Tutorial 2 - Quantizing and Humanizing Functions in Cubase

[Pietro]

Hello everyone,

My second tutorial is now available at my website:

www.piotrmusial.com
(go to tutorials section)

I found out that one tutorial per week is a no-can-do, because it takes me whole day to create one, so they will appear unregularily, probably once or twice a month.

This time, I'm talking about some cool quantizing and humanizing functions in Cubase, based on edition of an example drum track. You have some basic stuff this time, but I'm sure more advanced users will (hopefully) not be dissapointed :)

Hope you'll find it useful. If something's wrong or not clear, let me know.

- Piotr

[t_l]

hard to read with a dark grey background.. and black fonts :O

[Pietro]

Thanks, fixed.

- Piotr

[t_l]

Nice! I grabbed the pdf. I always wondered where the heck I could change the random velocity settings! big cheeers for that!

[Pietro]

Thanks, I'm glad you've figured it out, with a little help of this tutorial :)

- Piotr

[TreyThree]

Great tutorial again Piotr, thanks for taking the time to put this together :D

[guy theaker]

Hi Piotr,

Nice tutorial. When you talk about Interactive Quantise, I think you mean Iterative
(as in, a process that you can do a number of times). Might be confusing for some.

[Pietro]

Thanks a lot!

It seems that I made a silly mistake :p I simply don't go to the menu too often, cause I have keycommands assigned to it. I'll fix this, and some other minor mistakes tomorrow.

Glad you like it, guys, hope it is useful to you in some way :)

- Piotr

[JCL]

Hallelujah! The MIDI gods have sent EastWest/Quantum Leap their own Beat Kaufman (if you don't mind the comparison, Pietro). Thank you for your generosity and courage in being the one to finally step up to lead many of us through the daunting maze of samples and software. I'm glad you were the one to finally do it, with the promise of more to come. I'm glad that you are confident and secure enough with your own skills-set to undertake such a far-reaching and much-needed activity. May it all come back to you ten-fold, my friend. You have the respect and gratitude of us all.

[Pietro]

Thanks for your support. I'll keep them coming! :)

- Piotr

[mdobrowolski]

This is very a cool tutorial, thanks for sharing. You`ve missed one important feature though - or maybe it`s just not worth mentioning, because everybody knows it ? Anyway... the easiest way to add some randomness(?) to the midi tracks (you know, make things more random :P) is to use "Track Parameters" section in the Inspector (the panel to the left of the tracklist). It has few very, very useful functions - Random Position / Velocity, Velocity Shift / Compression etc.

[Pietro]

Very good point, Maciek. I should have mentioned this option.

However, applying these effects at midi Track Parameters, for example random velocity (and still absolute values, not relative) will result in different values every time the midi note is played, disregarding what is displayed in piano roll/key editor, so you can't really controll the final result. If you for example apply a gentle position randomizing there, for say, qleg string patch, it may result in unpredictible notes overlaping, which for notes of the same pitch would mean not playing the one that was overlaped.

And that's why I do not prefer this method.

You can do the same with quantize, fixed velocity, logical operations and - should have mentioned this too - delete overlaps (mono) function. Plus, you can see and control the final result. I see there is some more material in midi edition functions for another tutorial. Maybe after the one, that will follow :)

- Piotr

[mdobrowolski]

Yeah, you have to be very careful with the note`s length, so it doesn`t overlap, that`s true :) I`ve mentioned this method because it`s useful and very quick (especially with the drums when note`s length doesn`t matter that much) and since you`re creating a 'quantize compendium' I just felt that it should be there :)

[pietro7050@verizon.net]

Piotr,
That's really great, I was asking how to do your first tutorial a few weeks ago! Extremely helpful.
Thanks

[A.Leung]

Thanks for your support. I'll keep them coming! :)

- Piotr

This is GREAT idea Piotr! Kudos for your efforts. I'm trying to find time to do a Logic-ewqlso tutorial section myself.

Cheers,

[Pietro]

Thanks Allan.

Hope you are doing well :)

- Piotr