Controlling MIDI and audio in modern DAWs

Quantisation and quantise values

• When working with MIDI data, there is likely to be an element of rhythmic imprecision that comes with the performance of a part

• Quantisation moves the timing of the beginning of a note to the nearest grid division.

• The numbers you see on quantise settings relate to the smallest divisions on the grid for quantise to ‘snap’ to

• The bottom number of a quantise resolution tells us how many of that note you can fit in a bar of 4/4.

• Resolution of 1/12 refers to quaver triplets and 1/24 refers to semiquaver triplets.

Percentage and swing quantise

• Percentage quantise can be used to retain some of the music’s natural flexibility in timing by moving the note of a percentage towards the quantise position without exactly snapping the note to the grid

• Swing adds a swung feel to straight quavers or semiquavers by slightly lengthening the first note of a pair and shortening the second. Often denoted by a number (note value) and a letter (amount of swing)

• 8A means that quavers would be played with a light swing whilst 16E are heavily swung semiquavers.

Editing Pitch of audio

• Pitch correction plug-ins can retune a vocal part. Many plug-ins allow you to set a scale to specify exactly which notes should be played.

• Response time controls how quickly the plug-in tunes the notes. A response time that is too fast will create an R&B-style effect

• Modern DAWs incorporate functions such as flex-pitch which change specific notes in a piano roll editor.

• Possible to pitch shift single notes

Editing Rhythm of audio

• Audio quantise can be used to correct rhythms

• Transients in an audio file are analysed and they are individually time stretch to snap to a grid, as for MIDI

• Can manually use the scissor tool to move audio files and single notes back in time.