Humanising grid-locked MIDI beats?
- Thread starter morten.nu
- Start date
ahjteam
Anssi Tenhunen
at least in cubase there is a random positioning setting in the quantize menu. I usually keep it in 16 ticks. Then press Q a few times and they will be set a bit more "human like". For velocities there is a midi insert plugin called "midi modifiers" where you just set the randomize range (I usually put -5 and +5 and program all the hits at 100 on most of the hits) and select type as Velocity.
MaellaJohn
Member
Not sure what DAW you're using but Cubase has an awesome logical editor for midi.
You can randomize the timing of the hits so that each hit is ___ ms ahead or behind the grid, and you can randomize velocity.
That usually doesn't make it sound completely human though. The best way to do it is to get to know how drummers actually play drums and reproduce that.
You can randomize the timing of the hits so that each hit is ___ ms ahead or behind the grid, and you can randomize velocity.
That usually doesn't make it sound completely human though. The best way to do it is to get to know how drummers actually play drums and reproduce that.
DanLights
Santa Hat Forever
In reaper I only use the humanize function in small percentage for velocities and very small for timing (if you do too much it actually sounds like bad drumming), most my humanizing is manual, the typical stuff on velocities, and you have to be a bit creative with the timing, behind the beat, before the beat, experiment
EmmettAviyn
SmackaDaBass
- Mar 24, 2011
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DanLights
Santa Hat Forever
I think manually is the best way, trying to find the natural accents in a song depending on the rhythm, normally it's accent on the 1st beat and a smaller accent on the third, but that can vary a lot. On timing, it really depends. One thing I do on blastbeats is in some long-ish parts I start dragging the last snare hits a bit behind the grid progressively, to give the feeling of the drummer getting a bit tired and slowing down. Of course, it's all slight or it will really sound like a shitty drummer, but done slightly it definitely helps to make it a bit more human
Emdprodukt
Member of Dude Castle 69
I use the logic editor to put every hit (excluding kickdrum) + - 5ms. I edit the velocity by hand because random-set velocitys wont make the drums sound real.
fade_2_black
Member
Coincidence.. I just came on to post a topic about this. I have the same issue except in Pro Tools and with an audio track, not MIDI. Basically, have been provided with a programmed audio track to use with Trigger, but every single hit is the exact same sample - no randomisation of velocities or timings. Anyone know of any plug-ins (or Pro Tools features for that matter) that can help me out here? I have this for the kick track of an entire album - about 60-odd minutes total. Manually editing would kill me. It would be easy for me to create individual regions from each kick using the separate part of BD but for randomising timings and more importantly, velocities, I'm out of ideas..
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Chur
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Chur
mva801
Member
- Nov 18, 2009
- 1,870
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As far as velocities you're out of luck. I usually keep my kick drums all at the same velocity anyway, then automate the volume of certain areas as you mix. Beat detective has a 'swing' option and a 'strength' option. you could try using those to vary the timing a tad, but don't most metal records have super hard quantized kicks anyway?
AndrewB
That Darn Kid
In Sonar, there's a "Groove Quantize" setting that is quite helpful, it even comes with a few presets, and it edits timing and velocity. If I'm doing metal, then usually I'll leave the kick as is, groove quantize the snare and the hi-hat.
fade_2_black
Member
Yeah, the main problem I'm having is it sounds like the same sample is being trigger - getting the whole machine gun sound going on. I thought Trigger was not supposed to play the same sample twice in succession, perhaps I'm wrong here though. I think this is causing more problems than the timing to be honest - it would be nice to have stuff slightly less robotic but I'll likely be able to get away with it if each sample sounded like it had more variation. I always thought the swing and strength parameters of Beat Detective affected the regions being quantised - wouldn't have thought it would help when the regions are already perfectly lined up on the beat. Might just have to go through manually and have a play...
WellfearJoe
Member
- Jan 11, 2011
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Like the good people above me said. Manually adjusting timing and velocities + knowing how drummers play. I do use Cubase, and the midi editing options are indeed awesome! Samples of different velocities also help when it comes to ghost notes, sounds kinda lame when it's the same sample but quieter.
Genius Gone Insane
http://www.¯\(°_o)/¯.com
Anyone tried this?
1. Record a DI of guitar "playing" all the kicks.
2. Run an audio --> MIDI converter over the DI
3. Use this MIDI track for kicks.
I think this would keep the drums tight with guitars while still keeping feel.
1. Record a DI of guitar "playing" all the kicks.
2. Run an audio --> MIDI converter over the DI
3. Use this MIDI track for kicks.
I think this would keep the drums tight with guitars while still keeping feel.
fade_2_black
Member
That's an interesting idea. And I guess if you didn't have any other alternative to recording/programming MIDI then that could be a cool way to do it while getting a human feel to it.
funny enough.. i know when they were working on the Neil Peart Sample thing.... they had to MAKE him play bad. He literally was hitting dead on the same velocity every hit. heheh
I have worked with studio guys that are like human metronomes and literally never waiver their beats even a hair. But the suggestions so far are dead on.
I have worked with studio guys that are like human metronomes and literally never waiver their beats even a hair. But the suggestions so far are dead on.
aytchster
Member
- Jun 30, 2010
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What I do with the toms is I zoom into the MIDI editor ridiculously and I select the floor tom (For example) from the pianoroll key so it selects all of the notes of that tom and then I slide them VERY slightly off the grid.
I move each tom piece to a different place and the shift is VERY slight so it's not off BUT it gives it a natural-esque sound.
The best thing to do before you write a drum part is watch drum videos of your favourite drummers and see how they do it and emulate that. Velocity hits and whatnot really make a difference.
For the demos I record for Benevolent all the velocities are usually cranked since it's 95% heavy bits that need smashing, BUT I've worked lots on velocities back in the day and you can make it so that people won't tell it's a machine.
I'm happy to do some humanization of a MIDI track for you if you'd like.
Hadi
I move each tom piece to a different place and the shift is VERY slight so it's not off BUT it gives it a natural-esque sound.
The best thing to do before you write a drum part is watch drum videos of your favourite drummers and see how they do it and emulate that. Velocity hits and whatnot really make a difference.
For the demos I record for Benevolent all the velocities are usually cranked since it's 95% heavy bits that need smashing, BUT I've worked lots on velocities back in the day and you can make it so that people won't tell it's a machine.
I'm happy to do some humanization of a MIDI track for you if you'd like.
Hadi
