Tuesday, May 31, 2022
Monday, May 30, 2022
Cubase Pro: Audio Alignment & ADR
Screen 1: The Audio Alignment Panel, primed to tighten up a double-tracked vocal part.
Cubase Pro 10's Audio Alignment Panel can do more than just deliver tight backing vocals!
The new Audio Alignment Panel (AAP) was one of Cubase 10's most eye-catching new features — it allows you to align the timing of two (or more) audio clips almost instantly, by automating its AudioWarp and Hitpoints/Slices facilities. What was previously a time-consuming manual chore now takes just a few clicks. It holds obvious appeal for working double-tracked lead vocals and stacked backing vocals, but it can also be useful in some other scenarios, as I'll show — but let's start with the obvious...
On The Double
Screen 1 (red waveforms), above, shows a section of a double-tracked lead vocal. The waveform (and audio examples below) show that the singer actually did a pretty good job, but there was scope for improvement — and the AAP allowed us to tighten things nicely.
Open the AAP (from the Project window toolbar or via the Audio menu), select the audio clip that will act as your Reference (timing master) in the Project window, and click the '+' button for the Reference entry in the AAP. The track's name should appear. Repeat this for the Target clip (the audio whose timing you wish to adjust to match the Reference). In this example, that's our second lead vocal take.
For double-tracked vocals, the Match Words option is best; the AAP will use AudioWarp to stretch/compress the Target to more closely match its timing to that of the Reference. You can also set the Alignment Precision, which is similar in concept to quantising (higher values produce a more precise timing match). I chose 100 percent, which could be extreme for some styles, but if you take things too far you can simply undo the processing once applied. Experimenting with the Alignment Precision in this way makes it super-easy to find the setting that sounds the most musically appealing. And that's it. It takes just a few clicks and a few seconds. Typically, no further manual tweaking will be required, but you can move the AudioWarp markers by hand as normal if you feel the need to tweak any little details.
Well Stacked
Screen 2: Aligning multiple backing vocal tracks at once.
The same principles apply when dealing with more parts, as with stacked backing vocals. Screen 2 (blue) shows five vocal takes and, as before, I've identified my Reference take. But this time, I've selected and added multiple (four) Target clips. If you do this and then click Align Audio, all targets will be time-corrected relative to the Reference clip in a single operation. Again, experiment with the Alignment Precision — in this case, I opted for 80 percent, which struck a nice balance between tightness and a natural sound.
In my experience, with a reasonable vocal performance as a starting point, the AAP produces a very good result nine times out of 10. If you find that you do need to go in and manually tweak an AudioWarp marker or two, don't get frustrated: just try and remember just how much time you've saved overall!
Read My Lips
Another common application for the AAP is Automatic Dialogue Replacement (ADR), a common practice in film/TV post-production. The idea is that less-than-perfect on-set dialogue is overdubbed and replaced in a studio, but with timing correction applied so that lip-sync with the picture is maintained. There are specialist software tools for this task (notably Synchro Arts' Revoice Pro 4, reviewed in SOS April 2019), but if you can't justify the additional outlay, is the Audio Alignment Panel worth exploring?
Screen 3: Although it doesn't quite match Revoice Pro for high-end professional ADR duties, Cubase's AAP is still capable of great results.
Screen 3 (purple) shows a typical case, with a section of on-set spoken dialogue (the top-most track, recorded with a boom mic and with background noise) and a version of the same dialogue recorded in more ideal studio conditions, to be used as a replacement (the middle track; no correction yet applied). As indicated by their respective waveforms, the replacement dialogue is not a disaster, but still there's scope to tighten the timing.
In the AAP, the on-set dialogue acts as our Reference and the studio version our Target. I experimented with different Alignment Precision settings and also with engaging the Prefer Time Shifting setting. The latter is well worth exploring if your voiceover artist is particularly good to start with, as it does less time stretching/compression and more slicing and moving — so, in theory, it ought to sound cleaner. In this case, despite my less-than-average voiceover skills, the default AAP settings did the best job.
One other option worth trying is to split the Target audio into separate clips for each distinct phrase and then process these independently. While this takes more time — and in this case it didn't really seem to bring any great benefits — it could be a useful approach when faced with just a few stubborn phrases.
The bottom-most track shows the AAP-corrected dialogue. The shifts in the waveform transients, while modest, are easily seen and heard; on the whole, the result is a much tighter match to the timing of the original dialogue. Would it satisfy the more exacting demands of a sound editor on a Hollywood film? Perhaps not. But for most of us it's certainly a huge time–saver, even if we find ourselves making the occasional manual edit.
Guitar's The Star
Vocals aren't the only source that's commonly double-tracked. Guitars are another popular candidate; in fact, in some genres (metal springs to mind) they can often be quadruple-tracked. A really good player can pull this feat off without breaking sweat, but us mere mortals might need a little help to get the same super-tight result. In principle, it's no different from tightening vocals, but if the part is busy, or the sound overdriven, or if the player uses techniques such as palm muting or slides, it's not difficult to imagine Cubase struggling to determine where the AudioWarp markers should sit. So, is the AAP a viable option here?
Screen 4: It might be primarily intended for vocal alignment, but the AAP can also work well on other instruments, such as double-tracked guitars.
In Screen 4 (green) there are again three waveforms. Top and middle are the original, unprocessed, double-tracked guitar parts (a grungy riff followed by a short chord sequence) and, as the marker positions indicate, the performances were not a million miles apart but the note/chord transient positions are consistently different. The bottom track shows the result of applying the AAP to the middle track, using the top one as a Reference. While some transients don't line up perfectly with the Reference, the match is certainly closer — and if you check out the audio examples, you'll hear that the riff section in particular feels much tighter.
Having tried the same approach with a range of other guitar parts, the results were generally pretty good. Yes, you can defeat the AAP with performance/sound combinations that are rhythmically very complex, or the sounds slathered in effects, both of which understandably make automatic identification and matching of transients more challenging. And if you usually DI your guitar parts, it's perhaps worth using the clean DI signal for alignment, before adding distortion or amp-sim effects. But given that the process takes only a few seconds, it's well worth seeing if the results are usable or not.
So, for vocals, this new facility is a huge time-saver that delivers great results. And even for non-vocal applications the Audio Alignment Panel can be well worth a try.
Audio Examples
Audio Example 01
Double-tracked vocal example. Two passes of the same double-tracked vocal performance are presented in this clip. In the first pass, the two tracks are unprocessed and panned left/right. In the second pass, the Audio Alignment panel settings shown in the screenshot of the main article have been applied. The result is a much tighter match between the two tracks.
Audio Example 02
Stacked backing vocals example. Two passes of the same multi-tracked backing vocal performance are presented in this clip. In the first pass, five takes are included, panned at various points across the stereo field (note that the performance contains two phrases with similar wording). In the second pass, one track has been used as a Reference and the other four as Targets within the Audio Alignment Panel. The settings used are shown in the screenshot within the main article. While there are still a couple of spots where you can hear timing differences (and these could be manually edited within the Sample Editor if required), the result is a much tighter match between the various tracks while still maintaining a natural sound.
Audio Example 03
Automatic dialogue replacement (ARD) example. Three passes of the same spoken phrase are presented. The first contains the 'on-set' audio with the voice and a certain amount of ambient background noise picked up from the location by the boom mic. The second pass contains both the same on-set dialogue and the replacement dialogue recorded in a studio situation (panned left/right) but without any other processing. There are some obvious timing differences between the two performances. In the third pass, the studio dialogue has been timing matched to the on-set dialogue by using the Audio Alignment Panel. This results in a much tighter timing match between the two performances. Further manual editing of the timing might be required in a mission critical work context, but the AAP has done much of the work. The studio dialogue could then be subjected to suitable processing (EQ/reverb, etc.) to 'place' it in the location of the on-screen action.
Audio Example 04
Double-tracked guitars example. Three passes are presented of the same double-tracked guitar performance with the guitars panned left/right. The first pass contains the two performances as recorded. In the second pass, the Audio Alignment Panel has been used with the settings shown in the article screenshot. This produces a tighter timing between the two performances, and this is perhaps more noticeable in the riff section within the first part of the performance. The third pass is presented simply as an experiment. This compares the unprocessed Target track to the processed version of the same track (the track used to reference the processing is not included). This produces an interesting result with (unsurprisingly) a very tight tracking between the two performances. While you might need to listen carefully for phasing issues, or perhaps where the two versions are exactly time locked (no time shifting has been done) and the stereo image folds into the centre (as seems to happen on the last chord), this might offer an interesting alternative means for generating double-tracked parts.
Published August 2019
Saturday, May 28, 2022
Friday, May 27, 2022
Cubase Pro: Melodyne With ARA 2 [Videos]
Here are five unlocked Video Tutorials that accompany this month's Cubase Tips & Techniques column, so that our print-only readers don't miss out. Enjoy!
You will find the full article here: www.soundonsound.com/techniques/cubase-pro-workflow-benefits-melodyne-ara-2
VST vs ARA 2.
Editing Advantages.
Working With Clip Copies.
Multiple Tracks & Polyphonic Editing
Limitations And Summary.
Published September 2019
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Cubase Pro: Workflow Benefits Of Melodyne With ARA 2
ARA 2 integrates Melodyne much more deeply into the Cubase Pro editing environment.
With ARA 2, Melodyne can be just another part of Cubase...
When Cubase Pro 10 was released, Steinberg also announced that support for the Audio Random Access 2 (ARA 2) plug-in format would follow soon, and June 2019's free v10.0.30 update delivered it. A few plug-ins now support ARA (Celemony Melodyne, Synchro Arts Revoice Pro and Vocalign, and — recently acquired by Steinberg — SpectraLayers), but the format is Celemony's creation — so this month I'll consider how ARA 2 might improve the workflow of anyone using both Cubase Pro 10 and Melodyne.
Easy Access
Previously, Cubase users could already insert Melodyne as a VST plug-in, and you still can work that way. But that approach requires an initial 'transfer' of audio data into the Melodyne plug-in before you can make pitch/timing changes in Melodyne, and those changes aren't updated in the waveform in Cubase — so if you try to perform editing of said audio on the Cubase timeline, those changes are not made to the audio in Melodyne unless/until you repeat the transfer process. So it's essential with this VST approach that you adhere very carefully to a certain workflow.
ARA 2 overcomes these problems, and it all feels much more deeply integrated — which it is! To access this new ARA 2 connectivity, you'll need Melodyne v4.2.2 (or later) installed. Select the audio clip(s) you wish to process in Melodyne, go to Audio / Extensions on the main menu, and select Melodyne. (You can unload the Melodyne Extension in the same fashion.) Alternatively, depending on what details you've set Cubase to display in the main Project Window's Info Line, you can load/unload Melodyne via an Extensions option here. After some very brief behind-the-scenes analysis, Melodyne's editor opens in Cubase's Lower Zone — complete with its usual menus, editing options and note blobs ready for action.
Four things are worth noting at this stage. First, while the Melodyne Extension is active, you can't access the usual Cubase Sample Editor options (including VariAudio and AudioWarp). Second, the Extension (Melodyne in this instance) is pre any conventional VST insert plug-ins in the signal path. Third, as with any Lower Zone editor, you can float the Melodyne plug-in window if you prefer. Fourth, a Compare button on the left side of the Melodyne toolbar allows you to toggle between the original audio and the 'Melodyned' version, making it easy to check whether your changes are for the better.
Sing Something Simple
The actual editing tools available are the same as in the VST version of Melodyne. As we've reviewed Melodyne on a number of occasions (most recently v4 in SOS February 2016: https://sosm.ag/celemony-melodyne-4) I'll not describe all that here; instead, I'll focus on the significant workflow advantages that ARA 2 brings to the table.
A very welcome change is that Cubase and Melodyne now communicate with each other in a much more integrated way as you perform edits. For example, if you move, or adjust the length of, an audio clip on the Cubase timeline, those changes are immediately reflected in Melodyne. Equally welcome is that the cursor display in Melodyne doesn't just reflect the cursor position in Cubase's Project Window — it can be used to adjust the playback position of Cubase in real-time. It might seem a small behaviour difference, but it really does make working with Melodyne much more efficient.
Melodyne editing is sync'ed between copies of the same audio clip (as in the first two clips shown here), but you can break that link if you want to perform clip-specific editing (as in the third clip, where the Melodyne Extension has been unloaded and then reloaded).
The Melodyne Extension can be used to process multiple clips on a single audio track simultaneously. Usefully, the Melodyne toolbar now includes buttons (located top-centre) to toggle between 'track mode' (the two–blob icon) or 'clip mode' (single–blob icon). In the former mode, Melodyne displays all clips on the current Cubase track which have the Extension applied, whereas in the latter it shows only the currently selected clip.
Copy That!
The handling of audio clips that have been copied is interesting. If, for example, you've copied a vocal performance from one chorus section to another and apply the Melodyne Extension to both, or duplicate a clip to which the Extension has already been applied, Melodyne editing for the two clips is linked — as you edit one clip, the edits automatically apply to any copies. You won't want exactly the same vocal performance in every chorus, of course, but this could be a big timesaver for some tasks — especially when working on elements such as oft-repeated backing vocals.
All Melodyne's editing features are retained under ARA 2, including the option to display blobs for multiple tracks in the editor, for easy reference while editing.
If you use the Convert To Real Copy function on a duplicate audio clip in Cubase and then apply the Melodyne Extension to both clips, their editing won't be linked, so you can choose which way you'd like to work. And if you've already applied the Extension to a clip and its duplicate, but then remove the Extension from one of copy, Melodyne edits won't be linked.
After ARA
Should you decide you need to undo some of your changes, the Melodyne editor window includes the usual options for resetting any edits. And if you remove the Melodyne Extension from an audio clip, all of your Melodyne edits will disappear, returning your Cubase clip to its original state. If you want to lock your edits in place (for example, to unload Melodyne to save resources), a quick Render In Place prior to unloading the Extension will achieve that.
A further welcome change is in how Melodyne's data is handled by ARA 2: the data is now saved within your Cubase project. This is different from how the VST plug-in (which uses a dedicated folder elsewhere in your file system) behaves, and should make project transfer and archival much easier.
All Present & Correct
It's also worth noting that two of Melodyne's key features are present and correct via ARA 2 in Cubase. First, the option to overlay blobs from multiple tracks in the editor's display via the track list on the left side of the window. The blobs of the currently selected clip are shown in the usual orange, and others appear in grey. This provides an incredibly useful visual reference, particularly when editing things like vocal doubles or harmonies.
Second, assuming you have the full version of Melodyne, the audio miracle that is
polyphonic audio editing is possible. Success with things like pitch adjustments in polyphonic
audio is highly dependent on the nature of your audio source and its role within the mix.
ARA 2 integration doesn't change that, but as with monophonic sources such as a
lead vocal, it does streamline the editing process, thus allowing you to determine
what's possible quickly and easily.
Are We There Yet?
So far, so good, but there are a few teething issues and limitations. First, it's worth mentioning one VariAudio feature that ARA 2 doesn't make possible via Melodyne: its note blobs cannot be made to 'follow' the Chord Track. (Well, at least not yet... how cool would that be?).
Steinberg hope to improve their ARA 2 implementation in the next update, with support for clip-level fade/volume envelopes and Lane-based comping.
Currently, Cubase's ARA 2 implementation doesn't support comping via the Track Lanes system. You can activate the Melodyne Extension, but on playback you'll hear a mix of audio from all Lanes simultaneously, rather than just your comp. The simple workflow solution is to comp and render to a new track before applying Melodyne. But there are sometimes merits to pitch correcting while comping.
There's been some chatter on the Steinberg Forums concerning the occasional bit of odd behaviour. For example, users have reported problems when working with 64-bit audio, and with playback of 'Melodyned' audio losing sync with the project. On my own system, though, I didn't experience any obvious gremlins, though I did note that fades/volume adjustments applied to clips in Cubase's Project Window seem to be ignored while the Melodyne Extension is active.
But all that said, ARA 2 is already a huge step forward for regular users of Melodyne and Cubase Pro 10 — Melodyne now feels like part of the in-house Cubase editing system rather than a plug-in. And while the ARA 2 implementation might not yet be quite fully formed, Steinberg have indicated that there's more to come, and that the next update (v10.0.40) should resolve the Lanes workflow as well as some of the reported issues.
Published September 2019
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Monday, May 23, 2022
Cubase Pro: Key Commander
Don't fear the Logical Editor! Even a simple preset can help generate some interesting musical ideas.
Stuck in a musical rut? Cubase Pro might just be able to provide the inspiration you need.
A number of third-party tools aim to offer the spark of musical inspiration around which you can build a project. Nobody expects them to cough up the sort of fully formed melody that could grace the next chart-topping hit, but by combining elements of key/scale 'rules', a dose of randomisation and a little user input — to influence the general direction of the riff-making process — they can be a great source of new melodic ideas. Happily, Cubase Pro 10 users need look no further than their own DAW for a toolset that allows you to experiment with this sort of random-but-guided riff generation. To follow the examples, you'll need a MIDI clip as a starting point. Anything will do; a simple two-bar sequence of 16th notes, all set to C3 and a velocity of 80, will suffice. Use this MIDI to trigger a staccato-style synth patch.
Iterative Inspiration
You can manipulate note velocity in various ways using the Logical Editor, whether that's subtle randomisation (above) or note muting (below).Many third-party plug-ins work by applying iterative changes to note pitches and velocities, often snapping notes to a specific key/scale combination. The hope, in repeating this sort of 'guided randomisation', is that something musically interesting will grab your attention. Cubase Pro 10's Logical Editor makes this approach possible — it can be used to select, in a clip, any MIDI data that meet the criteria you define, and then make adjustments. For example, you could use it to select only notes with a velocity under 30 and change their velocity to zero.
To do this, we first have to create the necessary Logical Editor presets, so let's start by tweaking the note pitches. In the first screen, the Logical Editor's upper panel is set so when you run the preset it will select all MIDI notes, and the lower panel defines the changes that will be applied. Two actions are defined. The first randomises the current Value 1 (pitch) by up to three semitones in either direction. The second (optional) line changes the resulting pitches to the nearest note on the specified key/scale. I used E Pentatonic since that was the key/scale of this project, but there are plenty more options in the drop-down menu of the parameter 2 column.
Logical Editor presets can also be used to reset your original MIDI clip, so you can start over.Each time this preset is applied to the selected MIDI clip all note pitches are randomised by a small increment and then nudged to work in the specified key/scale. Importantly, note that a Logical Editor preset can be applied while the MIDI clip is being played; you can hear the changes as you apply them.
The next screen shows two Logical Editor presets to adjust note velocity data. The first again selects the clip's MIDI notes. A single action then applies a small random change (+10 or -10, but you could experiment with other values) to Value 2 (velocity data). Applied iteratively, the note's velocity pattern will slowly evolve.
In the second preset, the upper panel selects only MIDI notes whose velocity is currently 30 or lower. The action then changes their velocity to zero, effectively muting them. This can be fun to apply occasionally, as it removes low velocity notes from playback and can thus help add some rhythmic interest to our (initially) 16th-note-pattern starting point.
It's not hard to imagine creating other similar Logical Editor presets — for example, you might set a zero velocity for specific note pitches if you wanted to exclude some notes from one of the preset scales.
The Key To Success?
By executing the Logical Editor presets via Key Commands, you can generate new ideas more efficiently.Applying randomisation processes in the hope of something good can feel a little crude and won't always bear the tastiest fruit, and in that case you might want to start afresh. The next screen shows the lower (action) panel for two further Logical Editor presets. In both cases, the upper panel is configured to select all MIDI notes. The two actions then reset all notes pitches to C3 (or whatever note you prefer) and reset the note velocity data to 80 respectively. You could combine both actions into a single preset, but I prefer the flexibility of being able to reset this data independently. If I have a melody I like, I can reset just the velocity data, and vice-versa. And don't forget the undo Key Command (by default, Ctrl/Cmd Z), which can be used to undo your iterative changes if you just want to go back a step or two in the randomisation process.
Executing these presets via the Logical Editor window itself is a bit clumsy, as you have to switch between the presets manually via the window's preset panel. A more efficient workflow can be established via the Process Logical Preset section of the Key Commands window, where you can define convenient key commands for your DIY presets. Having selected your target MIDI clip, you can then fire off repeated presets without opening the Logical Editor. If you also have the clip open in the Lower Zone Key Editor, you can combine your 'guided randomisation' with some occasional manual MIDI editing.
More Options
The basic process described here really is very simple, and the idea is that you can use manual editing to refine the results — once this tactic has sparked a fresh musical idea, it's done its job. But if you want different options, you could try giving your initial MIDI clip a more obvious direction and/or rhythmic feel, whether it's different note intervals or leaving some steps blank. There are plenty of options, but one neat example is to copy your kick/snare MIDI data to a bass synth track, reset the pitch values, and see if you can't randomly generate a cool bass pattern to play alongside your drums.
The Chord Track can add a further creative twist to your random melody generation workflow.
For a further creative step, why not try combining your Logical Editor presets with a bit of Chord Track magic? For the final screen, I used my Logical Editor presets to generate an initial two-bar MIDI sequence. Then I made three copies to create an eight-bar sequence, which I set to follow both the chords and scales defined in the Chord Track. So the sequences in bars 5/6 and 7/8 have been subjected to further pitch tweaking by the Chord Track engine, resulting in some nice further variation.
Finally, in the Key Command window, you could easily create a Macro that bundles some of the Logical Editor randomisation presets into a single command... but I've already encouraged you to face your Logical Editor fears, so I'll leave that for another time!
Published November 2019
Saturday, May 21, 2022
Friday, May 20, 2022
Cubase Pro: Riff Maker
Don't fear the Logical Editor! Even a simple preset can help generate some interesting musical ideas.
Stuck in a musical rut? Cubase Pro might just be able to provide the inspiration you need.
A number of third-party tools aim to offer the spark of musical inspiration around which you can build a project. Nobody expects them to cough up the sort of fully formed melody that could grace the next chart-topping hit, but by combining elements of key/scale 'rules', a dose of randomisation and a little user input — to influence the general direction of the riff-making process — they can be a great source of new melodic ideas. Happily, Cubase Pro 10 users need look no further than their own DAW for a toolset that allows you to experiment with this sort of random-but-guided riff generation. To follow the examples, you'll need a MIDI clip as a starting point. Anything will do; a simple two-bar sequence of 16th notes, all set to C3 and a velocity of 80, will suffice. Use this MIDI to trigger a staccato-style synth patch.
Iterative Inspiration
You can manipulate note velocity in various ways using the Logical Editor, whether that's subtle randomisation (above) or note muting (below).Many third-party plug-ins work by applying iterative changes to note pitches and velocities, often snapping notes to a specific key/scale combination. The hope, in repeating this sort of 'guided randomisation', is that something musically interesting will grab your attention. Cubase Pro 10's Logical Editor makes this approach possible — it can be used to select, in a clip, any MIDI data that meet the criteria you define, and then make adjustments. For example, you could use it to select only notes with a velocity under 30 and change their velocity to zero.
To do this, we first have to create the necessary Logical Editor presets, so let's start by tweaking the note pitches. In the first screen, the Logical Editor's upper panel is set so when you run the preset it will select all MIDI notes, and the lower panel defines the changes that will be applied. Two actions are defined. The first randomises the current Value 1 (pitch) by up to three semitones in either direction. The second (optional) line changes the resulting pitches to the nearest note on the specified key/scale. I used E Pentatonic since that was the key/scale of this project, but there are plenty more options in the drop-down menu of the parameter 2 column.
Logical Editor presets can also be used to reset your original MIDI clip, so you can start over.Each time this preset is applied to the selected MIDI clip all note pitches are randomised by a small increment and then nudged to work in the specified key/scale. Importantly, note that a Logical Editor preset can be applied while the MIDI clip is being played; you can hear the changes as you apply them.
The next screen shows two Logical Editor presets to adjust note velocity data. The first again selects the clip's MIDI notes. A single action then applies a small random change (+10 or -10, but you could experiment with other values) to Value 2 (velocity data). Applied iteratively, the note's velocity pattern will slowly evolve.
In the second preset, the upper panel selects only MIDI notes whose velocity is currently 30 or lower. The action then changes their velocity to zero, effectively muting them. This can be fun to apply occasionally, as it removes low velocity notes from playback and can thus help add some rhythmic interest to our (initially) 16th-note-pattern starting point.
It's not hard to imagine creating other similar Logical Editor presets — for example, you might set a zero velocity for specific note pitches if you wanted to exclude some notes from one of the preset scales.
The Key To Success?
By executing the Logical Editor presets via Key Commands, you can generate new ideas more efficiently.Applying randomisation processes in the hope of something good can feel a little crude and won't always bear the tastiest fruit, and in that case you might want to start afresh. The next screen shows the lower (action) panel for two further Logical Editor presets. In both cases, the upper panel is configured to select all MIDI notes. The two actions then reset all notes pitches to C3 (or whatever note you prefer) and reset the note velocity data to 80 respectively. You could combine both actions into a single preset, but I prefer the flexibility of being able to reset this data independently. If I have a melody I like, I can reset just the velocity data, and vice-versa. And don't forget the undo Key Command (by default, Ctrl/Cmd Z), which can be used to undo your iterative changes if you just want to go back a step or two in the randomisation process.
Executing these presets via the Logical Editor window itself is a bit clumsy, as you have to switch between the presets manually via the window's preset panel. A more efficient workflow can be established via the Process Logical Preset section of the Key Commands window, where you can define convenient key commands for your DIY presets. Having selected your target MIDI clip, you can then fire off repeated presets without opening the Logical Editor. If you also have the clip open in the Lower Zone Key Editor, you can combine your 'guided randomisation' with some occasional manual MIDI editing.
More Options
The basic process described here really is very simple, and the idea is that you can use manual editing to refine the results — once this tactic has sparked a fresh musical idea, it's done its job. But if you want different options, you could try giving your initial MIDI clip a more obvious direction and/or rhythmic feel, whether it's different note intervals or leaving some steps blank. There are plenty of options, but one neat example is to copy your kick/snare MIDI data to a bass synth track, reset the pitch values, and see if you can't randomly generate a cool bass pattern to play alongside your drums.
The Chord Track can add a further creative twist to your random melody generation workflow.
For a further creative step, why not try combining your Logical Editor presets with a bit of Chord Track magic? For the final screen, I used my Logical Editor presets to generate an initial two-bar MIDI sequence. Then I made three copies to create an eight-bar sequence, which I set to follow both the chords and scales defined in the Chord Track. So the sequences in bars 5/6 and 7/8 have been subjected to further pitch tweaking by the Chord Track engine, resulting in some nice further variation.
Finally, in the Key Command window, you could easily create a Macro that bundles some of the Logical Editor randomisation presets into a single command... but I've already encouraged you to face your Logical Editor fears, so I'll leave that for another time!
Published November 2019