Hello Everyone,
 
Please excuse me if this makes no sense (disclaimer lol).
 
OK so I am working on an all synth VST project and I have parts played by hand that aren't supposed to exactly fall nicely into 16th or even 32nd notes, I try to quanitize but it snaps to 32nds and still doesn't feel right - 64ths too.   Yet, I am playing sloppy so it's not good enough.   

Is there a smarter quantization available or a way to achieve my task?
 
Thank You!

Turn the quantize off.

kb420
Turn the quantize off.

I am looking TO quantize!  just not into perfectly spaced 32nd notes on the grid.

SilverBlueMedallion

kb420
Turn the quantize off.

I am looking TO quantize!  just not into perfectly spaced 32nd notes on the grid.

Well you could try Quantizing then Humanizing. The first would snap everything to the grid to fix you performance then the Humanize would randomize it all again... but perhaps more desirably.
 
However Quantizing, in many cases, can be set in degrees. So the notes or events only kind of sort of move toward the snap points.
 
Really though... there is only so much you can expect out of these features. You set it to 16th or 32nd notes and that's what you are going to get. It cannot play like a human because... it's a freaking computer.
 
One way to mix things up a bit and only quantize/humanize what you need and to the degrees you need is to cut your MIDI clip up into sections and apply your quantize/humanize to the individual clips instead of to the whole performance at once.
 
There is also the MIDI FX thingie that can do this stuff in real time and is adjustable/automatable.
 
For me... I just practice the parts and/or get right in there and manipulate things by hand.

You can adjust the "magnetism" of the quantization in preferences. Bring the note in barely at all, a little, a lot, or completely to the beat.

Edit: Or am I thinking of Melodyne? Plus, you beat me to it, Beep!

Actually, it's in the Quantize dialog box. You can set the strength from 0% (don't touch the notes) to 100% (put them right on the grid). Whenever I've quantized my poor playing, I've never gone to 100%. Just sounds too mechanical. Sometimes much smaller amounts give you a good performance that's still "alive".

There are smarter ways to use quantization which have already been covered. That is still some distance from achieving your task. You seem to want to play on time but not have the "feel" of playing on time. Try experimenting with the Swing setting, but frankly I doubt that is going to work for you either. See if you can get what you want by the laborious method of nudging and setting durations one note a time, which I can attest is possible even for those of us who cannot play to save our lives. If that does not give you the "feel" you are looking for start working with individual note velocities. If that fails, then you may be suffering from the ability to hear the feel of music better than it can be actually be created. This happens to me all the time. Almost nothing I do by any method gives me the "feel" I am looking for. A really competent performer can run rings around a robot when it comes to expression. So you can spend many hours programming MIDI or many many hours practicing, but so far at least, robots do not feel.

The above advice about strength is good, but I might add a couple of points.
First, you can select certain notes to quantize at differing strengths. You don't need to pick a specific set of Q settings for the entire phrase or passage. Select notes using the prv but include or exclude specific notes before processing.
Next, put a lot of effort into an important rythmic passage, then use Sonar's groove quantization feature to have the other tracks quantize to IT. Now you can set your quantize strength higher because the expression is established by your reference pattern
I'm sure this is described in the support docs, but if it seem too confusing, let me know.

Another vote for quantize strength.
 
I analyzed timing of several drummers years and years ago. I was shocked that someone like Steve Gadd could control his timing within single-digit milliseconds, pushing or lagging the beat as needed. Or John Bonham, whose kick was always right on the money, with the snare just a tad late.
 
People who aren't as accomplished try, either consciously or not, to do the same thing but they can't. So when they push the beat, they're way too ahead, and when they lag, they're way too behind. Quantization strength really helps tighten things up without removing the human element (well, at least not too much).

Steve Gadd is a MASTER!  Love his playing.