Topic by chris

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  • chris
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  • Registered: 28-01-2014
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Topic: Some questions about humanizing the timing

Hi, I've created a piano song in FL Studio and it ended up (almost) completely quantized. It usually does so, because I actually want it to stand there like sheet music, without human timing errors. This is so easy to edit and looks so nice.

But it shouldn't sound quantized. So I've looked into "Mallet Bounce" in Pianotec Stage and turned "Humanization" to 100%. Now, I don't really know what it does. Can I "unquantize" - I mean randomize - the note starts with it? Or what's this fader actually doing? I don't hear much of a change.

What I'd also like to achieve is actually randomizing not the little timings but bigger tempo changes, like if you're playing piano without a metronome, and you drift somehow. I guess Pianoteq cannot do this, because there's no big MIDI buffer in it for that? Could I do that with some MIDI routing in the host and a special VST plugin? Editing the tempo changes in FL Studio myself woul be....horrible to do, to be honest, because I would need to create some "sinus like" or smooth envelope and in FL Studio all you can do is draw the tempi with the mouse cursor, and it doesn't really work well. Should I just try adding a tape delay effect maybe?

Thanks for any suggestion!

Reply by Pianoteqenthusiast

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  • Registered: 25-10-2013
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Re: Some questions about humanizing the timing

Hello Chris!
I dont think humanization can help you to unquantize. If you read the manual, s. 31, it says ”A special humanization feature allows the strike point to vary as if it was played by a human musician. This feature is particularly suitable for the chromatic percussion instruments. Right click on the strike point slider and select humanize. You can adjust the range of the random variation on both sides of the mean strike point.”  By the way, I dont quantize much anymore – only the bass to get some steady bottom, the rest is live. Then, in my opinion, it sounds live. Hope it help a bit.

Reply by delt

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  • From: Montréal, Canada
  • Registered: 11-06-2013
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Re: Some questions about humanizing the timing

If you use linux, Rosegarden (free, open-source) can do that with midi files. I don't know if there's a windowz or mac version.

http://soundcloud.com/delt01
Pianoteq 5 STD+blüthner, Renoise 3 • Roland FP-4F + M-Audio Keystation 88es
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