User`s guide

Pro Tools Reference Guide218
Quantizing with Swing
If you’re working with hi-hats or bass lines,
you may want to apply more of a swing feel
to the track.
To quantize with an eighth note swing feel:
1 Select the range of MIDI notes to be
quantized.
2 Choose MIDI > Quantize.
3 Under What to Quantize, select the At-
tacks option. To quantize note durations as
well, select the Releases option.
4 Set the Quantize Grid to eighth notes.
5 Select the Swing option with the desired
Swing percentage:
• For a light swing, use 12%.
• For a tighter swing-like groove, use 24%.
• For a true “triplet-like” swing feel, use
50–75%.
6 Make sure the options for Tuplet, Offset
Grid By, and Randomize are not selected.
Click Apply.
Audition the change and if the desired ef-
fect is not achieved, undo the edit and ex-
periment with a different Swing percent-
age.
Quantizing with Randomize
You may find that after quantizing, notes
sound too mechanical, too “on the beat.”
You can use the Randomize option in the
Quantize window to make them sound
more natural.
To humanize the rhythmic feel of notes:
1 Select the range of MIDI notes to be
quantized.
2 Choose MIDI > Quantize.
3 Under What to Quantize, select the At-
tacks option. To quantize note durations as
well, select the Releases option.
4 Set the Quantize Grid to the desired note
size.
5 Select the Randomize option with a value
of 5%.
6 Click Apply.
Audition the change and if the desired ef-
fect is not achieved, undo the edit and ex-
periment with a different Randomize per-
centage.
Experimenting with Quantize
When using the Quantize command, you’ll
often have to experiment with many of the
parameters. In fact, you won’t always get
the results you’re expecting. You may have
to try different values for Include and Ex-
clude Within, and Strength; these parame-
ters determine which notes are affected
and how drastically they are changed. In
addition, the Randomize parameter, which
adds a percentage of randomness to the
quantize, can be used to make tracks feel
less mechanical—less perfect.
Although quantize is a wonderful tool for
cleaning up tracks and playing with the
feel of your music, sometimes the recorded
data may not be salvageable. In these in-
stances it is wise not to spend too much
time trying to fix something that should
probably just be rerecorded.