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While effective on suitable material, this type of real-time quantization has some
limitations. It does not work well on recordings of performances that have been played
too far off the beat. The same is true for very complex, layered drum tracks.
It will, however, provide noticeable timing improvements on reasonably tight percussive
and melodic material (played in an eighth or quarter note feel). If a large amount of timing
correction is needed, and transients are shifted too far, you may notice a number of audio
artifacts. Therefore, you should try to strike a balance between sound quality and timing
enhancement.
Important: For technical reasons, the Enhance Timing plug-in works only on audio channel
strips and must be inserted in the top Insert slot.
• Intensity slider and field: Determines the amount of timing enhancement. Audio
transients that don’t fall on the grid divisions, determined by the value chosen in the
Note Grid pop-up menu, are corrected.
• Note Grid pop-up menu: Provides a choice of four grid divisions. The grid divisions serve
as reference points for the timing correction process. As a tip for eighth-note triplets,
try the 1/12 note setting.
Exciter
The Exciter generates high frequency components that are not part of the original signal.
It does this by employing a nonlinear distortion process that resembles overdrive and
distortion effects.
Unlike these effects, however, the Exciter passes the input signal through a highpass filter
before feeding it into the harmonics (distortion) generator. This results in artificial
harmonics being added to the original signal. These added harmonics contain frequencies
at least one octave above the threshold of the highpass filter. The distorted signal is then
mixed with the original, dry signal.
254 Chapter 13 Specialized Effects and Utilities