Sonar Home Studio: Humanizing midi (drums) to be slightly off beat/tempo?

[thefyn]

I know how to humanize velocities in Sonar Home Studio so that it adjusts the sample/volume for each drum hit.

But how do I make my midi notes drag very slightly away from the snapped grid?

I'm not wanting to make it random/sloppy. Just not completely 100% perfect/regimented?

I did a search and all I could see was refs to humanizing velocities.

I have ezdrummer and SS drums, but I would like a midi in general solution so I can do the same thing for all midi bassed stuff.

 

[UM1]

I know how to humanize velocities in Sonar Home Studio so that it adjusts the sample/volume for each drum hit.

But how do I make my midi notes drag very slightly away from the snapped grid?

I'm not wanting to make it random/sloppy. Just not completely 100% perfect/regimented?

I did a search and all I could see was refs to humanizing velocities.

I have ezdrummer and SS drums, but I would like a midi in general solution so I can do the same thing for all midi bassed stuff.

Maybe I am not understanding your problem completely but can't you just turn "Snap" off in the MIDI editor and then place the hit where you want it?

I use Cubase and it has a dedicated drum editor that makes it easy to see where the hits are placed and with Snap off, you can place them anywhere you like.

 

[Habsburgs]

schwa/midi_humanizer

 

[MacoySIN]

sonar pe has this midi plugin called "quantize". just enable "random" and set the parameters to taste. i think sonar home studio has this too.
it also has this "velocity" midi plugin that can randomize note velocities.

 

[Jind]

It almost sounds like you want to adjust the swing setting (depending on version - it is probably a setting under edit | quantize). It's default setting is 50% which will have the result of all the hits falling exactly on the beat. By either raising or lowering this value you cause the off-beats to either fall a little late or early. Raising this value creates a more laid back feel, lowering it rushed or pushed beat.

Hope thats what your looking for.

 

[guitarguru777]

There is no 'Swing" feature in Sonar, Swing should be handled from the Plugin side. Slate, EZD, and SD2 all have this feature built in.

I am a Cakewalk Sonar user and have been for 15 years. I go in and do it all by hand. Comes out MUCH more natural sounding.

 

[Jind]

There is no 'Swing" feature in Sonar, Swing should be handled from the Plugin side. Slate, EZD, and SD2 all have this feature built in.

I am a Cakewalk Sonar user and have been for 15 years. I go in and do it all by hand. Comes out MUCH more natural sounding.

Sorry to say but you are wrong about this one - I'm also a Sonar user, have been for quite some time now. Add a MIDI clip, select it, go up to the menu under Process | Quantize - there most certainly is a Swing setting in that window.

It's been in Sonar for quite some time now.

Here it is in a screen capture from a Sound on Sound article back in 2006. The window is a bit different now, but still has Swing.

And from the Sonar 8.5 reference manual:

Swing

Many projects do not have notes positioned on a perfectly even time grid. For example, projects with a swing feel, though they may be written entirely in eighth notes, are often played more like eighth-note triplets, with the first note extended and the second one shortened. The swing option lets you distort the timing grid so each pair of notes is spaced unevenly, giving the quantized material a swing feel.

A swing value of 50 percent (the default) means that the grid points are spaced evenly. A value of 66 percent means that the time between the first and second grid points is twice as long as the time between the second and third points.

 

[thefyn]

Sorry to say but you are wrong about this one - I'm also a Sonar user, have been for quite some time now. Add a MIDI clip, select it, go up to the menu under Process | Quantize - there most certainly is a Swing setting in that window.

It's been in Sonar for quite some time now.

Here it is in a screen capture from a Sound on Sound article back in 2006. The window is a bit different now, but still has Swing.

And from the Sonar 8.5 reference manual:

Perfect. Thanks. The thought of manually sliding every other midi note on 12 heavily midi'd tracks was daunting.

 

[Jind]

Perfect. Thanks. The thought of manually sliding every other midi note on 12 heavily midi'd tracks was daunting.

Most welcome - I've used the "Swing" setting quite a bit to get a laid back feel in stuff quite often. You might also like watching the SONAR: Master Class - Drum Production videos they put out - they use the swing feature in Step Sequencer 2.0 to create a laid back drum patterns in one of the videos. Good videos with some nice insight to the possibilities for creating drum parts and the tools available in Sonar.

Here is a link to the first one - there are 5 parts to the series.

 

[thefyn]

Most welcome - I've used the "Swing" setting quite a bit to get a laid back feel in stuff quite often. You might also like watching the SONAR: Master Class - Drum Production videos they put out - they use the swing feature in Step Sequencer 2.0 to create a laid back drum patterns in one of the videos. Good videos with some nice insight to the possibilities for creating drum parts and the tools available in Sonar.

Here is a link to the first one - there are 5 parts to the series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X-fIfLFtvM

Thanks again.

What hit home for me were the midi files from a perfect circle drummers sessions. Looking at the grid at how off a all of the hits were, but the drums along with the music sounds so tight but played with amazing feel made me reconsider what perfect actually means.

 

[Jind]

I know what you mean - while I do love my "watertight like a ducks ass - tight to the grid metal", I also really enjoy groove and pocket drummers that just have a feel for what they are playing and know when to lay back and when to rush the beat - it has a very emotional effect when done well. It's not obvious, but in the end it plays as big a role in some songs as the instrumentation and lyrics.

 

[digitaldeath]

Thanks again.

What hit home for me were the midi files from a perfect circle drummers sessions. Looking at the grid at how off a all of the hits were, but the drums along with the music sounds so tight but played with amazing feel made me reconsider what perfect actually means.

Where can I get said MIDI files?
Oh, I just posted some MIDI from my e-kit, check out my latest thread.

 

[thefyn]

Where can I get said MIDI files?
Oh, I just posted some MIDI from my e-kit, check out my latest thread.

http://www.stevenslatedrums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1847