> Melodyne Plugin > Editor > Studio
 

I often use the Melodyne plugin, and have had excellent results for years. I use it a lot when working with singers for creating and teaching lead vocal and BG parts/ideas. This is often in early in the process, when the song arrangements are still being tweaked. . . and it really sucks that when you make a song structure change in ProTools, all the Melodyne parts become out of sync. I know of no easy work around, and hate printing parts when things are all still in the state of flux. (Q1): Any other tricks to this?

I am thinking of upgrading from the Plugin, to the Editor ($129), to start experimenting with the new features, but I do not want to upset my existing projects. With the upgrade from the Plugin to Melodyne editor, (Q2): does the existing plugin still remain intact as is, or is it replaced with the editor?

My normal workflow in ProTools HD is:
1. Assemble a vocal comp track (A).
2. Move any pieces that need tuning/tweaking to another track (B) with Melodyne inserted. Change the destination for the melodyne audio to a Melo folder in the song session folder (I wish that was the default audio destination).
3. Route tracks A and B to a destination track (C). Set C to input monitor mode, and place any required plugins (comp/Eq) on that track.
4. Tweak the B track with Melodyne as desired, and print A + B to the C track once all the tweaking is completed.

This process avoids "good" vocals going thru melodyne for no reason, and also provides a "birds eye view" of which vocal pieces have been tweaked. Although this is fine for just a lead vocal, it gets real messy when there are a bunch of tuned Voc BGs as well. . . Self documentation is important to me, so I still follow this practice, and just deactivate and hide the source tracks once they are printed to the destination track (C). I am hoping there is a better workflow with the Melodyne Studio version. (Q3-A): Is there a big advantage in the work flow when using Melodyne Studio bridged to ProTools 8? (Q3-B): If so, in what way does it help when editing a bunch of vocal tracks? Please elaborate.

If there is a significant advantage to Melodyne Studio (which looks to be a $349 upgrade form the plugin), my question is: (Q4): Does an upgrade to Melodyne Studio 3 then include Studio, Editor and the existing plugin?

I have scoured the Celmony site and this info looks scarce. . . no video for the Studio version, and I would rather not read all the manuals, so I am hoping someone has direct experience with ProTools HD and their products and can give a concise answers. . .

Thanks!