Quantizing & Time Correction Philosophy

joesacco said
Either no quantize at all and try to play it as close as possible. And play it multiple times over and layer. Or, choose to quantize to the closest beat. In Ableton and I think Logic too, there’s an option that lets you select the percentage of how much you want to quantize. Instead of 100% you can select 60, 70% etc, so it doesn’t sound too “perfect”.

I have the same approach here as Joe. And often I’ll use the percentage parameter to loosen up any rigidity if and when using quantize.

Depends on the music mainly, but I’ll use the quantization percentage as mentioned a couple of times above – especially in orchestral music. Electronic music I’ll usually quantize to 100%.

Main thing in getting a good ‘computer-based’ performance is not just how you quantize but to use performance-based articulations (for dynamics or articulations, as previously mentioned), especially for orchestral music. Samples are by definition – static performances so it’s difficult to recreate that realism unless you’re using recorded ‘performance’ samples.

e.g. Instead of playing four quick string staccato notes individually on your keyboard, it’s better to play one sampled recording of 4 quick string staccato notes.

e.g.2. Instead of doing a trill manually on your keyboard (for strings for example) – it’s better to play a sampled recording of a trill.

e.g.3 – Instead of playing static legato string lines with your legato patches, it’s better to play something which has more of a performance to it (this is 8Dio’s philosophy for their library Adagio, which has great performance legatos if a slightly metallic sound),

e.g.4 – Instead of controlling a brass crescendo with a modwheel – it’s better to play a recorded sample of an actual brass crescendo

and so on….

Of course, the easiest way to avoid all this extra work and hassle is to hire a bunch of humans, rehearse a bit, press record, and DONE !

Or get an intern to do your MIDI programming for you…..

Even electronic music don’t have to be 100% quantized. We have swing styles in electronic music like dubstep which is syncopated and many more genres. Quantizing electronic music at 100% does make it punchy and powerful but some swing and some laid back quantization can give the music piece some little dynamics

reubenchng said
Even electronic music don’t have to be 100% quantized. We have swing styles in electronic music like dubstep which is syncopated and many more genres. Quantizing electronic music at 100% does make it punchy and powerful but some swing and some laid back quantization can give the music piece some little dynamics

Then you could just use ‘Swing Quantization’

I think even offsetting instead of perfect quantifying in electronic music can add more punch. Do you guys ever double your kicks with a ride or hat? I find if I sample delay it a bit it gives it something extra cool.

Agree with all of you guys, just a little thing to add – as it was mentioned, plastic keyboard is not a perfect device-) So for not to quantize, especially piano, I bought full-weighted keyboard, and now “piano quantizing” have gone far. The other important thing is the percussion, often I have to quantize it, especially when it’s three or more tracks of this kind. When playing them live just trying to make my best, not to touch the tracks at all. Yesterday, for example, I recorded few brass musicians, and tuba player was not always in the needed “dots”, so today I have to shift some notes to their positions. The last thing – when using orchestras, I try to manage tempo track, which also can add some “live” feeling – few ticks slower, few ticks faster – it works sometimes very well!

Hmmm, since the programmed drums, if I’m not using any loops, are most of the time 100% quantized anyway, I find there is not much room to “dictate” the machine my feel in that case. So honestly, although being a trained jazz pianist, I quantize a lot when it comes to keyboards and synths, because most of the times, playing a real bass and adding acoustic guitars already does the job to “bring it back to life”. Also a lot of times, I add shakers and tambourines with no quantisation at all.
For the more tricky shuffle feel rhythms, I found some quantization percentages in my DAW that come pretty close to my feel.
So, I think my “philosophy” regarding that matter changed a bit: I was always a “never quantize anything” guy and if I’d record with a band, I would try to time correct and quantize as little as possible. But we’re so accoustomed to “perfect” recordings that it’s almost impossible nowadays to record anything without any correction.

I vote for “no quantatize” most cases.

Best Regards, Andrey

I would say it`s a matter of personal preference/taste and style of the music. Of course it depends on what you want to achieve. The end results should be sounding good.

I only use quantization on the drums. I review the snares and hi-hats all apart so that I can quantize the snares in 1/8 and hi-hats in 1/16 and then of course I humanize the parts again so my parts are like 90% quantized or so