Saving as MIDI

From this tour, you will learn to save audio notes in Melodyne as MIDI notes.

Audio-to-MIDI

Melodyne allows you to export audio notes as MIDI notes. When this is done, a file in Standard MIDI file format is created and saved to your hard disk. This file can then, for example, be loaded into your DAW so you can use it to double your vocals with a sound from a software synthesizer.

The MIDI notes are an exact representaion of the audio notes in Melodyne. For each audio note, a MIDI note is created with the same position, length and pitch. The velocity of each MIDI note is derived from the amplitude of the audio note it represents.

When you save rhythmic material as MIDI, all the MIDI notes will share the same pitch but take their position, length and amplitude from their audio equivalents in the rhythm track. You can use this technique, for example, to derive from a drum loop a quantization reference for other MIDI tracks in your DAW.

The generation of MIDI notes from audio material offers a wealth of different creative possibilities. Try it out for yourself!

Saving as MIDI

The Save as MIDI option is reached from the Settings menu, in the case of the plug-in, and, in the case of the stand-alone implementation of the program, from the Save As... option in the File menu.

When you select “Save As...” in the stand-alone implementation of the program, a dialog box appears with a drop-down menu containing the option “MIDI File”.

Save all notes or only those in the cycle zone

When saving as MIDI, you can choose whether you wish to export all the notes or only those lying within Melodyne’s cycle zone. For the latter option, whether you are using the stand-alone application or the plug-in, you should check the ‘Cycle only’ box in the Save dialog.

If you choose to save all the notes (i.e. you clear the ‘Cycle only’ checkbox), the export begins invariably from the start of bar one. This is true even if the first notes do not appear until some later bar. When exporting MIDI from the plug-in, this ensures that the MIDI notes when loaded back into your DAW can be synchronized easily with the audio notes from which they were derived. To do this, simply drag the MIDI file to a track in such a way that it begins at bar one.

If you save as MIDI with the ‘Cycle only’ option checked, only notes lying within the cycle zone are exported. This is useful, for example, when you want to save a precise phrase or single bar in MIDI format.

Please note that the ‘Cycle only’ option in the plug-in refers to Melodyne’s cycle range – not to that of your DAW! You can define the cycle range in Melodyne while playback in the DAW is halted. By default, the cycle range in Melodyne is the range occupied by the first transfer. If the cycle is left unchanged with this setting, when you are exporting MIDI the start and end of the cycle range, if not there already, will snap outwards to the nearest bar lines, in order to make it easier for you to position the MIDI file later.

The MIDI file exported by Melodyne also contains tempo information. Most DAWs offer you the choice of either adopting the tempo defined in the file or else ignoring it and allowing the current tempo of the DAW to prevail.