Work Fast in Melodyne with Custom Shortcuts

How to Assign Custom Shortcuts in Melodyne

Assigning custom shortcuts in Melodyne is a serious time saver and well worth the two minutes of setup. You might say, "Well it doesn't take that long to go all the way up to the toolbar or right click and select the tool" but over the course of a whole song, you'll have to do this hundreds of times and it really adds up.

I'm using Melodyne 5 Studio but this will work with any version of Melodyne.

Here's how to do it:

1. Open up an audio track on your DAW of choice and then add Melodyne as a plugin (or just open it up in Standalone)

2. Go to Settings, Preferences..., then select Shortcuts from the dropdown menu at the top.

   1. There are many configuration options here but having used Melodyne extensively over the years, I've kept track of what my Top 5 most used tools are, so these are the most important shortcuts to assign first:

      1. Zoom Tool

      2. Pitch Tool

      3. Pitch Modulation Tool

      4. Pitch Drift Tool

      5. Note Separation Tool

   2. Note: If you are using Melodyne essential, you will not have access to some of these tools but you can still assign the ones you do have access to using this process

3. Locate these tools in the "Editing Tools" section

4. Let’s start by assigning Zoom to a new key

   1. Click the zone on the right side of the menu that corresponds to Zoom and then press the key you want it assigned to, which will change the shortcut.

5. BUT, which keys should you use for reassignment?

   1. If you're using Melodyne as a plugin inside of a DAW, sometimes it's unclear if you're inside the plugin or inside your DAW, which means that you may press a key that means something destructive in your DAW without even realizing it, so I recommend checking what it's also assigned to in your DAW to make sure they don't conflict

      1. For example, I work in Pro Tools a lot and trimming your audio in Pro Tools is set to A and S, which may be your first inclination to assign tools to in Melodyne, since your left hand is usually in that area of the keyboard already

      2. For this reason, I use the numbers 2 - 5 to switch between these tools because if I'm working in Pro Tools I only really risk zooming

   2. I want my most "switched-between" tools (which are the note separation and pitch tools) to be next to each other on 2 and 3, with the other two slightly farther away on 4 and 5 since I use them a little less often. This configuration works for me but feel free to use your own here.

6. Once you're happy with your key assignments, save the new configuration by going to the gear icon and then clicking "Save..."

Now your configuration will show up in the menu as what you named it (across all DAWs and in Standalone), and this is great if you tend to work on new setups often because you can throw the file onto a thumb drive and load it up wherever you go

If you're working on a Mac, the file path for the Melodyne shortcuts folder can be found here: /Users/Shared/Library/Application Support/Celemony/Shortcuts/Melodyne 5

Final Tip: If you want to cement this new configuration into muscle memory faster, I recommend writing down the shortcuts on a sticky note and putting it somewhere you can see it to quickly reference while you're working. Then, once you realize that you no longer need to glance at it to remember the shortcuts, just throw it away! Happy tuning everybody. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions at all!

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Sensho Music Producer | Audio Engineer | YouTuber info@senshobeats.com

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