Quantization?, What does Quantization mean? Options

[thefarside07]

Can somebody explain to me, or point me to a web sight that goes indepth into quantization. What it does and how can it benefit my work etc... Any help would be appreciated. If it matters I use Reason and Live... and plan on buying logic in the near future.

Thanks

[dten]

I'm absolutely unqualified to comment on this, but I'll give it a quick stab. And when someone says I'm wrong then I'll learn from that.

Quantization is automatically aligning your audio events with the beat. When everything is 100% quantized, it sounds completely precise--and a bit robotic. It can correct your timing errors, but you don't want to correct ALL of them, or it will sound inhuman and cold (unless that's what you're going for).

Most audio apps that support quanitizing allow you to choose different levels of quantization. You can also think of this as the granularity or level of detail... quantize to 1/16 notes, 1/32, 1/8, etc. It's like a "snap to grid" functionality in Visio, if you've ever used that, and the level of quantization determines the density of the grid lines (continuing with the visual analogy here).

Taking Live as an example: when quanitization is turned on, and you click on a clip to start it, you'll notice that it won't *actually* start until the next beat at the quanitization level you've set. If your quantization level is 1 bar, for instance, and you click the clip in the middle of a bar, the clip won't start until the beginning of the next bar; or, if your level is set to 1/4, then your clip won't start until the next quarter beat. But if you turn quanitzation off, the clip will start playing immediately upon clicking it, regardless of where the beat is, and your clip will most likely be slightly out of sync with the beat.

I think, if you want *some* quantization, but not 100%, but you still want it to be handled automatically, you can start using things like groove templates. Reason has a "swing" function also intended to give the rhythm a little variance. But here my knowledge trails off (if it was even on to begin with...)

This post has been edited by dten: Sat 3 Jul 2004, 04:27

[majn]

Actually - there is far more to Quantization than this ..

Yeah - you can align it to the nearest beat -

But - for example - in Logic - you can analyse a drum track - create a midi map - and Quantize a midi instrument to that map .. actually add feel to the playing of the track and make your recordings sound really tight - without being robotic.

Me - I found that just reading the manuals I got with the product helped a lot - it all depends what you are using as a sequencer in the first place.

M

[thefarside07]

Thats along the lines I was thinking, I was just wondering if there was anything I might be missing. Thanks for the info though, much apperciated.

[dten]

majn, thanks for your info. It would be great if you could elaborate on "analysing a drum track" and "creating a midi map" in Logic. Or if you can point us in the direction of a web page or particular section of the manual that describes these things that would be cool too (the manuals are very dense!).

[Podolski52]

I'm not into Logic, so i can't help there. But from my experience it is very helpful to recreate a drumloop as midi file to understand what quantization means. By doing this you can compare 'natural', live performed quantization to straight, precise 'robotic' quantization. Use a beat slicer like phatmatik-pro (or the one integrated in the Kontakt-sampler) to 'slice' an acoustic beat, export it as midi-file, import it in your sequencer (Logic/Nuendo) and look at the points where the midi-notes lie. Then quantize them straight on an appropriate value (e.g. on 1/16) and listen to the changes.