Making it sound more human when you use patterns

[The Author]

So I know that by slightly changing the velocity, I can give a more human feel to the whole song by letting in some variety in every note.

However, if you have a pattern heavy song and not a piano roll one, how can you give that feeling? I mean, I know how to adjust velocity in the step sequencer, but instead of having one instrument being used perfectly every time, I'd get a constant and repeated variation. Still doesn't sound very human. (People would not "miss" the same note the same way every time.)

So would I have to basically clone one pattern a couple of times, change the settings in the patterns in different fashion, and then simply alternate between the 4 or 5 patterns? Of is there a way to "randomize" something easily?

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

First of all, if you're doing that much work to add variations, then I don't see why you should be satisfied with having the same notes played each time, even if it is with different velocities. Of course this depends entirely on what kind of track you're making, but I would say you want to alter the actual note hits too, no?

That aside, all of the easy solutions i can see to this problem do involve either copying the pattern you have, or at least those notes, and then changing the copy. There's been some discussion on other threads about why doing your work in one big piano roll pattern may make this easier.

The other way that I can think to do it would be to automate the volume (or even something not so conventional, like the panning, or the cutoff filter, or something whacky) of that channel or of that instrument. This seems pretty inelegant to me, but I guess it could work. You could either do the automation manually or, if you just wanted it to be random, you could use an LFO that has a "random sample and hold" setting (such as the one in the Peak Controller).

There is also a "randomizer" function in the piano roll that would be helpful if you wanted to batch randomize a lot of velocities at once, provided that all of the notes you want to affect are in the same pattern.

I believe FL has something along the lines of humanizing presets and grooves or something like that as well, but I never really bothered to look at those much.

[Lunahorum]

Maybe try alt + R on selected notes. Select them with CTRL click.

[Lunahorum]

I've also found that a groove or swing track in FL somewhat tricky. It helps to make a 4/4 measure of a manual swing that you like and save as a groove preset. Then apply that preset quantization to the other tracks or piano rolls. Like I have "Max's swing 16th.fsc and Max's swing 8th.fsc" or whatever they are for this one track I am doing. Sort of a lazy triplet feel.

[Legion303]

If you really want to get crazy, record your drums realtime into the piano roll by tapping notes out on your computer or MIDI keyboard instead of mousing them in.

-steve

[Yoozer]

From the NI Battery manual:

Why Randomization is Not the Answer

Many sequencers provide timing randomization options to help give a more human-sounding track. Randomization is great if you want to simulate the effect of a drummer who’s had too many beers; however, for a great groove, shift timings the way a drummer would. Human drummers add variations in a mostly non-random way—often subconsciously, so these changes tap directly into the source of the drummer’s “feel.”

Drummers often hit some drums slightly ahead of, or behind, the beat to give certain effects. For example, jazz drummers tend to hit a ride cymbal’s bell a bit ahead of the beat to “push” a song. Rock drummers frequently hit the snare behind the beat (listen to any Led Zeppelin album) to give a “big” sound. Of course, the sound isn’t really bigger; but our brain interprets slight delays as indicating a big space, since we know that in a big space, sound travels a while through the air before it reaches us.

A sequencer or drum machine’s track shift (or track offset) function, which can move a track back and forth in increments of single clock pulses, is your first line of defense against mechanical grooves. Keep the kick drum on the beat as a reference, and use track shifting to change the timing of the snare, toms, and percussion by a few milliseconds. Here are some other track timing tricks.

• For techno, dance, and acid jazz tunes try moving any double-time percussion parts (shaker, tambourine, etc.) a little bit ahead of the beat to give a “faster” feel.

• Sometimes it works well to shift individual notes rather than an entire track. With tom fills, delay each subsequent note of the fill a bit more (e.g., the first note of the fill is on the beat, the second note approximately 2ms after the beat, the third note 4-5ms after the beat, the fourth note 6-8ms after the beat, and so on until the last note ends up about 20ms behind the beat). This can make a tom fill sound gigantic.

• If two percussion sounds often hit on the same beat in a rhythm pattern, try sliding one part ahead or behind the beat by a small amount (a few ms) to keep the parts from interfering with each other.

• If some drums fight with melodic parts (e.g., the kick drum and bass mosh together), slightly advance the part you want to emphasize in the mix. It will grab the ear’s attention just before the beat, therefore bringing more attention to itself.

• Hitting a crash cymbal a bit ahead of the beat makes it really stand out. Moving it behind the beat meshes it more with the track.

Why Quantization is Not the Answer either

Remember, machines don’t kill music, people do—and quantization is one of the main weapons. Although quantization has its place, it’s a very artificial process because no drummer plays with crystal-controlled precision. Fortunately, sequencers usually let you quantize by a certain percentage (usually called “quantize strength” or “intensity”). In other words, 100% quantization moves a note exactly to the nearest beat, but 50% quantization moves it halfway closer to the beat. Try quantizing the kick to 100% and all other drum tracks to somewhere between 50% and 80%. The result is a track that sounds rhythmically correct, but retains most of a performance’s “feel.”

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

yes randomization is definitely not a "pretty" solution here.

[lazygecko]

Might have been said already, but you can convert what you've put in the pattern sequencer to the piano roll.

[Lunahorum]

Good reference on the groove thing. Thanks