Who is behind Celemony?

It was the question “What does a stone sound like?” back in 1997 that first gave dedicated researcher and inventor Peter Neubäcker the idea for Melodyne. Peter Neubäcker is a man who goes very much his own way. As a musician, lover of mathematics, guitar-maker and specialist in harmonics, he discovers approaches far removed from those of conventional signal processing, in which it is a sense of the musical and emotional content of a recording that prevails rather than metrical levels. It is his algorithms that make Melodyne so musical, so faithful in its acoustic reproduction, so ... unique. He is supported in this by an experienced team of software engineers who implement his ideas using the latest signal processing and programming techniques in the development of professional audio software.

A certain idiosyncrasy runs through the entire corporate structure of Celemony: A good twenty of its employees live scattered across Germany, with others in places like the USA and Japan. They each determine their own working hours and communicate with one another by Internet. The hierarchies are flat. They come together occasionally for meetings, but by preference to celebrate and have a good time. Almost all the company’s employees are musicians themselves, in genres ranging from electronic and medieval music to metal and punk.

From this film portrait you can learn more about Peter Neubäcker and the background to Melodyne.

Peter Neubäcker: a portrait (approx. 27 min.)

Milestones in the history of Celemony

1997 – Peter Neubäcker begins developing the Melodyne concept
2000 – Celemony is founded
2001 – Melodyne is presented for the first time at the Winter NAMM
2008 – Celemony demonstrates DNA Direct Note Access™ at the Frankfurt Musikmesse
2009 – Melodyne editor with DNA Direct Note Access™ is released
2011 – Release of Capstan, the software for removing wow and flutter
2011 – Celemony together with Presonus present the ARA Audio Random Access™ interface extension
2012 – The Technical Grammy Award is the culmination of a long series of awards for Celemony and Melodyne
2016 – Melodyne 4 with Multitrack Note Editing, the Sound Editor and DNA-based tempo detection is released
2018 – Celemony and Presonus release the expanded and improved ARA2
2020 – Melodyne 5 introduces the separate handling of sibilants, note-based fades and chord recognition.

The main product: Melodyne

Polished, expanded and recognized many times with awards over the years, Melodyne today counts almost all musicians and producers of note among its customers. The Who guitarist Pete Townshend regards the software as “a miracle”, Ultravox singer Midge Ure calls it “black magic”, Depeche Mode producer Gareth Jones and multimedia visionary Peter Gabriel both love it, and jazz legend Herbie Hancock considers it a “must-have” for musicians.

The strength and uniqueness of Melodyne lies in the fact that it understands digital recordings as music and is capable of recognizing and displaying their constituent notes. So Melodyne speaks the language of musicians and offers them musical elements to edit rather than raw technical data. With Melodyne, like a composer, you can take the notes within a recording and rearrange, change and invent; like a performer, add vibrancy, expression, and emotional depth; like a conductor, impose tempos, dynamics and structure.

DNA Direct Note Access™
Whilst initially only the editing of melodic and rhythmic material was possible, Celemony in 2008 developed an algorithm for polyphonic instruments. With this patented technology, known as DNA Direct Note Access™, Melodyne made it possible for the first time to edit individual notes within chords. This development is regarded as a milestone in recording technology and has won worldwide recognition beyond the frontiers of the industry. The German news magazine Der Spiegel, for instance, ran an article on Melodyne in 2008 beneath the headline “Photoshop for Sounds”, while the New York Times described the technology as a "breakthrough."

The tool for specialists: Capstan

In 2011, Celemony introduced its professional restoration tool, Capstan. Capstan is based on Celemony’s unique DNA Direct Note Access™ technology and detects wow and flutter in the music itself. For this reason, it is capable of correcting wow and flutter regardless of the medium (tape, disk, etc.) affected. This has made it possible to re-release, most notably, certain historic recordings of classical music.