• SONAR
  • Humanize midi-drums
2013/06/28 11:21:19
FunkLoop
How do I humanize my midi drum data in Sonar 7? I really can not find out how to do it! 
2013/06/28 13:33:01
bitflipper
There is a "humanize" CAL script.
 
Don't use it, though. It won't make your drums sound more human, despite its name. It just randomizes quantization, something no actual human drummer would ever do. While it's true that real drummers don't always play right on the beat like a drum track faked in the PRV, but for the most part the amount and direction of the timing "error" isn't random, it's intentional.
2013/06/28 14:44:27
soens
To humanize means the notes are not exactly on mark every beat, which can sound mechanical.
 
You can turn off SNAP while entering notes manually so they aren't precisely on mark.
 
You can enter notes by hand with a controller (keyboard, pads or midi drum set) then they will sound exactly as you played them.
 
Or you can turn off SNAP and nudge existing notes with the mouse.
 
Never tried the CAL script as I use the above methods and they work for me.
2013/06/28 15:26:35
Bristol_Jonesey
It also depends which vsti you're using for your drums.
 
Many of the more up-market instruments contain their own humanize function, which are probably a lot better than the Sonar Cal.
2013/06/28 18:41:01
gustabo
Check out Frank's Midi Plug-Ins (http://www.midi-plugins.de/)
They are MFX plug-ins that work great in Sonar and they come in 32bit and 64 bit flavors as well.
IMHO, much more powerful than the humanize midi effect that comes with Sonar.
2013/06/28 18:56:09
Jeff Evans
+1 to Frank's Midi Plugins. They are very good. And you can specify what direction the timing will be randomized in etc and you can adjust the window as well for the notes that are being moved and adjusted etc. They can work on timing or velocities or both at once.
 
A while back I had a job of creating great sounding drum tracks from midi parts that were already recorded and they were all quantized etc for the same velocities and timing etc. Frank's midi plugins did a great job of making all this sound better and much more real. (High Hats especially) After that then all you need to do is assign some great sounds to the midi parts.
 
Read the manual carefully on this though. It takes a little while to digest how they work and how to set them up well.
2013/06/28 20:18:04
Cactus Music
It does also depend on the playback sample. I use my Digital drums now to enter parts and I will then assign that to something in Session drummer. I find the SFX samples are bang on what I played, But some of the FLAC samples sound better if I pull the say, snare track back by a few ticks. 
Bottom line is, loops of drum machine patterns will always sound like ,,, loops of drum machine patterns. To make them sound "human" you just need to think like a drummer and do a little tweaking. I have always input my drums in real time via a keyboard, last 20 years, Now having the digital kit I am getting much better results without all the editing. It's a time saver.  
But electronic music is all about building loops and layering stuff into interesting tight sounding grooves, for that I would see that using a humanizing feature would be a bad idea. It is after all , electronic music, not human..nothing wrong with that either. Thump Thump thumpa.... 
2013/06/28 23:06:35
Kev999
"Off" beats tend to sound subjectively louder than "on" beats so I tone them down accordingly. I make the 3rd beat of the bar marginally less loud than the 1st, and the 2nd & 4th lower than the 3rd. Then the in-between 8th beats lower still, and so on.
 
This applies to all instruments, not just drums.
 
Also, making minor adjustments to the timing of just a few (carefully chosen) beats can make it sound less mechanical. Too much alteration to the timing makes it sound messy. I find it best to keep it tight on the "off" beats while looser on the "on" beats.
2013/06/29 02:14:34
Glyn Barnes
Groove Quantatise is a useful tool as it moves the hits away from the beat and varies the velocity, not in a random way, but to a groove, so its more like a drummer would play. You can vary the strength of both the timing and the velocity quantatization. There are several preset grooves in Sonar, or you can use the clipboard. This is useful as you can steal the groove of another midi clip just by copying it to the clipboard.
2013/06/29 09:07:59
zapotec
one option is to decrease the velocity of the MIDI notes in the MIDI Track View. Try the values in the negative (-4 or -8) this will give a "loosely tight" feel. ie: On a marching snare drum part, it seems to soften the play and create a slightly more realistic performance.
Zap!
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