Absolute Advantages

[jahern]

I've been using Keyrite ever since it came out. I did use the "w-" word to describe a bit of a shimmer in the sound. However these are some advantages that cannot be pooh poohed:

It is jerk proof: I had a KJ who was a bit of a jerk. He would actually heckle me when I asked him to change the key implying that if I, a baritone, would just relax, etc. etc. then I could sing the notes. (This advice came from a tenor) Sometimes I would actually process songs that the place already had so that I could bring it and have him play it without listening to his "advice".

It doesn't reset itself in the middle of a song because of a long pause. I have a machine that I am happy with in its key-changing ability, but some songs have pauses in them, especially Mariachi songs that I like to sing, and mine, and several other good machines tend to reset themselves after a few seconds of pause.

It has no problem changing the key of songs that are vocal reduced. I was excited to sing my first vocal reduced cdg at my favorite place and required a key change. The music practically disappeared except where I had "re-patched" in pieces of the original because noone was singing. That was embarrassing. My own key changing machine did fine, but apparantly there are some that use a different process that destroys a vocal reduced song. It's best not to be surprised. The next day, I took the same song processed by Keyrite and was entirely successful.

It's fast. I, admittedly don't have much to compare it with. I have downloaded demos of programs that will alter wave files, and it takes forever. If any of you have different experience I welcome your input here, but I have little doubt that any program that does a good job is probably not cheap.

It does retain a lot of the sound. I tried Goldwave, admittedly a less expensive product. I changed the key without changing the length and got a product that was basically absent the "shimmer". It took me forever to get it and when I compared the two it was obious that the Keyrite version had much more fidelity and rich sound.

Sometimes, I admit, I have traded this sound reduction for less shimmer. It reminds me of people who don't like WIDESCREEN because of the black strips at the top and bottom of the picture. You can argue the benefits until you are blue in the face, but sometimes people fixate on the black strips on the top and the bottom.

The bottom line is, Keyrite has been extremely useful for me.
If you have a cool KJ, a machine that doesn't change back during pauses or have problems with vocal reduced songs, and if you never want to sing "Pelea De Gallos" in your school's Cinco De Mayo festival, then you might never need Keyrite. BUT IT HAS BEEN DARN INDISPENSIBLE FOR ME.

I am overjoyed to hear that there may be some improvements