V-Vocal vs Melodyne (in SONAR)

[MatsonMusicBox]

Ok - got my Melodyne plug in installed and had a chance to A/B it against V-Vocal.

I sang a really "badly out of tune verse" as my starting point - it was really hard for me to do - and I had to try like 6-8 times to do it - but I finally got there.

Then - copied it so I had it on two tracks and "fixed" one in V-Vocal and one in Melodyne. Gotta tell ya - the quality difference (in favor of Melodyne) was outright STUNNING - not even close! Keep - in mind I am brand new at Melodyne and an "old pro" at V-Vocal, but I was able to quickly learn Melodyne enough to get a vastly superior fix.

V-Vocal does pretty well when your pitch is close - within a semi-tone or so - maybe a whole tone - but it really gets rough with more than that. Melodyne seemed to handle the 2-3 whole tones I was off on a couple notes with ease, and without even playing with the formant control! With V-Vocal - even when you can fix a way off note like that - you sound like a chipmunk and have to hope the formant will help. Some adjustments in V-Vocal just don't work well and you hear blips, burps, weird pitch things, clicks, etc. Didn't get ANY of that with Melodyne.

Melodyne also seemed more accurate in measuring and laying out the waveform - V-Vocal seems too sensitive maybe - picking up and displaying harmonics or something that throw notes all over the place at times. Much smoother in Melodyne.

Also - before even adjusting - I noticed V-Vocal sent parts of this particular wav clipping - this doesn't usually happen - but I've seen it from time to time - some sort of poor analysis and rendering I guess?

V-Vocal does have an edge in integrating with SONAR and in it's UI. For example - you don't have to "record" the part in v-vocal, just click on a clip and tell it to "V-vocal it". Also, V-Vocal makes it easy to select just PART of a note and adjust the vibrato or pitch or whatever of that section. I have not figured out how to do that in Melodyne w/o breaking the note apart. V-Vocal let's you actually size the window and zoom in and out easier IMO - Melodyne - I haven't figured out how to zoom except clicking on buttons. Also - you can size the window in Melodyne by typing the size in the preferences - but that's an awkward way to do it vs dragging the window size. (UPDATE - I did figure out how to zoom in/out and easily move around the window in Melodyne - just frag while holding ctrl-alt - easy and works pretty well)

Two BIG deficiencies Melodyne has in it's UI IMO are these.

1. There doesn't seem to be a way to position the time ruler within the plug in window - I have to go back and click on the time ruler in SONAR to position the Now Time. Also - no loop button in the plug-in window. V-Vocal has both these features and I used them a lot.
2. Ctrl-Z doesn't UNDO the last thing you did in Melodyne - it undoes the last thing you did in SONAR, which unfortunately, is probably opening a Melodyne window! So - I make some change in Melodyne and screw up, hit Ctrl Z to undo it - and .... oops ... my whole Melodyne session disappears! Thank gosh for "redo". Melodyne DOES have it's own button for "undo", but I am SO used to Ctrl Z for this function in everything, that I will make mistake after mistake on this one.

Having said this - there is much about the Melodyne UI that I do like more than V-Vocal. Working with the note "blobs" is very easy and cool.

Anyway - I had expected Melodyne to be "better" based on smart people's comments - but I am amazed at how much better it is! Now, on those rare occasions when I have to use a little pitch correction , I'll be much more confidant in a tool that's cleaner, clearer. more accurate, and doesn't produce crappy remnants.

I will push for a few of those UI enhancements, but overall, it's a no-brainer decision. I am a convert

[mamm7215]

V-Vocal really doesnt' even compare to Melodyne. I've fixed the odd SMALL pitch issue with it but Melodyne is the hands down goto for that. No questions. Great review, thanks.

[Equilibrium8]

How does Melodyne compare to Antares?

[MatsonMusicBox]

I dunno - never used antares ....

[richiebee]

Antares has the benefit of working in real time. Melodyne has the benefit of sounding more natural.

[Equilibrium8]

I'll give it a try sometime. If I use Antares with my own voice, it needs to work too hard and ends up sounding like a vocoder.

[Walter]

Guys Ive got both melodyne ,and v vocal in my sonar 8.Im just getting started on the melodyne ,Ive used the v vocal a fair bit.At times it does sound t-pain which is NOT what im looking for.Ive looked on the net for instructions and have been directed to all the How To's but all i seem to find is this damn T-Pain effect everyones hooked on.Im hoping Melodyne wont be like that.Cheers....

[TonyB]

I use AutoTune (Anteres) for its effect (i.e., T-Pain, which is popular with the heavy Christian rock bands right now).

I use Melodyne to smooth out the vocals because it is the least intrusive of the three.

I've played around with V-Vocal mostly for effect, but for the glitch effect (which once again is popular with the young heavy rock bands right now).