Quantizing

Quantizing is one of the most important editing functions in Music Creator. You use this feature to correct timing errors you make when recording from a MIDI instrument or to adjust the timing of audio clips.

Very few musicians are capable of performing in perfect time. As you play, you are likely to strike some notes slightly before or after the beat or to hold some notes slightly longer than you intended. The Quantize commands can help to correct these types of timing mistakes.

The Process > Quantize command adjusts the start time and duration of selected notes so that they line up with a fixed size grid.

Resolution

The resolution indicates the spacing of the grid. You can use any value from a whole note down to a thirty-second note triplet. You can also specify resolution in clock ticks. A rule of thumb is to select a resolution that matches the smallest note in the region you are quantizing. If you are quantizing a run of sixteenth notes, use a sixteenth note as the resolution. If you are quantizing a mix of sixteenth and eighth notes, you should still use a sixteenth note. At the default timebase of 480 PPQ, 480 clock ticks is equal to quarter-note resolution.

Offset

Normally, the resolution grid is aligned evenly with the start of measures and beats. As an option, you can shift the grid earlier or later by any desired number of clock ticks. If the resolution is a quarter note and you’ve set the offset to +3 ticks, then a note that is originally near 1:01:000 would be moved to 1:01:003—three ticks beyond the beat boundary.

Duration

As an option, Music Creator can adjust the duration of note events so that each note ends one clock tick before the start of the nearest resolution-sized note. This ensures that the notes do not overlap, which can cause problems on some synthesizers. The adjustment may lengthen the duration of some notes and shorten the duration of others.

Strength

The human ear is tuned to the slight “imperfections” we hear from most musicians. If you quantize a project so that all notes are perfectly in position, it may end up sounding mechanical or rigid. To avoid this, Music Creator lets you adjust the strength of the adjustment. A strength of 100 percent indicates that all notes are moved so that they are in perfect time, while a strength of 50 percent means that all notes are moved half-way towards the desired position. This lets you “tighten up” the timing as much as you want, without going too far.

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. The following figure illustrates the effect of the swing setting on the timing grid:

Window

When you quantize some portion of a project, you might not want to adjust notes that are very far from the grid. The window, or sensitivity, setting lets you choose how close to the resolution grid a note must be located for quantize to move it.

A window of 100 percent includes all notes and guarantees that all notes will be shifted to lie exactly on the grid. The window extends half the resolution distance before and after the quantization point. A window of 50 percent extends only a quarter of the way toward the adjacent quantization points.

Other settings

If you want, you can restrict the types of events that are affected by the Quantize commands to only notes, lyrics, and audio clips. If you choose this option, Music Creator will not modify other events, like controllers.

To use the Quantize command

1.	Select the material you want to quantize using any of the selection tools and commands.

2.	Choose Process > Quantize to display the Quantize dialog box.

Figure 222. The Quantize dialog box.

3.	Choose one of your own presets from the list, or enter the settings you want according to the table:

Table 115.  

Setting	What to do
Resolution	Choose a note size or enter the number of clock ticks
Change	Check the event types and characteristics you want to change
Options	Enter values for Strength, Swing, Window, and Offset

4.	Click Audition if you want to hear how the quantization will sound; press Stop to stop auditioning the change.

5.	Make adjustments as necessary.

6.	Click OK when you are done.

Music Creator quantizes the selected MIDI information and audio clips. You can use Undo to restore the material to its original state.