Celemony has announced that Melodyne essential is available now, from dealers and the Celemony web shop, for $69 through the end of the year. (After that, $99).

Melodyne essential focuses on the most important Melodyne audio editing functions. Recordings of lead vocals, monophonic instruments, or drums and percussion are divided up into notes the pitch, position in time, and length of which the user can modify on a piano-roll graphic display.

In this way, subtle corrections can be made, or the melody and rhythm altered. Notes can be moved and copied at will, which – among other things – makes it possible to add additional voices and chords to melodic material or breaks to rhythmic material.

“We believe you actually have to experience Melodyne to understand its pioneering nature and how rewarding the possibilities it affords really are,” says Celemony MD Anselm Roessler on the latest addition to the Melodyne range. “Whereas Melodyne essential was previously only available in hardware bundles, we are pleased to be able to offer the considerably improved new version of the program as a normal retail product.”

Melodyne Essential

Melodyne essential operates from the same technological base as Melodyne editor. That means optimal sound quality, a user-friendly interface and 64-bit support, whether it’s running in stand-alone mode or as a VST, AU, or RTAS plug-in in compatible DAWs. All editions in the Melodyne editor family are compatible with one another and easily upgraded. Documents created by any one edition can be opened in any other and edited using the functions and tools the latter provides.

Melodyne essential is supplied with a video tutorial that makes getting started easy. The tutorial, user interface and handbook of Melodyne essential are available in English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. At www.celemony.com, you will find videos in English on all the topics covered in the user handbook as well as additional tutorials.

Users of older versions of Melodyne essential can update to the new version for US$ 29. If their Melodyne essential came as part of a Digidesign bundle and was registered and activated after the 1st June 2009, or as part of an E-mu bundle and was registered and activated after the 1st June 2010, users can even update to the new version of Melodyne essential free of charge.