weird question on…...“snap”……

[beginner-HRF]

Hi everyone

Online, I find the technical term “snap” used regarding music recording, production, etc.

For example (this is about a plug-in):: “......snap-note…...”, “…...notes are snapped to a key……”, “…...add or remove notes from snap……”, “…...notes will snap to……”, “…...the snapping region……”, “…...perfect snapping……”, etc.

I have no idea whatsoever about what “snap” means, and all I find online are references to snap music (is it a type of AfroAmerican music??) which is obviously not the meaning of “snap” I’m looking for.

Any idea??

In advance, thank you very much for your kind help.

Christian
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[bouldersoundguy]

It just means that something, like your pointer or an object you're moving, will attach itself to a nearby grid mark or similar reference point. It makes it easy to place things much more precisely than is possible when manually doing it.

It's like a knob with detents that hold it at discrete settings instead of smoothly rotating.

 

[Tadpui]

Snap is a term used in regards to quantization, at least in the context that I've heard and used it. To "snap" a note is to align it with the nearest "whole" value in the axis that youre referring to in context.

For example, if your project timeline is set to 1/16th notes, any note that doesn't fall exactly on a perfect 16th note could be snapped to the nearest 16th of a beat.

Or if you're speaking in terms of pitch, you could snap a note to the nearest semitone or the nearest note in the key you're working in.

Or if you have a snap or snap-to-grid option enabled in your DAW or video editing software, media items might snap to the nearest grid marker, cursor, play head, or project begin/end markers.

Its basically a term that means that a note or event or item would be placed according to the rigid structure of time, tempo, pitch or other paremeter, instead of being arbitrarily placed.

That may have made no sense...i havent really ever tried to define snapping or quantization before.