I’ve been wanting to really dig in and try some of their stuff ever since Aaron mentioned it in the MWTM thread where he won the Tchad Blake mix off. He turned me on to the Black Rooster and Overloud stuff here, I’m not sure if he even uses Waves. I don’t see any in his session:
So I was only able to demo the 2A and the 3A. They behave really differently than the Waves ones, but I like what they did. I had a little bit of trouble getting the overloud version of the 3A to give me the snappy over-top-top pop from a snare drum, I had to work for it because the gain staging on these is really different than the Waves and UAD ones. I like the Overloud 2A copy is better than the 3A.
I really really wanted to try that Edelweiss but I ran out of time, and I’m not gonna be back at the studio or another few days. I downloaded and installed the Vpre 73, but I haven’t had a chance to work with it yet.
Do you use this first in your processing chain or are there multiple ways to use this ? If I read pre-amp, I imagine its put first, on the dry signal, to emulate a real preamp, and then to the rest of your processing on that?
Could you eloborate on the advantages of using these things ?
Honestly, I use it anywhere. Early on to warm things up or anytime I feel like a track needs some grit, I dial it in, then move it around to where I think it sounds good. One of my favorite uses is at the end a vocal chain to add some warmth and air with the hi-shelf. I really like the sound of this one. You can drive it hard for a lot of crunch, or just a hint to liven things up. A little goes a long way.
What struck me with Aaron’s mix breakdown that @Jonathan mentioned above, is how often he used plugins just for their “character”.
Okay, so Melodyne 4 Essential is on sale for $49 at audiodeluxe (regular $99).
I’m not familiar with the different versions/levels of Melodyne. Can someone weigh in as to whether this is a decent version and how it compares with the other higher versions of Melodyne?
Also, I understand there are a number of REAPER users here; how would this version of Melodyne compare with REAPER’s ReaTune? ReaTune is nothing fancy, but seems to work. IDK what kind of extra features there might be in Melodynce Essential, or how the audio conversion algorithms would compare?
Well, I guess I should ask as well about how M Essentials would compare with Waves Tune LT? Just got it in Waves Gold Bundle; haven’t had a chance to try it out yet.
In the last few years I’ve found myself moving it about the chain more. There’s a common sense thing at first that goes ‘PRE’ amp goes in FRONT, hence the word ‘pre’…right? But I’ve found moving forward that they’re somewhat interchangeable with tape saturation, drive, console saturation and transformer drive. I find Pre’s work really nicely immediately after amp sims (Scuffham, NI, Waves) too.
I use the essentials version of Melodyne, with the full version of Waves tune and the full version of Anteres Autotune.
Waves, Anteres, and Melodyne are the 3 big names in the autotune plugins. You picked up the Waves one in the gold bundle…right?
If you want Melodyne, $49 is certainly the time to pick it up. It has a very different way of doing things. The biggest differences is how it remembers what you change in the vocal track. There are also some differences in how it scans and shares files. They do have slightly different sounds. Not in terms of color or clarity, but how the auto-correct chooses to adjust words and phrases that you correct. I would demo it if you have a chance. I paid $100 for my copy, $49 is a killer deal. Also, I think Melodyne is the most common and often regarded as the best of the 3. I personally wouldn’t call it the best, because I’m pretty comfortable with all 3 autotunes, but Melodyne seems to be a lot of peoples go-to for single voice monophonic sung vocal tuning.
(Ps… I say that specifically because I also use autotuner software on violin and horn players and tone deaf volunteer church percussionists. You know you’re earning your keep when have to autotune a tympani player).
Hey @AaronNarace… Just saw you signed in… If you have a sec, can you weigh in with your thoughts on the BlackRooster promo that @miked mentioned? Out of their Black Friday specials, which ones would you say are the must-haves?
I’ve been using Melodyne for almost 10 years, to tune my vocals. To me, it’s an essential tool.
It looks like you got Waves Tune LT with the Gold bundle, right? As a gut feeling, that would be comparable to Melodyne essential in terms of features, though I’m not sure how it would compare in quality. I also haven’t used ReaTune, but yeah it looks comparable. I would say that if you use ReaTune and have no problems with the quality, then stick with that.
I have the Melodyne Editor edition. (I got the upgrade on sale last Black Friday.) To be honest, I’m extremely disappointed with the Direct Note Access feature. I have tried it on some of my guitar tracks, and making any change results in horrible artifacts. That being said, I use many of the features in the Assistant version as a regular part of my tuning workflow, and I find the quality to be great. I’m biased, but my vocals come out sounding natural to me. I think it would be hard for me to work with just the Essential version because I’d miss those fine-tuning features.
Does anyone like HoRNet plugins? I have a number of them and use them sometimes. They’re all 70% for Black Friday, and very cheap to begin with. I’m subscribed to the newsletter, and they are frequently on sale for 40% off, just FYI.
I’ve got a few Hornet plugins. But the only one that has really gotten a lot of use was the HoRNet VUMeter MK3. I used to gain stage all of my tracks to -18dB VU when I started a mix. It’s an ingenious little plugin. I was also excited about the AutoGain and picked that up. But after getting Melda’s MAutoVolume, I haven’t even tried it out. MAutoVolume just works. I’ve got a few others, as I said, but nothing that I really reach for on a regular basis.
BTW, everything at Melda Production is about to be 1/2 for BF. You can use my referral code “MELDA2490257” for another 20% off your purchase. I will get a 10% credit. If you’ve got a friend with Melda plugs, hit them up for their referral code.
I use Black Rooster VEQ-1P (100hz Boost) and their free filter VHL-3C on vocals. I use the Blueface on my master sometimes(well, when I demoed it), it’s a bit too colorful at times. I really like their VLA-2A but it’s situational. I chain Overloud Gem-76 with Black Rooster VLA-2A to get that classical compressor sound. Once the vocal is recorded well, this chain sounds great!!
I did get the bundle. It’s a lite version of Waves Tune. I haven’t tried it out yet. I’ve used ReaTune a moderate amount. It’s pretty impressive.
Would you think the $49 for Melodyne Essesntials is money well spent given that I have the Waves plug? Cristina wasn’t sure about how the quality would compare. Thoughts?
