MusicScribe BLOG

Daniel Mount brought this story to our attention in his Saturday News Roundup today.

“Peter Neubäcker, the German music software engineer responsible for the popular pitch correction Melodyne, has created a program called Direct Note Access (DNA) that can dissect a chord into individual notes so that the chord can be re-formed into something new.” Click HERE to read more. Click HERE to view a descriptive video.

Daniel wonders what impact this development might have on the music industry. It should be significant.

Suppose all your tracks are recorded and you’re at the mix down phase. With DNA, you’re now free to wonder if that A major chord might sound more appealing as an A minor. All the vocals and instruments can be processed to lower every C sharp to C natural, even when the source track contains chords. You can select alternate scales for an entire piece or section of music.

Currently the flow of music production can be simplified to Arrange>Perform/Record>Mix/Tweak>Master. DNA will allow a flow of Arrange>Perform/Record>Rearrange/Mix>Master. You could already rearrange to a certain degree with cut/paste abilities and pitch shifting, but it’s never really been practical to morph existing audio chords into entirely different chords.

It should also speed up the recording process. Three or four vocalists should be able to record standing in a circle around a single omni-directional microphone, because their notes can now be separated, individually pitch corrected, and balanced after the fact. That method should also improve the initial performance, since singers will be able to pick up more visual cues due to the increased proximity to one another. At the same time, if one singer is slightly off, you really can “fix it in the mix.”

Overall, DNA should allow producers to massage audio elements more precisely while retaining as much or as little of the original performance as needed. When coupled with a MIDI controller, the producer role can be even more artistic without necessarily decreasing the artistic input of the original musician…sliding notes up or down in pitch, balancing volume, etc. Of course, there will always be over-produced music that strips the soul out of the musician’s efforts. Technology like DNA opens up yet another door for too zealous producers to exploit.

That being said, this is a piece of software I’d love to observe in practical use. I expect DNA will be the biggest development in music production since pitch correction. The same guy, Peter Neubäcker, developed both products, which is pretty amazing in and of itself.

The “wow” factor of DNA is going to be pretty high among individuals who make their living at the recording studio.