Quantize without losing the feel
You played a beat in and it's close, but a few hits stumble. Drawing every note by hand would fix the timing and kill the life in it. Is there something in between?
There is. In this lesson you'll snap a loose take to the grid, then learn how to tighten it only partway, how to handle triplets, and when to leave notes alone.
The idea: early, late and the grid
When you play, hits land a few milliseconds before or after the beat. A few of those are fine, even good. Too many and the groove sounds sloppy.
Quantizing moves the start of each selected note toward the nearest grid line. Here is a two-bar take at 100 BPM with the 707 Core Kit. Look at how the hats bunch up and spread apart:
And here it is as played, then fully quantized:
Same notes and velocities. Only the timing changes.
Quantize in one keystroke
- Open the clip and click in the note editor.
- Select the notes you want to fix. CmdA (CtrlA on Windows) selects all of them.
- Press CmdU (CtrlU on Windows). The notes jump onto the grid.
Which grid? That's set in the Quantize tool. Open the Transform panel on the left of the clip and choose Quantize from its menu:
- Grid follows whatever grid the note editor shows. The buttons next to it (1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32) pick a fixed value instead.
- Adjust Note chooses what moves: Start shifts the note, End moves where it stops. Turn on both to fix the start and stretch the end onto the grid too. For drums, Start alone is usually all you need.
- Amount sets how far the notes travel. That's the next section.
Keep the feel with Amount
At 100%, every note lands exactly on a line, and the small pushes and drags you played are gone. Lower the Amount and each note only travels part of the way. At 60%, a snare that was 28 ms early ends up about 11 ms early: tighter, but still yours.
Compare it with the two versions above. The stumbles are gone, but it doesn't sound drawn in.
Triplets need a triplet grid
Quantize always pulls to the grid you give it, even when the rhythm doesn't fit. Here a hi-hat roll is played in triplets: three hits per eighth note. On a 1/16 grid, the hits get pushed onto sixteenths. Where two land on the same spot, Live keeps one, so our 12-note roll came out as 8 uneven ones.
Tick Triplets in the Quantize tool and the buttons change to triplet values: 1/8T, 1/16T, and 1/8 + 1/8T and 1/16 + 1/16T for mixed rhythms. Select just the roll and quantize at 1/16T.
Listen to the end of bar 2.
If a beat mixes straight sixteenths and triplets, quantize them in two passes: everything else at 1/16, then only the roll at 1/16T.
Choose what to tighten
You don't have to quantize everything the same way. A common approach: lock the kick and snare to the grid, since they hold the song together, and give the hats a lower Amount or leave them alone. Click a lane name, such as Closed Hi Hat, to select only that drum's notes.
A few more tools for the in-between cases:
- Move one note by hand. Turn off snapping with Cmd4 (Ctrl4 on Windows), or hold Cmd (Alt on Windows) while you drag, and nudge it by ear.
- Humanize sits in the clip's Pitch & Time panel. It moves the selected notes slightly early or late at random, at most a quarter of a grid step. The percentage next to it sets how far. Use it on notes that are too perfect, not on a take that's already loose.
- Record Quantization in the Edit menu quantizes notes while you record. It saves a step, but you lose the original timing from the start, so leave it off while you're still learning to play in.
Summary
- Quantize (CmdU (CtrlU on Windows)) moves the starts of selected notes to the nearest grid line.
- The settings live in the Quantize tool in the clip's Transform panel: grid value, Adjust Note Start or End, and Amount.
- An Amount below 100% tightens timing but keeps some of the feel.
- Triplet rhythms need Triplets switched on. On a straight grid, they bunch up and notes can merge.
- Tighten the kick and snare, go easier on the hats, and use Humanize or nudges for the rest.
Practice
Tighten a loose take
importance5 of 5Record or draw two bars of kick, snare and sixteenth-note hats, and make some hits slightly early or late. Then quantize the whole clip to 1/16 at 100% and compare it with the original.
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Select all notes, check the Quantize tool shows 1/16, Start and Amount 100%, then press Cmd+U (Ctrl+U on Windows). Every note start should sit on a line.
If some notes jumped to the wrong sixteenth, they were more than half a step off. Undo, move those few by hand, and quantize again.
Find the right Amount
importance4 of 5Start from the same loose take. Quantize the kick and snare at 100%, then select only the hats and try 40%, 60% and 80%. Pick the one that sounds tight but not drawn in.
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Click the Bassdrum and Snare lane names to select them, quantize, then click empty space before you change the Amount. Otherwise Auto moves the kick and snare again.
Most loose takes sit well around 50 to 70% on the hats. If you can't hear a difference between settings, the take was already close to the grid; that's fine.
Rescue a triplet roll
importance3 of 5Draw a hi-hat roll of 12 notes over the last two beats of a bar, using a triplet grid, then drag a few notes slightly off. Quantize it once at 1/16 and listen. Undo, switch on Triplets, and quantize it at 1/16T.
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At 1/16 the roll loses notes and sounds lopsided, because two hits can land on the same sixteenth. At 1/16T the 12 notes come back evenly spaced, three to every eighth note.
Only select the roll for the second pass. If the rest of the beat is in straight sixteenths, a triplet grid would pull those notes out of place.
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