What's the best way to humanize MIDI nowadays?

sharke
Best way to do it if you have limited keyboard skills but a decent sense of rhythm/dynamics is to hammer out the rhythm on the keyboard without paying attention to pitch. Just bash it out on whatever keys you like, then go into the PRV and correct the pitches while holding down SHIFT to preserve the timing. If the timing's off then just use the timing tool to nudge the notes toward your required quantize value without them being tick perfect. I don't know why anyone would use any kind of script or humanize tool when the above works perfectly and gives flawless results.

g_randybrown
All I want to do is to randomly change the start time of the notes BUT only by a few milliseconds (like real players do in a live performance).

sharke
Best way to do it if you have limited keyboard skills but a decent sense of rhythm/dynamics is to hammer out the rhythm on the keyboard without paying attention to pitch. Just bash it out on whatever keys you like, then go into the PRV and correct the pitches while holding down SHIFT to preserve the timing. If the timing's off then just use the timing tool to nudge the notes toward your required quantize value without them being tick perfect. I don't know why anyone would use any kind of script or humanize tool when the above works perfectly and gives flawless results.

Resonant Serpent
When writing MIDI orchestration, it's close to impossible for those of us who aren't professional keyboard players to bang out every line by hand. It's well documented that the start/stop times of players don't line up in an orchestra, with some slightly ahead and others further behind, because of several different factors such as instrument, playing style, articulation, distance hearing, etc. This also applies to drummers. Pick up any drum midi pack that hasn't been quantized, examine the start/stop/velocity times, and you may be shocked at just how loose it is, even with the same line being repeated. Beat detective, and aligning instruments to grid, has destroyed the more human aspects of music IMO. It's one of the reasons I was drawn to the underground music scenes. Most mainstream instrumentation is just too fake to have an emotional impact for me.
 
If you know what you're doing using humanize and nudge functions, you can avoid resonance peaks, and have what sounds like a human playing the instrument. So yes, that means that your start/note times do vary by incredibly small degrees (less than 5ms), and velocity variances, combined with expression (usually channel 11), lead to a more human performance. You can use different methods, but sitting down by hand and editing 10,000 midi notes is something I never want to go through again like I did in the past. 
 
I tried using the Humanize CAL in Sonar, but it's far too erratic. I gave up using it. I programmed things for a long time by hand. Sonar could use a good humanize function, and if it hasn't been listed in the features request, then it needs to be. Sonar has a far more advanced MIDI palette than Studio One, but the Studio One humanize functions are excellent. I can program a static grid of notes and chords, then hit one function, and it's already saved me hours of work. There's also a Less Humanize function that will tighten up if the first pass went to far. It sounds great, and it saves me time. It's really the number one function that I wish Sonar would integrate.