Meldaproduction the future of Digital Audio Processing

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Melda is genius,just take a look at some of these multiband processing

http://soundbytesmag.net/meldaproductio ... multiband/

I will say just 1 of the multiband ways "Panorama"
Which spilts the signal into whatever bands you need and processes only that specific part of the stereo field. Crazyness! I always say this guy has alien technology!
If only all companies would think like this, then the world of audio would have pass into a new dimension.
Melda does it thought! :)

Comments yours!

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I love their "multiband everything!" ethos too.

Finding myself snapping up the odd 50% off plugin. Great company, constantly maintaining, building and updating their product range - and they over-engineer them completely with so many bells and whistles which I love (though they can be less intuitive to use at times than other simplistic approaches).

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MogwaiBoy wrote:I love their "multiband everything!" ethos too.

Finding myself snapping up the odd 50% off plugin. Great company, constantly maintaining, building and updating their product range - and they over-engineer them completely with so many bells and whistles which I love (though they can be less intuitive to use at times than other simplistic approaches).
To me the constant building/updating (how many zillion individual Melda plugins are there?), meaningless preset names (Markov chain generated, perhaps?) and over-engineered GUIs are a turnoff, but I admire Melda's DSP prowess and drive for innovation.

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It's great to have the possibility to only focus processing on one specific band with one specific effect, if that's what you want to do. But just because that kind of functionality exists, it doesn't automatically mean anything improves by using it on everything and anything - just because you can.

Retrofitting something like Softube's Saturation Knob, for example, with a multiband option and internal modulation and different distortion algorithms and all that... would it still stay the interesting little gadget it is? Or wouldn't it just become yet another multiband multi-type distortion plugin like every other one out there? And wouldn't it somehow become too complex of a thing to use? It would make a cute little thing that serves a niche purpose well become one in a million, and lose its "turn one knob for instant gratification" purpose to a world of options and choices and selections and checkboxes and dropdowns and settings that one has to learn about and set up before being able to use it efficiently.

It's a bit like the contemporary supermarket effect, there's soooo much to pick from with every single item, so many variations and intensities and colours and tastes of the same thing, that it becomes a painful event to actually pick something. This one? That one? One of the others? Why? Why not? There are so many decisions to be made when using Melda stuff, because all of them can do the thing to all of it or only parts of it and confront you with all of that all the time, or not if hidden from the GUI... whuuut!? Total overload, I just can't bear it. I don't want to make lots of decisions all the time. I want to load something that does something, turn a knob, close it and be done with it, end of story.

It's great and desirable that there are really flexible tools out there, that can provide all the functionality for all the geeks and all the niche little problems there are, and I really admire the sophistication and creativity and stamina and drive behind Melda. But I don't think that "making everything do everything" and blasting a wealth of necessary decisions onto a bunch of ADD riddled musicians and engineers would improve (or even change) anything about the "audio world".

The aimless geeks would have more tools to configure the shit out of and still not release a single tune, or only release tunes that are so particular and abstract that nobody cares, and the time-pressured producers would still use their go-to tools that get them to where they need to be in a matter of loading a thing and picking a preset, maybe adjusting a knob or two, or quite simply hardware.

I think it's good that Melda do what they do, and I think they do it well. If you need multiband anything, you're sure to find something in their product portfolio that's worth your time and money. But if you don't, like me, then I think it's great that there are other products that don't constantly overwhelm me with that multiband enthusiasm.
Confucamus.

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I don't get some people. Melda offers instead of 5 options, 100
Why is that a bad thing for a real mixer or sound design enthusiast?
Its like if you are a painter you say : I only want 5 colors and 2 brushes, instead of 50 colors and 40 different brushes.
Anyway that multiband thing you are talking about has gone to another level with Melda, it shouldn't be called multiband since some of them are advanced algorithms that process different areas rather than only frequencies. Anyway!

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i don't think it should be an either-or situation. both approaches have its place. i basically never intentionally do multiband, the only time when i reach for multiband dynamic auto anything is to fix a problem - almost always it's a nasty resonance of some kind. it's nice to have that kind of security - that i have plugins that i use every day that are simple to use, but whenever i need a very specific thing, i know which plugins i should reach for. i can do without Melda plugins for when everything in my audio chain is perfect. when it isn't, though, Melda stuff is where it's at.
I don't know what to write here that won't be censored, as I can only speak in profanity.

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Thavma wrote:I don't get some people. Melda offers instead of 5 options, 100
Why is that a bad thing for a real mixer or sound design enthusiast?
Its like if you are a painter you say : I only want 5 colors and 2 brushes, instead of 50 colors and 40 different brushes.
Anyway that multiband thing you are talking about has gone to another level with Melda, it shouldn't be called multiband since some of them are advanced algorithms that process different areas rather than only frequencies. Anyway!
Because selecting one of 2 brushes is much easier than selecting from 40 brushes. Limitations and straightforward interfaces are often better for creativity & workflow than "you can do everything" monsters. Of course both approaches are valid and have their uses and their fans, and neither is the be all, end all of digital audio processing. Or painting. Personally, I'm in the first camp, but I know many people are in the latter. To each to their own.

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I don't think they are something special (for sure not more than any other), besides the instant turn-off I get from them. This doesn't happen with any other plugin manufacturer.

If any I would see companies like Zynaptiq (which think outside the box with controlable plugins and where Meldaproduction got inspired from :wink: ), FabFilter (easy non realistic ui with incredible sound) and some devs like iZotope (already plugins with AI engine) way more as the "future of digital audio processing". They combine superb sound, high quality, a feeling for whats needed now & maybe in the future and the most important part: easy and thoughtful handling.

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As an electronic musician I'm very much in the camp of Melda stuff being a "problem solving" tools rather than creative tools. I find them uninspiring at best but if I want a very specific effect on say, a flanger, then at least I know with MFlanger I can dial in that effect and it'll be the same every single time I hit "play". Or if I want a very specific rounded sawtooth wave for a bass layer then I know I can get that with MPowersynth - which is a tweakers paradise but IMO an absolute chore to use for anything fun! :D

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andymcbain wrote:As an electronic musician I'm very much in the camp of Melda stuff being a "problem solving" tools rather than creative tools. I find them uninspiring at best but if I want a very specific effect on say, a flanger, then at least I know with MFlanger I can dial in that effect and it'll be the same every single time I hit "play". Or if I want a very specific rounded sawtooth wave for a bass layer then I know I can get that with MPowersynth - which is a tweakers paradise but IMO an absolute chore to use for anything fun! :D
+1

In general, I turn away at the sight of Melda user interfaces, but MMultiAnalyzer is simply the best (and almost only) solution for displaying frequency masking visually. I'll check them out for sure if I have a specific problem I need a solution for, but I tend to look elsewhere first.

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I think there was another thread about it not long ago. In conclusion he's not eventhough he very obvious thinks so. If you need a dozen parameters to tweak for a very specific task then they're fine. But most of the time you won't and what's left over then is a bloated, overwhelming and very confusing ui. And with the multiband capabilities of any DAW you'd not need the multiband versions either.

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I find the UIs clear and informative, and consistency across the range is really productive. And the plugins are full of features I find very useful (in/out meters, M/S processing, safety limiters and easy comparison buttons for example). I have the upgraded Free bundle and it forms the bulk of my fx. The EQ and Analyzer are alone worth the whole bundle price. Multiband Convolution is an amazing sound design tool, and achieving what it does with other plugins would be extremely awkward and, pardon the pun, convoluted.

Then again, I'm not looking for "inspiration" from fx plugins or their UIs, when I load fx the inspired part has already been recorded. I want to process the track in a specific way, and I've found that Melda plugins get me there fast, accurately and easy.

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I love the Melda stuff, but I get that it could be overwhelming to someone, and it’s not always my go-to choice. I love how Softube’s Saturation plug in was brought up. Really? Of course tools like that are equally valid. I find it weird that this has to be brought up. Sometimes you want to sprint down a track, sometimes you want to go hiking in unmapped woods. The gear you choose for the sprint is going to suck for the hike, and vise versa. Figure out what you want to do and choose the appropriate tools.

Another thing I often see is that people seem to always be talking about the difficulty learning a complex plugin like Melda’s. Sure, there is somewhat of a learning curve, but there are plenty of tutorial videos. That said, it seems like a lot of people seem to neglect to deeply learn about basic building blocks of audio production and synthesis. Once you spend some time learning what things do, going into plugins like Melda’s won’t seem so daunting. I’m not saying they’re for everyone, but I do think that they’re a hell of a value and do a great job of going “the extra mile” to provide tremendous flexibility. Of course, they all have those cool randomization buttons, so if you don’t know what you’re doing, click on those a few times until something cool happens and go with it. Happy accidents are fun.
Zerocrossing Media

4th Law of Robotics: When turning evil, display a red indicator light. ~[ ●_● ]~

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First it was interesting seeing the dev and his community being very active and responsive here on kvr. There are many threads and tips which is good. But then I saw him a bit more in action (unfortunately shittalking or complaining about others) with his strange egocentric appearance and I felt very disappointed. I think some users as well as the dev himself see these plugins as the cherry on top of audio processing with nothing comparable :D It's good as long as they accept the majority doesn't share their opinion.
I worked with them and I often have to think of them as jokes in terms of "if you have to explain it, you're doing something wrong". There are synths and fx that are monstrous but they are self explaining (practical lables, structures, a ui that takes you from the first to the last step and so on). I once opened MPowerSynth and searched for the arpeggiator and I couldn't find it. It was there but the ui didn't lead me to it. For example take Avenger from Vengeance which has a lot more features in it than MPowerSynth but it is mostly so easy to use.

I don't need mathematical super correct and exclusive plugins, I don't need technical gadgets that can do anything and everything, but I need them to quickly dial in when having problems. Meldaproduction would be one of my last choices to use then. Take a look at some threads: how can i do ...? And then an explanation follows. Something other plugins can do with 1 or 2 clicks. In Meldaproduction plugins (exaggeratedly said) you need to open 3 popups, assign this, undo that, tweak here and there you go. I'm sorry but that doesn't fit my workflow. Nonetheless even if a few people have been using them, the developer did something right :)

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Agree that MPowerSynth is very hard to realize without tutorials.
But Melda has more effects and I find those very easy to understand. Of course being a Melda user with some hours of tweaking around you find your way around easier. And yes the randomize preset or even randomize all settings, will give you fast inspiration and I think nowhere I've seen that before.

Also no one said Melda is the best in quality etc. But you can't say the Melda aren't of high quality plugins! They even have internal upsampling to even sometimes x32, you just don't know them well and I understand you!

Hidden gems are always hidden and hard work is for the hard workers :)

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