I find VariAudio to be very useful especially for quick edits (Melodyne is my go-to) but I’m appalled that you’re limited to Standard-Solo (unless there’s a setting I’m not aware of).
The minute I slice up the segments (when it goes into Standard Solo) the take sounds like it’s been put through a blender. Horrible sound quality. Reminds me of these $10k home theatre systems playing 64 kbps MP3 music. What’s the point?
There’s a night and day difference between Elastique and Standard to the point where it’s a deal breaker (at least for me and I’m sure many others). The workflow with VariAudio integration is so nice though, so why punish the users by forcing a sub-par algo?? Why can’t we have our cake and eat it too?
Also in the audio editor… Stretch it over a bar or two and you get this wonderful message:
“Realtime Algorithm has been deactivated because pitch or stretch factor lies outside the limits of the current preset”
Where or how exactly was elastique3 implemented? Seems not where i should have been…
Maybe we got elastique3 just so the marketing dept can say: yes, we have it… (lol)
Have a wonderful day , lovely steinbergians and all:)
My guess is that Standard Solo is much better than any other algo, therefore Steinberg prevents us from using other algos. I mean’ that is only fair, clearly we want the best sounding algos while working with vocals in VariAudio, and Steinberg is caring for us, their customers. Standard solo is certainly the best and sounds better than any other algo, period. Cubase is the best DAW ever, period. Steinberg is the best DAW company ever, period.
According to the Zplane website VariAudio uses the Elastique Soloist Algo wich is specifically aimed for monophonic material. So Variaudio actually uses Elastique
Considering Melodyne editor cost all most as much as the the full Cubase package I think that the thrown in VariAudio is an excellent product and great value. Works well for my studio.
In any case the algo is horrible, elastique or not. This is not my opinion - the results speak for themselves when you compare the quality of pro and solo. I have (in Reaper) and its easy to tell which one is which blindfolded.
If steinberg had some sort of licensing deal with zplane they clearly got screwed if zplane sold them on this algo vs their pro.
“élastique SOLOIST is targeted at monophonic input signals. Thanks to this restriction, it offers incredible quality for this type of input. It allows pitch shifting with formant preservation to leave the sound’s timbre/formant characteristics untouched, and has a transient copying feature to preserve crisp attacks”
Two things:
I’m sorry but the sound of Variaudio pitch shifting can in no way be described as “incredible quality”. It sounds scratchy, grainy and generally terrible! Way worse than the other Elastique algo’s.
Variaudio in Cubase does not do formant preservation, and yet it is mentioned in the description above from Zplane. What gives?
Our frustration with VariAudio isn’t about its existence but the choice of algorithm. I would love to use it but even in my current song I regret using VariAudio because as soon as that phrase plays I can tell it’s been processed with VariAudio.
Melodyne is in another league altogether but that’s not the point. The biggest thing VariAudio has going for it is workflow/integration and if it doesn’t deliver good quality results it is not worth saving the few extra minutes it takes to export take to Melodyne.
Steinberg PLEASE give us Elasqtiue Pro or something similar - I would pay for the upgrade in the algo.
(lol)