like an audio condom

From bitter experience I have learned it throws my track levels balance out.
 
I now do understand why (bring guitar solo up, everything else gets limited back),
but my selection of commercial reference songs do not do this.
 
So do commercial recordings somehow bring something forward without just raising individual levels?

Yeah that modulator plug does not disappoint. 

Perfect timing Craig. Just recorded a vocal that needs a little nastiness added to it. Gonna give this a shot. Thanks!
 

Week 141: The Humanized MIDI Hi-Hat
 
What with the various MIDI spec advances and the revamped SONAR PRV that streamlines MIDI controller editing, there’s been increased discussion in the forums lately of how to make MIDI tracks more human-sounding. As far as I’m concerned there are a lot of options, but let’s deal with this a piece at a time by starting with the Step Sequencer. Yes, the Step Sequencer—that bastion of über-quantized, electro-friendly beats. But it doesn’t have to be that way...at least it doesn’t have to be that way in SONAR, as we’ll show with a 16th note hi-hat part.
 
If you enter a string of successive 16th notes and simply play them back, I take pity on anyone listening. So, let’s turn that hi-hat part into something more humanized. My model for a 16th-note humanized hi-hat part is what Tony Williams did on Miles Davis’s “In a Silent Way.” No, it’s not EDM...but if you do EDM, you need to know about this hi-hat part. So check out the following video (if you’re the impatient type, start at 01:30).
 

 
Adjust dynamics. Note that the first 16th note of each beat is accented the most, with the third note of each beat accented less, but more so than the second and fourth notes. Also note that this isn’t a rigid change—there are some variations, but the most consistent element is that first beat.
 

 
Now let’s mess with the dynamics some more. Right-click on a row to bring up the Velocity Multiplier. This compresses velocity with values under 1 and expands velocity with values over 1. Here I’ve expanded the velocity by 20%, and because that raises the overall level, trimmed back the Velocity control just a bit by -4.
 
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. Some people think the purpose of swing is to create extreme shuffle beats. Well that’s one application, but with something like a 16th hi-hat pattern, even a small amount of swing—in this case, a value of 53—adds a variation that makes the part swing and come alive. A little swing goes a long way in this context, but it’s all you need.
 
Push it, baby! Now let’s “push” the beat a bit, which is ideal for EDM because it adds a sense of urgency yet doesn’t interfere with that rock-solid “four on the floor” kick. Here, an offset value of -4.2 ahead of the beat does the job. However, if you really want to get into it, you can get more detailed than a global amount of offset: Select Time Offset from the drop-down menu, and you can add individual offsets for each note if you want.
 
To prove to yourself what kind of difference this makes, lay in a closed hi-hat part with straight 16th notes and then make the kind of tweaks shown in the screen shot. The difference is not just night and day—it's a winter night and summer day in Alaska.
 
But wait—there’s more! Yes, there always is...isn’t there?
 
Hopefully you can modulate the hi-hat’s decay time a bit to make it more or less closed, and therefore add even more dynamics. Or, start off with a lowpass filter all the way up at the beginning of the beat, then close it down ever so slightly over the course of the beat. And then you can convert the Step Sequence to a PRV-editable clip while retaining the humanized elements you’ve programmed in...but that’s another story, for another time. Happy hi-hat!

I'll be covering more Step Sequencer coolness in a future issue of the re-launched eZine. The Probability parameter is aces with complementary percussion parts!

Excellent advice, Craig.  I have stumbled onto a couple of these tricks over the years, mostly by dumb luck.  For example, I usually set velocity for four 1/16 note hi-hats to something like this: 95-70-80-70, or something similar.  A greater variance would probably work for others.  (Yes, I know I am rigidly OCD.)  I was very interested to see the mention a shuffle of 53, which is the number I found works well for me when I don't want to lose the straight feel but also don't want to sound like a gang of robots.
 
I don't normally push parts but now I am very curious to try that, especially in an intense chorus that needs to step up.
 
Thanks for the great advice.  This tips column alone is a good argument for buying Sonar instead of another DAW.  (I hope the Gibson CEO will remember that at bonus time.)

Yep, some excellent tips there Craig. I use step sequencer a lot in my work, because of the genre I concentrate on. I have never bothered with swing so I really need to give this a go for sure.

Thanks

I really love the step sequencer... Until suddenly you have both PRV and SS parts in one drum track (and clips are linked) that's when it really falls apart and gets really confusing for me.

Timing and Velocity are in the Random box. So it just randomizing the hits a little to make them feel more natural.I'm not sure if it's a true random, as you can see the pattern change in AD2, and it always seems the same. If you set it to a two bar pattern, bar one gets affected the same way as when you set to a one bar pattern. I can't make out the logic of the random function. I add a touch and if I like it I keep it, if I don't, I don't.
 
Swing is usually positive and negative option.

Indeed, thank you!

Thanks for the tips Anderton and Kamikaze.
 
Here's a related video from Bobby Owsinski. He uses Pro Tools, but his techniques are applicable to any DAW with a grid/piano roll.
 
https://youtu.be/inAKkLqs0x0

If you are using AD2, one thing I've found essential with some of the kits is to play with the mixer and effects a bit.  Some of the kits are preconfigured with the hihat direct mic cranked up and bone dry combined with a snare with a ton of reverb on it.  Sounds really mechanical and unnatural no matter how much you play with velocity and even with a real drummer playing on a MIDI kit.  On top of that, the room and overhead mixes tend to be pretty unnatural with pieces missing or panned weird.  I like to turn off reverb/delay completely in AD2, pull the hihat track level down (or just mute it), and play with the overhead/room mixes each soloed to get the outputs individually sounding as close as possible to a real miced drum kit.  

togo

Zargg

togo
Thanks for the tips Anderton and Kamikaze.
 
Here's a related video from Bobby Owsinski. He uses Pro Tools, but his techniques are applicable to any DAW with a grid/piano roll.
 
https://youtu.be/inAKkLqs0x0

I'm getting a blocked video message  

Just my luck. It wasn't blocked yesterday because I reviewed it before posting the link.
 
Here are the tips from the video.

1. Clone the programmed MIDI hi-hat track
2. Nudge duplicate track about 2 milliseconds
3. Add an automation lane and draw in random volume (+/- a few dB)
4. Add EQ and automate mid-band gain AND mid-band frequency the same way

I managed to catch it when you first posted. His samples were really static, unlike those in AD2. I thought his use of EQ was a good way to imitate the small variations in hits, creating subtle tonal changes.