Celemony Music has announced a plugin which offers revolutionary new possibilities for working on a computer with guitars, bass and drums. The foundations are provided by an abundance of flawless performances by world-class session musicians that the Tonalic engine can then adapt to any song – whatever its chord sequence, tempo or groove. The musicality, precision, creativity and all the magical moments of spontaneity and inspiration of the original studio performances are fully preserved.
And it all sounds so natural carried over into the new musical context, so convincing, so alive, it’s as though each musician were really right there, playing along with the song.
To Celemony, what’s said to be “technically impossible” is just another challenge. Here, it’s guitars. Tonalic offers unique, organic, groovy and masterful performances to suit any musical context, fall in with any musical idea, whereas the solutions hitherto available (relying on virtual instruments, loops or sample libraries) are of limited utility when the time comes to integrate them into an actual song.
No AI, no loops, no MIDI. With its Melodyne engine as the basis, Celemony has developed here a brand new technology that makes it possible to adapt performances by the finest studio musicians to any song and integrate them organically into any production. And do this not only for guitars, but for bass, drums and percussion too.
A totally new way of handling musical material
The method here is fundamentally different from the conventional way of working with loops and samples: With this new software, the starting points are small icons, called Tonalics, that give the user, as early as the search phase, an impression of their underlying musical patterns. When dragged onto the Tonalic track, these Tonalic regions mark the areas where the pattern in question should be played – only, adapted to the chords, tempo and groove of the song.
The Tonalic regions themselves contain neither audio nor MIDI but are simply instructions to the Tonalic engine to pick out, from the rich fund of material contained in the original performance, the most suitable passages, and then adapt them – without sacrificing anything of their vitality, and in a manner that’s musically appropriate – to the harmonies, chord changes, tempo and groove of the current song. The result is something that’s convincing and tight, yet shot through with flashes of studio magic.
The whole process is dynamic and automatic. Whatever direction the song takes, Tonalic notices, follows suit and takes musical decisions that invariably gel and sit well with the spirit and idea of the song. The results sound so organic and authentic you’d think the performer had played the material that way in the first place.
World-class performances as source material
Performances by over 30 world-class session musicians, recorded in some of the most renowned studios in the world – the hot spots, in each case, of the musical genre in question – provide the source material: country legends like Brent Mason, JT Corenflos and Bryan Sutton; rock and pop specialists like Tim Pierce, Justin Derrico, Kenny Aronoff and Uwe Bossert; soul and R&B greats like Binky Griptite, Nick Movshon, Randy Bowland and Venzella Joy; as well as funk experts like Rob Harris and Paul Turner.
Members of leading bands such as Nate Mendel (bass guitarist with the Foo Fighters) and Martin “Ace” Kent (guitarist with Skunk Anansie) also feature prominently – along with a host of other ace musicians. Specialists all of them in their various fields, with multiple Grammys, gold and platinum records to show for it. And more good news: The library will be constantly growing!
Different editions, same content
Tonalic comes in two editions with identical content but differing function sets. Each edition offers already over 7,000 pattern Tonalics played by over 30 session musicians, and new material is being added all the time.
The large edition, Tonalic studio, offers the additional possibility of detailed intervention in the Tonalic track, so you can modify not just the overall sound but even individual notes. It reminds you a bit of Melodyne – with the same forensic precision and the same refreshing musicality.
The plugin is easily integrated as a software instrument into any DAW. Notable at the present time for its depth and elegance is the integration afforded by Presonus Studio One 7 and Fender Studio Pro 8, which takes advantage of the ARA interface.
Availability and prices
Tonalic is immediately available either by subscription from the Tonalic website or through the purchase of a prepaid license from Best Service and other dealers. Tonalic arranger costs 14.90 EUR/USD monthly or 149 EUR/USD for a year’s subscription. Tonalic studio is available for 24.90 EUR/USD monthly or 249 EUR/USD by annual subscription.
For the market launch, monthly subscriptions are offered at only 1 EUR/USD for the first month, thereafter 14.90 EUR/USD or 24.90 EUR/USD depending upon the edition. Users can switch at any time between the prepaid and subscription license models, between the two editions and between different license periods, amounts already paid being taken into account.
