Good thing there are reviewers like Jim Aikin that make life on people like me easier . to save me a lot of time explaining what melodyne does . I gladly take the opportunity to post this link . go there if you want to know what it does ... or rather to know what it is supposed to do :

http://www.eqmag.co…"]http://www.eqmag.co… 20,32303,00.html[/]="http://www.eqmag.co…"]http://www.eqmag.co… 20,32303,00.html[/]

So, I've been bragging about this little soft I discovered at the Frankfurter Messe. In fact I bought it (900 Euro here in Europe). I used it for a couple of hours and I spend the 2 following days getting my money back.

One question to people like Jim, and some other reviewers I saw writing "wonderfull" articles on melodyne. Do you guys actually listen when testing it ? And if so . are you guys deaf ?

I apologize coming out so blunt but as big as my first enthousiasm about the melodyne soft was, the bigger my disapointment after using in in some "real life situations".

Melodyne does everything it is says it does... I'll give it credit for that . and it does it very well indeed ... up to the point that you "save" your work by exporting the file. Then it just screws it all up.

Here's how I did it. Imported a vocal into melodyne ... performed some edits and then exported it and listened to it . WHAT THE F*CK . a nice recorded female vocal. Neumann 149 / Avalon AD2022 pre / TUBE-TECH CL1B / Neve 9098 eq / into the 192 I/O / 44.1-24 bits into Pro Tools clocked to an Aardsync II . blablabla . very nice sounding vocal . . and after melodyne gives it touch to it it sounds like you recorded it at 22k/8bit with a Soundblaster card and a Radioshack 15$ mic.

I even tried simply importing the vocal . and exporting it again WITHOUT doing anything to it . same result.

The next morning I called the melodyne Hotline support. Very friendly guy on the phone and after explaing this to him he said ... yes we are very aware of this problem. But it is due to the complexity of a voice. You won't have the same problem with a violin or a piano. And then he suggested that I try the result in a mix . so maybe I wouldn't "hear it as much".

Jeezzzz . now that is a PRO way of handeling things ... screw it up but use it anyhow because people won't "hear" it anyhow. yea right.

Melodyne claimes to be a professional piece of software but it is anything but that.

Sure ... we are working on it and the 1.2 version will adress this problem but we don't have a release date yet and we don't know yet how much it will improve the sound. Right . so it will get a little better and in the meantime I should just try to "fix it in the mix" . I don't think so . Give me my money back.

So you end up sending an email . and another and another and another and strangely enough you don't get ANY reply although you know they are there because when you send them a "nice question you get an answer within minutes. I even tricked them into replying to a nice question with another email adress and got a reply within minutes ... yes MINUTES.

Duh . you melodyne guys stupid or what.

Oh and melodyne people ... I know you're gonna read this because I'm forewarding you this link . don't bother replying anymore ... I get my money back from the guy who imports it for Belgium ... at least he was nice enough to reply.

In all honesty I think melodyne has got a great future in store for them on one condition : get the sound right. In the mean time ... please don't claI'm to be selling PRO software at PRO prices. If it works it is worth every penny . for now ... I wouldn't even use it if they paid me to .

Ah, and meybe one last thing . try to respect PRO users by not ignoring them when they ask difficult questions . it is not a good marketing strategy ... especially not with the internet and all those potentional buyers reading it. :D ;)

All the best and better hurry up with that 1.2 version.

Chris Lambrechts
http://www.sos-recording.com