Checking and editing the note detection within rhythmic material

In this tour, you will learn how to check the note detection in rhythmic material and reassign notes.
Since in the case of rhythmic material there are no tonal assignments to be performed, it is only the checking and correction of note separations that need concern us.

The procedure

After transferring or loading audio, select the note assignment tool, which is set slightly apart from the others, to change to note assignment mode.

In the stand-alone implementation, note assignment mode only ever applies to one of the audio files in your project at a time; in the Melodyne plug-in, it applies to a single transfer. This means that in note assignment mode you cannot always see all the notes belonging to a given track simultaneously; only those derived from a single file or transfer. Click therefore on a note belonging to the first file or transfer you wish to work on, and then switch to note assignment mode to see the notes in question. When you have finished correcting the note assignments within this file or transfer, quit note assignment mode before selecting a note belonging to the next file or transfer you wish to work on and repeating the process. In this way, you can edit the note assignments of each file or transfer in turn.

Please note that for technical reasons, when you switch to this mode, the undo history will be deleted, so any actions taken prior to the mode change cannot be undone.

In note assignment mode, no audible editing of the notes takes place. In this mode, you check through and alter Melodyne’s interpretation of the notes in the audio material. In the case of rhythmic material, it is simply a case here of remedying any excess or shortage of note separations in the detected material. The note separations must be correct if you want to achieve optimal results from any subsequent editing of the material – such as, for example, the application of time-stretching.

The simplest way now of checking the note separations is to select the first of the blobs and step forwards and backwards through them using the arrow keys. If a blob contains two drum strokes, double-click in the upper part of the blob (at the point at which you wish the second stroke to begin) in order to introduce a note separation.

If, on the other hand, a single stroke has wrongly been split by a note separation, double-click the dividing line to remove the note separation.

If ever a note separation is wrongly situated, you can simply drag it horizontally to the correct place.

Leaving note assignment mode

To quit note assignment mode, simply select one of the other tools. As you leave the mode, Melodyne will perform a fresh analysis based on the changes you have made. This could take a few moments.