Melodyne & The Future of Music

[Tricky]

This started out as a slightly technical discussion on Facebook, but I ended up getting a pretty interesting peak into the future of music. I think it's okay to post it on SYM.

It all started out with this video, which you will either get with or without my explanation. The video also gives a slight introduction into Melodyne, so I won't dabble too much into that.

[technical babble starts]
Now, sequencing isn't new. It's been around for a long time and before that there was a lot of things that could be done in the editing and recording room. The recently deceased Paul 'Les Paul' invented multitrack recording, which gave editors some measure control over the music since the 60's. Today, with either digital instruments or prerecorded samples and a good deal of synthesizing, you can do a lot too.

So how is this new program different? It's never been possible to access every single note on a 'normally' recorded piece of music. This program identifies notes, keys, the individual pitch, loudness and velocity of notes all at the same time, out of what up until now has always been a raw, unworkable stream of wavelengths. It's never been possible to do something so absolute in post-production.

Of course, all of this is of no use to anyone who wants to play live.
[technical babble ends]

At present, this program is already causing a revolution in the music industry. So what does this mean for the future? In the demonstration video, you can see that the program actually processes Jeff's music faster than he can play. Theoretically it should be possible to correct notes just after he pays them as well. Of course, only a Jedi could do that.

Seriously, take another look at the beginning of that video. As Jeff points out, the program already has code that detects the key (the tuning all tones are subject to in any music piece) the piece is played in. Given enough time someone will also develop code that detects the type of music and the style it is being played in. And when you take that line of thought far enough, someone will eventually write a program that will simply correct you as you play your instrument.

All in all I think we're looking at the Guitar Hero of 2015 or so.

[galraen]

I'm pretty much an ignoramus about this sort of thing but one of my best friends uses Cubase and won't use anything else. So my question is what will this program do that you can't do with Cubase?

[Tricky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by galraen I'm pretty much an ignoramus about this sort of thing but one of my best friends uses Cubase and won't use anything else. So my question is what will this program do that you can't do with Cubase?

It's really simple. It's not a matter of what you can do with it, but what you are doing it with. First and foremost Cubase is a music creation tool and a very advanced sequencer for digital compositions, Melodyne is a post-processor or editor (I think proper words still don't exist) for any type of music. For example, you could take an old, dusty Coltrane LP, pick apart every single note for every single instrument and rearrange them into a completely different song.

Cubase, Ableton Live, Cakewalk Sonar and any other existing sequencer require you to have a digital device to record digital music, a 'midi device' such as a synthesizer, a midi saxophone, a digital paino or any other kind of instrument with a computer output. That's not only a limitation to what you can do with it, there are also simply no ways to properly emulate certain instruments like violins or brass. That music developers for computer games sometimes still try is something that really hurts my ears.

Melodyne will be a 300 dollar plugin for a sequencer similar to Cubase, on the Mac. It can also be used as a standalone program, in conjunction with other sequencers, but so far only for the Mac. Macintosh always has had the best audio tools to begin with, due to early cooperation with Roland's midi standards. I fully anticipate similar plugins will appear for other platforms and programs in due time. It's simply too invaluable.

----- [minor addition:] -----

I spoke to a friend of mine who studies photography, so I came up with a nice analogy. It's the same kind of paradigm shift as when digital photography and picture manipulation software was invented and changed what it meant to be a photographer.

Photographers for a long time had not so much to work with. Sort of like musicians they were only able to change their environment, correct lightning, alter the view, make many pictures to get just the right one.. whatever it took.

With the advent of digital cameras and photo manipulation software, the playingfield between those with and without skill at photography is in the process of being levelled. The tools to do advanced stuff get better and easier to use all the time too.

In the coming years, Melodyne will likewise change what it means to be a musician. The new Guitar Hero was meant as kind of a joke, but it's also not that farfetched.