v drums, to quantize or not?

Jay C

Jay C

New member
just wondering what others do for rock drum midi. my drummer is tight but hasn't been playing with a metronome long. some stuff needs to be fixed up. just wondering what others do for quantize, i use sonar x2 with superior drummer. is there a way to quantize but not exactly to the grid? just want the drums to sound natural and on time. lol.
 
I use something called Iterative Quantize in Cubase. Check Sonar's manual to see if it has it.

Basically you choose a note value and the notes of the recording are quantized by a specified percentage to that value on the grid.
 
Bane01 said:
I use something called Iterative Quantize in Cubase. Check Sonar's manual to see if it has it.

Basically you choose a note value and the notes of the recording are quantized by a specified percentage to that value on the grid.
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this sounds very promising ,, thanks very much...
 
If Sonar doesn't support this, may be time to consider switching DAW's.

I primarily post over at the Steinberg forum and cannot begin to tell you how many happy converts that originally owned Sonar are joining over there. Not suggesting anything at all though...
 
Yeah, you can click just above 'quick reply' and it will check the 'close this thread' box. A flaw in the matrix. :)
 
If you need to do anything other than move a couple hits into place, the only practical thing to do is to quantize to the grid. If you try to hand place things slightly off the grid, you will not end up with any sort of groove, you will simply be close-but inconsistent.

I have never tried any of these 'humanize' programs. I do know that most, if not all, of the stuff that you hear on the radio is just quanized to the grid. It's just the way things are done now, no matter how wonderful the drummer is.
 
EZDrummer does have a Humanize function but it's more to avoid repeating the same samples to get the machine gun effect, as I think it's called. I've heard SD's is a little more advanced.
 
In Ableton, it allows you by percentage to quantize. It also allows you to take a real sound wave and extract a groove. Kind of a nice feature to keep it from sounding like a machine. This can be done for any MIDI set.

But I have found, thanks to this site and my one post to the mix it clinic, consistency is still important. Even a consistent inconsistent, which is a groove.
 
Yeah, I think humanize in EZ/SD is a random velocity thing. With well-calibrated drum triggers it shouldn't be necessary.

For quite a while, Cakewalk/Sonar's quantize function has included a "Strength" parameter. It's a percentage. It calculates how far it would have to move the note in order to be right on the grid, and then moves it Strength% of that distance. It is a great way to keep some of the feel of a live performance while tighten things up. Play with it a bit to see what value works best for you. I will sometimes apply different strengths to different drums. Maybe the kick should be really tight - like 95%, the hats/ride can be a little looser, and maybe the snare is actually just fine without quantize.

But how badly does it really need to be on the grid? If you were recording a whole band, or even just a couple other instruments, you need to listen to the drums in that context. Turn off the metronome and listen. It is quite possible that everybody else followed the drummer's loose interpretation of the beat, and quantizing the drums will pull them away from the rest of the band and ruin any groove that may have been happening.
 
ashcat_lt said:
Yeah, I think humanize in EZ/SD is a random velocity thing. With well-calibrated drum triggers it shouldn't be necessary.

For quite a while, Cakewalk/Sonar's quantize function has included a "Strength" parameter. It's a percentage. It calculates how far it would have to move the note in order to be right on the grid, and then moves it Strength% of that distance. It is a great way to keep some of the feel of a live performance while tighten things up. Play with it a bit to see what value works best for you. I will sometimes apply different strengths to different drums. Maybe the kick should be really tight - like 95%, the hats/ride can be a little looser, and maybe the snare is actually just fine without quantize.

But how badly does it really need to be on the grid? If you were recording a whole band, or even just a couple other instruments, you need to listen to the drums in that context. Turn off the metronome and listen. It is quite possible that everybody else followed the drummer's loose interpretation of the beat, and quantizing the drums will pull them away from the rest of the band and ruin any groove that may have been happening.
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awesome man. thank you. this is exactly what i needed to know. i still have to watch the 9 hours of tutorial some time. lol.
 
ashcat_lt said:
But how badly does it really need to be on the grid? If you were recording a whole band, or even just a couple other instruments, you need to listen to the drums in that context. Turn off the metronome and listen. It is quite possible that everybody else followed the drummer's loose interpretation of the beat, and quantizing the drums will pull them away from the rest of the band and ruin any groove that may have been happening.
Click to expand...

y'all pay attention, this guy's on to something!
 
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