstream or maybe live mode is the solution there. Anyway, it's exciting for me since I have not tried the two together in a year or two.

[Dave Labrecque]

So far so good! Only about an hour of intense use, but no crashes. I have not experimented with live mode, but in normal mode you need to keep SAW playing while Melodyne is processing after a transfer. If you don't, nothing crashes, but Melodyne doesn't finish processing. So, placing a region downstream or maybe live mode is the solution there. Anyway, it's exciting for me since I have not tried the two together in a year or two.

IIRC, Melodyne 2 works fine (and as you describe) in SAW 5.2. The only thing is that you can't hear the notes when you move them around (re-pitch them by dragging vertically) in the Melodyne window. But I don't know if you can do that with the plug-in in any DAW host, so...

(You can do that in the stand-alone version.)

[Bob L]

I believe if you are in Live mode you can hear the notes as you drag.

Bob L

[Grekim]

I did run into some issues today. I think it had to do with either not saving properly or resetting the directory that Melodyne writes its temp files to. I had set the directory to the project folder, but somehow it went back to a user Melodyne folder on the C drive. This caused crashes and some mahem. Thinking something like this might happen I used "build mix to hot track/layer" (this is a cool function I never really used before) for each track yesterday. Hopefully, I'll make more notes on do's and don'ts.

[Grekim]

Here are some observations:

1. Live mode initiates playback/scrolling within Melodyne and the only way to stop it is to de-activate live mode.

2. Stopping SAW playback before Melodyne finishes processing permanently* removes the ability to transfer more data to Melodyne on that track...even with a new instance of Melodyne on that track, even after a re-launch of SAW. The same SAW region from the defunct track can be moved to another track with a new instance of Melodyne started and it works again.

*From the L/R click menu of the affected channel, "clear current channel" plus a SAW re-launch does allow the channel to be used again with Melodyne.

[Dave Labrecque]

Here are some observations:

1. Live mode initiates playback/scrolling within Melodyne and the only way to stop it is to de-activate live mode.

I find that you can work-around this behavior if you assign the live input(s) to any track other than the one(s) with Melodyne patched on it (them).

I also tried moving notes around in Melodyne in live mode and no corresponding audio is heard -- unless the note you're moving happens to be playing back via normal methods at the time. In that case you can move it around while the cursor is sweeping over it and hear the pitch changing live. In fact, you don't even need to be in live mode for this. Just playing back the MT will do. It's a tough way to work, though, especially on notes with real short duration.

[Grekim]

I find that you can work-around this behavior if you assign the live input(s) to any track other than the one(s) with Melodyne patched on it (them).

I also tried moving notes around in Melodyne in live mode and no corresponding audio is heard -- unless the note you're moving happens to be playing back via normal methods at the time. In that case you can move it around while the cursor is sweeping over it and hear the pitch changing live. In fact, you don't even need to be in live mode for this. Just playing back the MT will do. It's a tough way to work, though, especially on notes with real short duration.

Yes, I had Melodyne on channel 1, and a live input on channel 2 and had the automatic playback in the Melodyne window for channel 1. Being able to click on the notes and get playback is certainly nice, but not essential for me.
I just want to...
1. make sure I have a solid method that does not crash SAW or freeze Melodyne: Looks like allowing processing to finish before transport stops is the key.

2. if I do forget the protocol, I need a quick way to recover. I know I will goof it up or miscalculate my estimate on how long Melodyne needs to process. Clearing the channel and a relaunch of SAW seems to work.

I did finish tuning the project and it sounds great. Again, the buildmix to hot track / layer is the ticket. SAW's gain staging with a fader at 0 dB makes it easy to buildmix to mono because your mix comes out at the same level as the source data. So I have the original track on layer 1 and the tuned track on layer 2.

[Dave Labrecque]

Yes, I had Melodyne on channel 1, and a live input on channel 2 and had the automatic playback in the Melodyne window for channel 1. Being able to click on the notes and get playback is certainly nice, but not essential for me.
I just want to...
1. make sure I have a solid method that does not crash SAW or freeze Melodyne: Looks like allowing processing to finish before transport stops is the key.

2. if I do forget the protocol, I need a quick way to recover. I know I will goof it up or miscalculate my estimate on how long Melodyne needs to process. Clearing the channel and a relaunch of SAW seems to work.

I did finish tuning the project and it sounds great. Again, the buildmix to hot track / layer is the ticket. SAW's gain staging with a fader at 0 dB makes it easy to buildmix to mono because your mix comes out at the same level as the source data. So I have the original track on layer 1 and the tuned track on layer 2.

Why do you have to guestimate the processing time before stopping playback? Doesn't Melodyne show you a progress indicator from which you can know when to stop?

If you need to clear a channel and relaunch, you may find it helpful to save the channel's settings to a file, so that setting that channel back up will be minimally painful.

[Grekim]

Why do you have to guestimate the processing time before stopping playback? Doesn't Melodyne show you a progress indicator from which you can know when to stop?

If you need to clear a channel and relaunch, you may find it helpful to save the channel's settings to a file, so that setting that channel back up will be minimally painful.

The channel setting you save should not include melodyne because then you're still stuck with the instance that is not working. Should work for me because I would tune before doing any mixing or DSP. There will always be the sticky case of having to tune something when the mix is almost done.
As for time to process, yeah you get a feel for it. I was trying to do it without having to add blank regions, but I think I will to be safe. It all depends how much "air" is at the end of your vocal track. With a few seconds to spare, I can only load in maybe 5 secs of audio so that melodyne can finish processing it in a couple of seconds.

[Dave Labrecque]

The channel setting you save should not include melodyne because then you're still stuck with the instance that is not working.

I meant that you could save a channel to file before you start tinkering with Melodyne, so that when you reload the channel, all should be good. But maybe you're talking about reloading the channel with some of the audio already in Melodyne? Even then, I'd think it would be okay, since the crash hadn't happened yet at the point of the spin-off. There would be no corruption, yet, right? And since you're restarting SAW, it should be okay.

As for time to process, yeah you get a feel for it. I was trying to do it without having to add blank regions, but I think I will to be safe. It all depends how much "air" is at the end of your vocal track. With a few seconds to spare, I can only load in maybe 5 secs of audio so that melodyne can finish processing it in a couple of seconds.

I would just put a blank region a minute or so past the end of all audio, so you never have to think about it again.