How do you Quantize?

[The dman]

Hello

I normally don't do hip hop but from time to time I help out a younger friend of mine with his recordings. He's always quantizes beats 100% on the grid. Like I said I don't do beats but I am a musician and from what I know and have read a good beat will be on and off the grid. EX Like a high hat playing slightly behind the beat etc.

I'm hoping you guys can shed some light on this because I think he his beats could benefit from this kind of approach and I get the feeling his doesn't quite believe me.

Plus I'm curious to know if I'm right.

Thanks

[quincyg]

i think it's more a question of what quantize grooves you are working with. mpc is kind of the standard in terms of feel. some big producers don't quantize at all...ala jay dee.

[jgrif08]

Quantizing at 100% is going to make the beat sound very robotic. Sometimes that is a desired effect. That said, I usually use light quantization just to fix the stuff that's way off and keep a little feel in the beat. A lot of programs and samplers have swing settings on 'em which are a god send.

Totally depends on what you're going for, as well as how good (or bad) you are at playing the beats in real time.

[Relax]

i dont anymore unless im doing rolls

edit: drum rolls!

[The dman]

Totally depends on what you're going for, as well as how good (or bad) you are at playing the beats in real time.

As far as I know he's not playing the beats he's either working with loops or entering the midi notes manually and he always just snaps them to the grid.

mpc is kind of the standard in terms of feel.

I've been reading about that in this forum. When you say feel do you mean the way it processes the quatizing? And if thats the case how is it different from quantizing in a daw?


One more question. When you start working on a beat, what is your usual method? I think he might be missing some critical techniques


Thanks for the help

[beat you down]

don't, i move stuff around by hand if it's not tight enough.

[quincyg]

Originally Posted by dsd

As far as I know he's not playing the beats he's either working with loops or entering the midi notes manually and he always just snaps them to the grid.



I've been reading about that in this forum. When you say feel do you mean the way it processes the quatizing? And if thats the case how is it different from quantizing in a daw?


One more question. When you start working on a beat, what is your usual method? I think he might be missing some critical techniques


Thanks for the help

basically yes i mean feel with regards to quantizing. mpc quantizes with its own variations that somehow feel right to me. i never use logics quantize anymore for beats.

i usually start with drums or some a keyboard part when making a beat.