Step Up!

By John Walden

Cubase's StepDesigner offers a surprising amount of creative potential.

The StepDesigner interface with note data in the upper section and controller data (in this case velocity) in the lower one.

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with Sugar Bytes' excellent Thesys MIDI step sequencer plug-in. Thesys provides multiple lanes for each sequence, holding note data, velocity, pan and other MIDI controller data that can be used to control various synth parameters, and one of the really interesting features of Thesys is that you can change the step length of each of these lanes independently, allowing you to develop all sorts of evolving sounds. In short, there's a lot of fun to be had here and, as a Cubase user, it got me thinking: could the humble StepDesigner MIDI plug-in that comes bundled with Cubase be pressed into service to do something similar?

Quick Step

Aside from velocity and gate (note length), you can also pick two other continuous controller numbers to build into your patterns.

StepDesigner might not win prizes for elegance, but it is straightforward to use. It's placed as a MIDI Insert on the MIDI track that drives your target synth and, once opened, provides two main panes for editing: the upper note area and the lower controller lane. Patterns can be up to 32 steps in length and you can adjust this and the timebase of the steps (1/16th, 1/8th, for example) via the narrow control panel that runs along the top of the window. Other useful options include a swing control and buttons to shift the pattern left and right or reverse it and shift the notes up and down an octave.

Each instance of StepDesigner can contain up to 200 patterns. The current pattern number is indicated in the control strip at the base of the window and, during playback, MIDI notes can be used to automate pattern changes. Sets of patterns can be saved as presets for later recall.

Notes can be added to the pattern grid via the mouse. You can also click and drag to enter multiple notes, while the range of pitches displayed can be scrolled up and down if you want to enter higher or lower pitches. Notes longer than an individual step can be added via the Tie lane (between the Note and Controller lanes) and, for notes shorter than a step, you can add controller data to the Gate lane. Simply select Gate from the drop-down menu and draw in controller data to define note lengths. This menu allows you to toggle the controller lane between four sets of controller data: velocity and gate, and two, user-defined, continuous controllers. Note that velocity and continuous controller (CC) data is added here in the same way.

Your choice of which two CCs you use is configured via the Setup button. This selection box simply lists the CC numbers, so you'll need to check your target synth's MIDI specifications to work out exactly which CC numbers you require. In my example project I used Halion Sonic SE.

Out Of Time

As described in the main text, pairing two StepDesigner patterns of different step lengths allows you to create some interesting evolving sequences.

Used as described above, StepDesigner is a perfectly respectable pattern sequencer, but as all elements of the pattern (notes, velocity, gate and CCs) operate to the same number of steps, you can't create the 'different step length' effects possible in Thesys. So, I thought, how about using two (or more) instances of StepDesigner, all targeting the same synth, but set to different step lengths? Well, perhaps this wasn't what Steinberg had in mind (for reasons that will become obvious in a minute) when creating StepDesigner plug-in, but it can be made to work. There are, however, a couple of limitations... You're limited as to where you can insert your additional StepDesigner plug-ins. You might think that the obvious location would be the MIDI Insert slot beneath your first instance of the plug-in, but this doesn't work because the MIDI note output from the first StepDesigner instance is interpreted as program change data by the second instance, and CC data just doesn't seem to be passed at all. So you need to create a second MIDI track, with its own StepDesigner inserted, that targets exactly the same synth. In this way, the two instances of the plug-in do not interfere with each other (well, they do, but I'll come back to that issue in a minute) so both sets of StepDesigner data get to the synth.

The screenshot shows an example setup, with a 16-step pattern of notes playing in one instance of StepDesigner (top) while a second instance (bottom) is sending CC data to Halion Sonic SE's filter resonance in a 15-step pattern. Both patterns play back continuously and in sync with the project but, on each cycle through, the shorter filter cutoff pattern is offset by a single step relative to the note pattern. As a result, instead of the relationship between the notes and filter sweep staying constant, they change over each cycle and, in this case, only start to repeat after 15 cycles.

Changing the Step Length setting — in this case set to 1/2 — provides further variation.

You can, of course, add a third MIDI track and a third instance of StepDesigner, and then use this to set another synth parameter in motion over a different pattern length. The next screenshot shows a 28-step pattern set to vary Halion Sonic SE's filter cutoff. However, there's an extra trick employed here: the step size setting has been set to a half rather than a sixteenth. Each step in this instance of StepDesigner, therefore, lasts for half a bar and the whole 28-step pattern for 14 bars. Combine this with your two other levels of variation from the first two tracks and, well, it makes my head hurt trying to calculate, so let's just say the variation in the synth tone cycles over a long period! If you target a suitable combination of synth parameters and step lengths in this way, the sequence can take on a real ebb and flow, and the effect can be very cool indeed; it certainly avoids some of the 'rigidity' that's often associated with poor electronic music.

Hit The Buffers

StepDesigner's velocity and gate lanes can only be used when that instance of the plug-in is also sending note data (the velocity and note length data are part of the MIDI data passed with each note) but, as mentioned earlier, StepDesigner allows you to select two CCs of your choice to use in the other two lanes. You might think, therefore, that using two instances of the plug-in would give you four possible synth parameters to tweak and three instances would provide six. That's what I expected when I started experimenting, but found that it's here you're confronted by a second limitation.

I'm not sure if this is a 'feature' or simply a bug (I'll let you decide!) but, regardless of how many StepDesigner plug-ins you have active in your project — even if they are targeting different MIDI synths — they all seem to share the same two CC numbers. If you select a CC combination in one instance of the plug-in, the changes you make are applied to all instances (at least, that's my experience using Cubase 7 running on Mac OS X). It's almost as if the two CC numbers are stored at a Project level (they apply globally for that Project) rather than at a plug-in-level (applying just to that instance of the plug-in). I've not found a way around this, so it means that two CC numbers per project are all you can control via StepDesigner.

Making Notes

Combining two StepDesigner instances where both contain note data can create a 'moving melody' effect.

That may be disappointing, but there is one extra trick the plug-in can perform that Thesys (at least a single instance of Thesys) can't, which is to combine note sequences with different step lengths. This might sound like an odd thing to do but it can create some really interesting rhythmic and melodic results, with an effect that's not unlike singing in the round. The final screenshot shows an example. Both instances of StepDesigner are targeting the same synth, but use different MIDI tracks. The lower one is playing a very simple 16-step pattern of four notes, and provides a solid bass that syncs, without fail, to the project tempo. The upper pattern contains a more melodic phrase at a higher pitch and uses a 15-step pattern. As the patterns are repeated, the melody phrase gradually shifts one step at a time relative to the bass notes. The effect can be almost hypnotic — a solid bass and a repeating, but somehow 'moving', melody — with the synth tone itself also shifting if you apply some CC control as described above.

Step On It

With modern music technology, the user is often spoilt for creative choice and it's refreshing to take a simple tool and see just how far you can push it. StepDesigner might not be one of the more whizz-bang elements of the Cubase feature set but, despite the occasional quirk, with a little lateral thinking it's capable of great things.     

Published October 2013

Patch of the Week 26: volca modular into mutable clouds

Keyboard Fraud

By John Walden

Chords can be added to the Chord Track with the pencil tool and edited using the Chord Editor.

With the Chord Track, even the most keyboard-phobic and ham-fisted of composers can play in their piano parts!

Like many people, I can write half-decent chord sequences on a guitar, but if I want to perform those parts on a keyboard... well, let's just say my keyboard skills are somewhat limited, and I'm therefore grateful for all the help technology can now offer. There are commercial products that can help you create a convincing performance, of course, but Cubase 7's wonderful, albeit occasionally baffling, Chord Track already includes a keyboard-playing assistant. So, if your keyboard skills are as, ahem, 'good' as mine, let me show you how the Chord Track can help you fake it...

Chord Track Basics

We've already covered a couple of applications of the Cubase Chord Track in previous workshops: using it to re-pitch MIDI and monophonic audio when you want to adjust a chord sequence but don't want to re-record existing parts (June 2013) and in creating harmony parts from audio tracks (July 2013). As a brief reminder, the Chord Track allows you to specify a chord sequence along your project timeline. Once this is done you can select a MIDI or audio track (as long as the audio contains a monophonic performance such as a vocal or instrumental melody part) and, via the track's Chord Track panel in the Inspector window, configure this to follow the Chord Track; Cubase will magically re-pitch notes to fit the chords and scale specified by the Chord Track.

In this example, I used an audio guide track to help me position the chord changes.Much of the time this works well, but for audio tracks in particular it's not fool-proof, and a little manual editing may be required. It's worth noting that the Chord Track's documentation is not the easiest to follow, particularly with regard to the interaction between the Chord Track settings and the Inspector settings for each individual track. Thankfully, for this month's trick the settings are very straightforward.

Write It Yourself

The first step is the creation of the song's chord progression. Thankfully, that still requires a modicum of musical skill (it would be a boring world if we took everything human out of the music-making process — although the Chord Assistant can even help with this if you want it to!). Once the muse has struck, you need to add a Chord Track (Project/Add Track/Chord), and populate it with your chosen chord sequence. As I've usually developed my chord sequences on my guitar, I'll often record this to a click track as an audio guide, but you can just go straight to the Chord Track if you prefer. Creating the Chord Track events is most efficiently done in two passes. First, using the pencil tool, add blank chord events (they appear with a big X in them) for each chord change. Then, using the Chord Editor (click on a chord event to open the Chord Editor), you can enter the appropriate chord.

The key thing (other than picking the right chords!) here is the timing of your chord changes, which is particularly important if you've written and performed the chord sequence on another instrument and the natural groove plays slightly off the beat. Using an audio guide track and zooming in will allow you to position your Chord Track events to hit those chord changes more accurately — you can turn off snap to grid, or select finer quantise values if you need to.

Get Rhythm

With your Chord Track sorted, the fun can commence. First, create a MIDI track and link it to a suitable virtual instrument (I used an acoustic piano patch in Halion Sonic SE in my example project, as shown in the screenshots). Then, in the Chord Track panel of the MIDI track's Inspector, change the Live Transform setting to Chords. This will result in real-time transformation of any MIDI-note data routed to the track's input. Whatever notes you play, Cubase will re-pitch them so that they're transformed into notes that fit the current chord on the Chord Track.

To fake some piano chords, the MIDI track's Live Transform setting needs to be set to 'Chords'.

If you set your locators around your chord progression and loop playback, you can apply almost as much keyboard incompetence as you wish! Cubase will make some sensible chords out of it and, if you record your performance, what you're left with are harmonically correct chords. The one thing to ensure is that whatever notes you play span a reasonable spread of keys: if, for example, you want the end result to be a simple three-note (triad) chord, don't just bash out three adjacent notes as Cubase might transform two of these to the same MIDI note, leaving you with a two-note chord. Instead, span your three fingers a little wider over the keys or, crass as it might sound, use the flat of your palm and play five or six adjacent notes. Amazingly, out will pop the right chords! The good thing about this approach is that it allows you to focus on the rhythmic elements of your performance, which can suffer if you're worrying too hard about fingering the chords correctly.

If you want to create a melodic part, the 'Scale' Live Transform setting can be used.If you change your hand position as you play, you'll find that the transformation process will produce different inversions of the required chords, which adds some useful variety to the performance. You can even play with two hands, perhaps playing a single bass note with your left hand and full chords with your right; again, the transformation process will give you a harmonically correct end result that follows the Chord Track.

Scale New Heights

Perhaps it isn't just the chords that you want help with, though… If you need some melodic parts — even if that's only a few incidental notes — the Chord Track can again be pressed into service. When you add chords to the Chord Track, Cubase will automatically add scale events based on the chords used. If you want more control (or wish to avoid some of the more esoteric scale selections), unchecking the Automatic Scales options in the Chord Track's Inspector allows you to set the scale events manually. You can set the key and choose from a range of different scale types to suit the musical style of your track.

Providing that you've specified the correct scale(s) in the Chord Track, simply switch the MIDI track's Live Transform setting to the 'Scale' option, and any notes that you play will be transformed to fit the scale.

Having It All

For full-on left-hand/right-hand faking, creating two MIDI tracks and a keyboard split within Halion Sonic SE will get the job done.

It's also possible to fake simultaneous left-hand chord and right-hand melody performances, and this can be done a number of ways. If, for example, your master MIDI keyboard includes a 'split' option that allows you to transmit notes above/below the split on different MIDI channel then simply configure two MIDI tracks with two instances of the same VST instrument and set each to receive the appropriate MIDI channel. If you configure the Live Transform settings of one MIDI track to 'Chords' and the other to 'Scale', you can (rather too easily) create some two-handed 'faking'

Alternatively, some VST instruments allow you to limit the range ofIf you switch off the Automatic Scales options in the Chord Track, you can then manually configure the scales used. MIDI notes a patch will respond to. As shown in the screenshot, Halion Sonic SE allows you to do this, and I've set up two instances of a piano sound where each responds to one half of the MIDI note range. Providing you record-enable both MIDI tracks connected to these Halion Sonic SE channels, and configure the Live Transform settings as described in the previous paragraph, you can achieve the same effect.

Guilty Pleasure

While I'm all for improving my own musical skills, I have to admit that since discovering how absurdly easy the Cubase 7 Chord Track makes it to bypass my less-than-stellar keyboard chops, the incentive for me to improve said chops has decreased dramatically — and faking keyboard performances in this fashion has become a bit of a guilty pleasure! Is this wrong? I'll leave you to discuss that with your own musical conscience; I'm too busy laying down piano parts that get the job done to worry about it!    

 

Published November 2013

Patch of the Week 25: volca modular + eurorack pitch quantization

 

On Your Marks

By John WaldenGet more done in less time, with these workflow tips for Cubase 7.

One of the main frustrations with DAW software is how long everything seems to take — often just long enough for you to lose the creative inspiration you were seeking to nurture! Wouldn't it be nice, then, if your Cubase projects benefitted from a little more flow and a lot less work? Follow this tutorial and hopefully you'll achieve that, because this month I'll offer several tips that should result in a more efficient use of your favourite DAW software.

The Curse Of The GUI

Our interaction with almost all modern computer software is through a graphical user interface (GUI). While the GUI makes it easier to access the multitude of features in today's 'bloatware', it doesn't necessarily make it faster. Certainly, when you use a feature frequently — perhaps dozens of times during a working day — being tied to a mouse and a menu is not the best way forward; you really do need to use key commands. If the keyboard shortcut takes a tenth of the time itWe all spend a lot of time in the project window so it's worth learning the most efficient way to work within it (and that doesn't include those pesky zoom sliders at the bottom-right). takes to execute the same command with a mouse, and this saving is totted up over the 20 or so commands you execute perhaps hundreds of times every working day... well, you do the maths. You'l certainly save a hell of a lot of time and frustration.

Every Cubase user spends a lot of time in the Project window, so for our 'workflow efficiency 101' that's a good place to start. Our main mouse-free, workflow enhancements may seem unglamorous and perhaps a little obvious, but get to grips with them fully and they'll speed up your work more than anything else: let's hear it for Markers, Zooming options and Key Commands...

Marking Time

In all but the simplest of projects, if you know you're going to spend some time working on it, it's well worth creating a Marker track. Cubase provides two kinds of markers — position and cycle — and both have their uses. Position markers simply identify a single point on the timeline. You might use these to identify important locations when, for example, composing to picture, where position markers can identify 'hit' points where the music has to synchronise with the on-screen action. For song-based work, where you have the usual array of defined song sections, cycle markers are often more useful. As the name suggests, these are paired markers that can be used to identify the start and end points of a particular song section.

You can add both types of markers via the Marker track or the dedicated Marker window. Position markers will be added at the project cursor position while cycle markers will be added at the current left/right locator positions. Initial positioning of markers is a one-off task so we can forgive ourselves some mouse work there. However, once positioned, key commands exist to either move the cursor to a marker (position or cycle) and to recall a cycle marker. The beauty of the latter function is that it A project can contain both position and cycle markers but, for clarity, you can choose to filter their display within the Marker window if required.instantly moves the left and right locators to cycle marker positions ready for cycle playback. For moving quickly back and forth to work on different song sections, this is a huge time saver. The 'Recall Cycle Marker' key commands are not defined by default so a visit to the Key Commands window is required to configure these.

The only other issue to consider with cycle markers is whether you position them exactly on the song section boundaries, or whether you set them a bar or two pre and post those boundaries. The latter approach obviously means you get a couple of bars of pre-roll and post-roll around the song section which can be useful when doing multiple takes via cycle-based recording.

Zooming About

Aside from moving between different song sections, the other oft-repeated navigation task is zooming in or out — both vertically and horizontally — on the Project window contents. This can be done in various ways but (unless you're a glutton for self-abuse!) avoid using the horizontal and vertical zone sliders that lurk bottom-right of the Project window; they're too small and fiddly to give you sufficiently precise control (in fairness to Steinberg, similar controls in other DAWs are equally irritating).

Instead, learn just a few of the zoom-related key commands. The most obvious of these are pre-defined by default; horizontal zoom in and out uses the H and G keys respectively, Alt/Option+H or G zooms in and out in a vertical sense, while Shift+F automatically zooms horizontally to show the full length of the project.

However, there are a few other very useful ones that are not pre-defined and you ought to define for yourself. For example, Zoom To Selection Horizontally (rather than just the Zoom To Selection key command) and Zoom To Locators are both very useful. The latter is great when used in combination with the Recall Cycle Marker; two quick key combinations and you have both your song section selected and are zoomed in horizontally to view it. If you then add the To Left Locator key command (by default, 1 on the number pad), then your cursor is all ready to start playback (via the SpacebarBeing able to recall preset cycle markers using key commands means you can get working on the required song section in an instant. key command, of course) of that song section.

In addition, if you need to flip back and forth between two zoom settings, it is worth defining key commands for the Redo Zoom and Undo Zoom options.

Unlock Your Potential

Even just adding these cycle-section selection and zoom key commands to your keyboard repertoire will bring significant workflow improvements, but these commands hold the key to plenty of other possibilities for further time saving. Obvious examples are the key commands for moving between tracks and selecting events on tracks. For example, in the absence of having any events selected within the Project window, the up/down cursor keys will move you through the track list, selecting each track in turn. If you hold the Shift key at the same time, you can select multiple tracks in the same fashion, adding tracks either beneath the current selection or above it.

If you then try the left/right cursor keys, these allow you to select an individual event on the currently selected track (or on the topmost track if you have several tracks selected). Again, adding in the Shift key allows you to select multiple events along an individual track while holding Shift and pressing the up/down cursor keys expands the selection of events onto tracks above/below the current one.

Used in this way, it is very easy to select a horizontal/vertical range in your project manually (perhaps a range that doesn't coincide with one of your song sections already defined by cycle markers). And once you've done that, the default Alt/Option+S key command executes the Zoom To Selection command to perfectly zoom horizontally and vertically into your selection.

Finally, if you use Folder Tracks to organise projects containing lots of tracks, there are various key commands available for folding/unfolding these, although you do have to define them for yourself within the Key Commands window.

Pretty Fly For A GUI Guy

There is nothing dramatic about any of the examples provided above except, of course, the fact that when repeated over and over again in the course of a working day, they will save you a significant chunk of time. However, nothing comes for free and, if you want to benefit from these efficiencies, you have to train yourself to use them — which often means working hard to break your existing habit of reaching for the mouse.

Creating a printout of these Project window navigation shortcuts (most easily done by making some screen grabs of the Navigate, Transport and Zoom sections of theThe Zoom section of the Key Commands window has lots of options for improving your Project window navigation. Key Commands list) will help enormously. For a short while, this might feel like one step back rather than two steps forward but, if you persevere, I promise the rewards will come. It will be one less thing to get between you and the realisation of your musical/production ideas, so it should lead to quicker and more satisfying results. And if not, well, at least you'll have saved enough time destroy a few more brain cells by getting to the pub significantly earlier!  

Faster Transport

While the Cubase Transport panel contains lots of useful information and can be easily customised, there are times when it just gets in the way, especially if you work on a laptop with a modest amount of screen space. All the common Transport panel functions can be executed via key commands — toggling playback on/off, activating record, toggling cycle mode on/off, fast forwarding or reversing and returning to the zero time point, amongst other things — just consult the Transport section of the Key Commands window. You can then toggle off the Transport panel and save some screen space. Oh, and the key command for that is the F2 key! 

Published December 2013

Patch of the Week 24: microKORG Sandstorm Chords

Multitracking Drums

By John Walden

Our starting point, the mutitrack drum comp. In this case, it's a simple 12-bar drum part.

Last month, I explained how to 'comp' a performance from multiple-take multitrack recordings, using Cubase 6's Group Editing features. That's great if the takes are perfect, but there are times when even a decent drum performance can benefit from slightly tightened timing. Fortunately, Cubase 6 offers the means to do this for multitrack audio recordings.

The audio-warp facility can be used to time-stretch and quantise audio events, but for quantising multitracked drums, slicing at hitpoints provides better results. Group Editing is the key to this slicing process, because it ensures that each track is sliced at exactly the same points, and that slices from different tracks stay locked together in time — thus avoiding the pitfall of tracks being moved out of phase alignment.

Consolidate

Let's assume you've completed the comping process described last month: you've identified the best bit of each take and set the required sub-sections of each take to have playback priority. To apply some quantise options to the multitrack audio, you need to identify the hitpoints (in the case of drum tracks, the start of each drum hit) and then slice the audio. To perform these operations, it's helpful to have each track rendered to a single, continuous audio event. Check that the Folder Track still has the Group Editing switch engaged (the button that looks like an '=' symbol in the Group Track header), and then select all the audio events on the drum tracks and apply the Audio / Bounce Selection function. The sub-sections of the various takes will be combined into a single audio event for each track.

Hit Me Baby

The comp after applying 'Bounce Selection'. Each track now contains a single audio event, which can be used to generate hitpoints.

The next step is to add hitpoints, using the Sample Editor. Kick and snare close-mic tracks are usually the best candidates, as a suitable threshold setting (one that identifies all the drum hits but is not so sensitive that the bleed from other drums also creates hitpoints) is usually easy to find. Not all cases will be simple, though, and, depending on the amount of bleed between mics, some manual editing may be required to remove hitpoints triggered by undesirable sounds. Individual hitpoints can be disabled by Shift-clicking. For maximum flexibility, add hitpoints to each track that you think controls the overall drum groove.

Nicely Sliced

Hitpoints need to be created in the Sample Editor for each of the key drum tracks.

Back in the Project window, select all the drum-track audio events (with Group Editing switched on, selecting an event on one track will automatically select corresponding events on the other tracks). Then open the Quantize Panel, which is accessed via the Edit menu. If all goes well, you should see at least two sections in this panel: Slice Rules and Quantize. A third (Crossfades) will appear later in the process. I say 'if all goes well', because Cubase sometimes decides that the conditions are not quite right for audio quantising via a Group edit. The key issue seems to be that the audio events on each track must be exactly the same length.

The Slice Rules section allows you to attach a different priority to each track for which you've generated hitpoints. Which tracks are attached the highest priority obviously depends on which drum element you deem to be the most important in terms of the groove, but it's well worth experimenting a little here. Hitpoints that are going to be 'active' in any slicing are displayed in red, and if you adjust the track priorities you can see these change.

The two other Slice Rules settings are Range and Offset. Range simply identifies how close two hitpoints on different tracks can be before they're considered to be the same (with the higher priority track taking precedence), and Offset determines whether the slice point will be at the exact position of the hitpoint or slightly before. The default offset is -20ms, so the slice is going to be placed before the hitpoint and, therefore, before the attack of the drum hit. (If this sounds strange, you'll see shortly that it's actually very sensible!)

Pressing the Slice button separates the audio on all tracks at each of the red hitpoints, so slicing occurs at exactly the same place on every track in the group. If you're not satisfied with the result, the double-headed arrow icon at the bottom-left of the Slice Rules section is a 'reset' button: it retains your carefully crafted hitpoints but returns the audio to its original unsliced state so you can try again.

Let's Swing

The Quantize Panel's Slice Rules set the priority given to each track's timing. Its central section allows you to define the quantisation type.

Once the multitrack audio is sliced, use the central Quantize section of the Quantize Panel to adjust the timing of the performance. These controls are almost identical to those used when quantising MIDI, so they should feel familiar to most Cubase users. There's plenty to experiment with, from simple tightening of timing by setting a grid resolution, to adding a bit of swing to that grid, or applying a groove quantise based on a groove from another performance.

There are other useful controls, too. The Catch Range setting is useful for more complex material, as it allows you to restrict quantising actions to the hitpoints that are close to the major grid beats. If you want to avoid things feeling too mechanical, subtle use of the Randomize setting can help (or make your drummer sound sloppy, depending how far you take it!).

It's possible to use the Quantize button to apply the quantise settings you've selected, but engaging the Auto Apply switch means that the audio slices will move around as you change the quantise settings. Whichever way you approach this, note that when slices move, the corresponding slices on each track stay locked together — so if slice three on the kick track is moved by the quantise process, slice three on all other tracks will move with it, which keeps the phase relationships between the tracks correctly aligned. Brilliant!

Not Fade Away

The Crossfades section can smooth out the transitions between each slice and, because of the Offset setting in the Slice Rules section of the Quantize Panel, the crossfades can be positioned prior to the actual hitpoints and therefore do not interfere with the actual drum hits.

Moving slices can open up 'gaps' in the audio between adjacent slices, or make some slices overlap. A third section of the Quantize Panel, called 'Crossfades' can be seen in the example screen shot, and this only appears once you've pressed the Slice button. When you've quantised the audio to your satisfaction, a quick press of the Crossfade button will close the gaps between the slices and apply a crossfade (the length of which is governed by the Length setting) between each slice. It's at this point that the need for the Offset setting in the Slice Rules section becomes apparent: slicing a small distance before the drum hit means that the crossfades between adjacent slices can be made to fall into this area, rather than across the drum hit itself — so the hits don't suffer. In most cases, applying these crossfades tidies things up nicely.

All being well, you should now have compiled your best multitrack drum part, and enhanced it further using glitch-free multitrack quantising. If not, it's easy enough to go back and tweak the quantise settings further, as the fades will adjust themselves as you do.

All this said, making audio quantise work smoothly requires practice, so to begin with I'd suggest that a KISS (keep it simple, stupid!) approach is the right way to go: try working with some less complex drum performances at first, where there are fewer hitpoints to worry about. Once you've mastered the mechanics, you can explore the potential for correcting, or adding a little post-recording groove to more complex drum tracks.

Beware Rigidity

It's easy to overdo quantisation, particularly if you're quantising to the grid at a fixed tempo. You might want your drummer to sound like a robot, but most of us don't — so experiment with the amount of quantising you apply. If you want to go further, you could investigate the possibility of adding a more natural quantise groove to your production — but that's a topic for another month.      

Published March 2012