Melodyne ARA2 Still Losing Edits with Logic 10.4.5

I'm a long-time Melodyne user, so have been so looking forward to ARA working. But its buggy as all get out. I was hoping the problems would get resolved, but they're not. The "golden rule" according to Celemony is still "Load —> Press Play —> Press Stop, and you will avoid any problems." Ha! Ha! I just lost an hour's worth of work. Serves me right for thinking it was working OK!

Sad. It’s why I still use Melodyne old fashion ( no Ara )

Don’t want to take any risk :/

Been there, done that. I went back to regular Melodyne a while back and stopped using ARA after the 3rd or 4th time losing hours of work. What a fail.

What version of Melodyne are you using? Is it the latest which is 4.2.2.? I wrote (and posted within a different thread here) information I received from Celemony. I had asked about the compatibility of Logic 10.4.5 and Melodyne 4.2.2. This what they said:

"So far all tests done so far look very good and in fact Apple fixed a bunch of things in regards to the ARA integration, which should makes this definitely better in Logic Pro X 10.4.5."

 

I was hoping this was true, though they said "better" they didn't say "works as intended."

Last version for me obviously !

I'm using the latest version of Melodyne and the latest version of Logic Pro X, all on the latest version of High Sierra.

 

I learned my lesson, folks .... and am also going back to regular Melodyne.

I'm using 4.2.2 and with 10.4.4. it worked fine...

But i have a super strict vocal editing workflow.

Vocal editing projects only has:

- Backing track

- Vocal tracks

 

each vocal track is comped and flattened before going to melodyne. (but not merged!)

 

That way, i haven't lost any edits yet.

 

I then export all tracks as audio files and import them to my mix project.

 

This workflow is tidy and makes mixing snappier since projects are less cluttered. There's no way in hell that i could afford having melodyne in mix project with my vocal mixing workflows.

@Pioki --- But are you using the ARA version of Melodyne? I was under the assumption that ARA2 was provided to save time. Given your Melodyne workflow (which obviously takes time to prepare), is there any sense of using the ARA version of the plug-in at all? Or why not use the standalone Melodyne Studio in your case? I'm just curious.

@Pioki --- But are you using the ARA version of Melodyne? I was under the assumption that ARA2 was provided to save time. Given your Melodyne workflow (which obviously takes time to prepare), is there any sense of using the ARA version of the plug-in at all? Or why not use the standalone Melodyne Studio in your case? I'm just curious.

 

The main advantage of ARA is ( was ? ) to move easily the regions WITH the tuning. Faster.

With regular, it’s more complicated. Twice the task, moving the region AND moving the blobs in Melodyne.

ARA yes.

Well, it does save time.

First, I have all of my vocals takes in one project in comp folders and i can recomp them easily and just replace any phrases on the fly - meaning i dont need to recapture things and i can continue working on the same edit.

Replacing a single phrase or single vowel without ARA is a major pain in the ass, and i mean MAJOR.

Working in studio is not good for working with takes.

 

Second, you can easily tweak crossfades and timing manually (by moving them) AFTER you have already started working on your pitch correction (because you know, there's always something you missed). With ARA, this means that everything i do in arrange, timing or fades, is reflected in Melodyne.

Again, doing that with non-ARA versions means recapturing at least portion, and also, re-editing at least portion of vocals.

 

I have adopted this workflow pre-ARA because of early Flex issues, and also because I prefer to keep my mix projects as clean as possible, because frankly, I prefer to have my edits committed because I don't trust neither flex nor melodyne to keep it together in heavy projects + it takes a lot of CPU and i do a lot of doubled tracks (processed differently in parallel, and its easier moving whole regions than duplicating flex/Melodyne edits).

 

So in that sense, ARA is just a big big bonus in my vocal editing workflow because it's way more flexible than transferring, it keeps files in one place (unlike annoying transfers which are all over the place) and makes on the fly edits much easier.

 

@Pioki --- But are you using the ARA version of Melodyne? I was under the assumption that ARA2 was provided to save time. Given your Melodyne workflow (which obviously takes time to prepare), is there any sense of using the ARA version of the plug-in at all? Or why not use the standalone Melodyne Studio in your case? I'm just curious.

 

The main advantage of ARA is ( was ? ) to move easily the regions WITH the tuning. Faster.

With regular, it’s more complicated. Twice the task, moving the region AND moving the blobs in Melodyne.

 

Exactly!

I had posted this awhile back in another forum, and maybe not here as well. I am deeply invested in the use of melodyne across almost every project and so had to come up with some method that actually worked for me...so here goes....

 

...well, FWIW, here's what has been working for me for several months now without loss...so a Disclaimer: Everything that follows is trial-and-error-anecdotal-evidence. I have no working knowledge of any of the internal operations of either program's code...just a desperate need to get on with my work...

 

1/ upon project open, run "play," exactly as Celemony advises, to reload the Melodyne information, do this every time without fail, don't ever forget this step......

2/ immediately run "save," just in case

3/ place Melodyne.ARA on the track and edit away...enjoy the moment

4/ then "freeze" the track

5/ then "lock" the track

........these two seem to be the magic key.....

6/ run "save" before every project "close," saving from inside the "close" option as it's doubts

 

...the "freeze" option has the added advantage of reducing the track to simple audio playback saving any cpu overhead. If there are changes needed later I "unlock" and "unfreeze" and am back to where I was with all of the Melodyne edits in place. Then run steps 4/5/6 without fail!...or...I don't know how or why this sequence works, I'm just grateful it does...hth.../s~

 

...hth here as well.../s~

That sounds like a pretty solid workflow, and would definitely be my go-to if i were using melodyne in mix projects

Ploki, what does "flattened" mean in this phrase: "each vocal track is comped and flattened".

means that comp folder is turned into crossfaded region (command is flatten take folder) before i invoke ARA

This has all been really useful info. Thanks everyone! I'm going to modify my Melodyne workflow based on all this.

two projects done in ara since 10.4.5 and nothing lost yet. but I'm only allowing it to be used on single file tracks (also works w a non merged flattened track, but inside MD im finding that I don't like editing clips, especially w a crossfade, MD doesn't handle the transition/fade well). I tried the whole different takes, bounce in place w mute original etc that was all lost, but as long as I have one file per track its keeping everything in multiple save/re opens. I had to go back and look at the release notes and TECHNICALLY apple fixed what they actually put in the release notes, but nothing else that's closely related. IMO its getting closer, but super limited

I'm having pretty good results with fades - melodyne overlaps both regions so you can see the pitch line of both during the fade. it's really useful for finetuning lead-ins/lead-outs of fades.

 

hi, everyone.

I'm having this issue so often and I never found a solution to it. I'm going to try the STEVEPPX1 workaround. But , what exactly is "upon project open, run "play," exactly as Celemony advises" ?? "I have to open the project and I have to make it play BEFORE I open Melodyne  ? That's it ? Which are the Celemony's advises ? THNX.

 

I think it means literally what it says. The very first action after opening the project is to hit "run/play." That seems to be when (under LPx at least) the Melodyne plugin actually loads It's edited file, superseding/overloading the native LPx source file on disk. In the end it seems that the entire problem stems from the saving/loading of the Melodyne edited file under LPx. I don't recall ever having losses under  Reaper...hth.../s~