Correct Vocal Pitch, Timing, and Volume with Melodyne Essential in Studio One

Studio One includes the powerful pitch-correction software Melodyne Essential with eligible editions.
Here we explain how to correct a recorded vocal performance.

Install and open Melodyne Essential

Melodyne Essential is included among the available loops and effects.

Open Studio One Installation from the Studio One menu at the top.

If it has not been installed yet, find it under Available Downloads and install it.

Right-click the audio event you want to correct and choose Audio → Edit with Melodyne.

Melodyne Essential opens.

Split notes before editing

A little preparation makes correction easier.

In this example, the singer repeats the phrase “mada mada,” but both instances of “mada” are joined as one note.
That makes it difficult to correct them individually, so split the note first.

Move the cursor over the target note and, when the cursor changes, double-click.
The note is split and each part can be edited separately.
Use the same method wherever notes are joined together.

Correct pitch

Select a note and move it up or down to correct pitch in semitone steps.

Hold the Alt key while dragging to fine-tune in cents, or hundredths of a semitone.

Changing the zoom to suit the edit also makes the work easier.
Hold Ctrl+Alt and drag the timeline to change the zoom.

Use the pitch curve

The curve inside each note shows pitch movement; the note itself displays an averaged representation of that movement.

For example, even if a note is positioned at D, its pitch can still move above and below that note.

In such cases, use the part where the pitch spends the most time as a guide when setting it to the intended pitch, D in this example.
This can help the result sound natural and in tune.
Play the passage and listen as you adjust the note position.

Correct timing

To adjust timing, drag the edge of a note.

As with pitch, hold Alt while dragging for finer adjustment.
For timing in particular, repeatedly edit and listen to improve the result.

Compare before and after

While editing, you may want to compare the processed and original sound.

To do so, click the button at the upper left for a quick before-and-after comparison.

Restore the original

To undo some or all corrections, select the notes, right-click, and choose Restore Original at the top of the menu. You can restore pitch, timing, or all changes.

Correct volume

To adjust volume, select the notes you want to correct and click the button on the far right.

Raising the left slider makes quieter notes louder; the right slider makes louder notes quieter.
Together, these controls even out the volume.