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Swingin'
It In Logic
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Q:
What is in this month's Logic Notes article?
Hello again. Logic Notes with Sze is back with its
second article. As ICOM's new m-Mobility students
are working on their 1st sequencing assignment, I
will be expanding on the basic concept of quantization
- more specifically, to discuss about swing quantization.
Q: First of all, what is quantization?
Quantization
is the auto timing correction of recorded MIDI notes
(or events). It is a standard sequencer feature that
pulls a note to the nearest quantization beat. For
example, a rhythmic pattern that has been played unevenly
or a little off the beat (early or late) will be "corrected"
by pulling the notes to align perfectly with the selected
quantization beat.
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* Unquantized vs. Quantized: The top windows
show the unquantized notes while the bottom
windows show the quantized notes. Compare
the differences... e.g. in the unquantized
track, note the triplet notation, the loose
alignment of notes to the Matrix grid and
the somewhat random pulses (ticks) in the
Position column.
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*
Unquantized (mp3) *
Quantized (mp3) |
Quantization
can do wonders for the amateur musician if the MIDI
notes were loosely played. It can help tighten the
rhythms but it is not magic - notes that have been
recorded too far off the beat can be quantized the
wrong way (i.e. pulled to the wrong quantization beat)!
So what do you do if that were to happen? Well, simply
undo or delete the recording and try again.
Q:
How do I select the proper quantization value?
In most cases, you can simply choose the
smallest rhythmic beat/subdivision in the MIDI recording
as the quantization value.
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Selecting Quantization
Values: The top example can be quantized to
an 8th note beat while the bottom example
can be quantized to a 16th note beat.
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Q: How is swing quantization different from the
normal quantization?
Swing quantization
pulls MIDI notes to align to uneven rhythmic beats
whereby every 2nd beat is delayed by a preset value.
This is in contrast to normal quantization, which
aligns the notes to even rhythmic beats (e.g. swing
8th as opposed to straight 8th notes).
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