Celemony Melodyne: Kipper's Top Tip!

Kipper has some reason to consider himself fortunate. He worked with some of the finest musicians of this planet including Mary J. Blige, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder and Jason Rebello. For some years he has also been the producer, keyboardist and backing vocalist for Sting. Kipper is also a Melodyne user, Celemony interviewed him:

Celemony: What have been some recently published productions of you and how have they been recorded?

Kipper: The last album I produced was Stings "Sacred Love" which was written and recorded using Logic and ProTools. I then went on a world tour as Stings MD playing keys and singing for a year and half!

Celemony: On what projects are you working at the moment? Any equipment changes?

Kipper: I still use Logic and of course Melodyne! I am working with a plethora of artists including Jeff Beck, an incredible world artist called Yasmin Levy, a new project with Sting, and my own album in association with Bang and Olufsen.

Celemony: Did you use Melodyne on these projects? In which songs, in which particular moment?

Kipper: I am still experimenting with Melodyne and have not used it on an album that is out there, maybe on some vocals but I am not about to tell you where as the point is not to know!(laughs)

Celemony: How did Melodyne change the way you work with audio files?

Kipper: It is an incredible tool to manipulate audio. On this project I am working on with Sting we have been experimenting with radical tempo changes and key changes and experiencing very little change in the audio file. And I have just written and produced a track for Curtis Stigers and we used Melodyne to tune a whole Sax solo down a semi tone. The solo was perfect, but then vocally we decided to change the key. It was amazing. You could not tell between the original and the tuned version in regards to quality.

Celemony: How is your workflow with Melodyne? How is it included in your setup? Any tricks and tips?

Kipper: I use it with Rewire and Logic. My only big tip is conform the audio to start on beat one, bar one so you are always in sync with your Logic session - unless you have a tip for me? (laughs)

Celemony: What do you like especially about Melodyne?

Kipper: The enormous creative potential to make new sounds and to manipulate audio to fit anything.

Melodyne studio and Melodyne cre8 are now available in Version 3.2

Versions 3.2 of Melodyne cre8 and Melodyne studio are available to download free of charge for all registered users of former 3.x versions.

The highlight of Melodyne cre8 3.2 is a new algorithm for percussive material, which represents an enormous improvement over the old one in terms of sound quality. Melodyne studio 3.2 comes with an improved Poly algorithm that now supports formant correction. Also new in both cre8 and studio are the handy Zoom/Scroll faders that facilitate both orientation and navigation, an improved activation system that is far easier to use, and various other improvements and bug fixes. Furthermore, the option of transferring your license to an iLok, for which you previously had to pay, is now free of charge from Version 3.2 onwards.