What host for Groove Quantize and Advanced Piano Roll?

[Cap'n Spanky]

Hi,

I'm looking for a Windows based host that has a "working" groove quantize feature and an excellent piano roll and midi editing.

I'm currently using Sonar 4.04 and I'm basically happy with it..... BUT, groove quantize is not working properly. I won't go into all the details. But this is a very important feature to me, as are advanced midi editing and the piano.

Any recommendations? Thanks!

[Kriminal]

You can quantise in the piano roll manually or have it do it automatically whilst recording in Orion Platinum...i thought most hosts had this tho. Not sure what you mean by 'groove quantise'

[smart]

You can do this is most hosts, but FL Studio is really great for it because you can change the quantizing accuracy so you can quantize but not be robotic about it.

Theres a knob in the quantize menu that will slowly pull all the notes to where they will be quantized but you can turn it just a bit, or almost all of the way and things will still sound human.

[Kriminal]

so are we talknig about Quantising, Humaising or Groove patterns???

Either way, OP has thenm all, but im not sure what you are trying to do.

..and even more so, why would you want to sound out of time/human? proper daft....

[torhan]

Maybe Project 5?

[bduffy]

I'll got the unpopular route and suggest Cubase. Excellent Piano Roll, it has Groove Quantize and isn't too awful to switch to from Sonar.

[smart]

Quantizing and Humanizing are basically the same thing, just going in the opposite direction.

It's great to sound more human when you're doing music. I mean, perfect timing is good for techno which is fun to produce, but when I'm playing piano, or touching up some guitar I don't want to work them into a perfectly qualitized beat.

Groove quantizing is something different that takes pre laid out rhythmic beats and then slices your midi up to match that rhythm. I don't use this really because I feel like I'm just taking someone else's pre made rhythm template instead of being creative on my own, but FL can do this is it's piano roll too. I'm not sure how the other hosts handle this because it's not a function I use.

Sorry thought he just was talking about regular quantizing and didn't even think about the beat quantizing thing.

[rolarocka]

in reason there is a function called called "get user groove" (in case u have some nice groovin midi files to start with). u can apply the extracted groove to everything else. or export the new quantized midi files back to sonar.

[bduffy]

in reason there is a function called called "get user groove". u can apply the extracted groove to everything else. or export the new quantized midi files back to sonar.

Reason's got a pretty wretched Piano Roll, though...but I guess that could be one long-winded way of doing it...

[Cap'n Spanky]

so are we talknig about Quantising, Humaising or Groove patterns???

Either way, OP has thenm all, but im not sure what you are trying to do.

..and even more so, why would you want to sound out of time/human? proper daft....

We are taking about groove patterns or groove quantizing as Sonar and Cubase call it. This is not regular quantizing or humanizing.

Here's an example: Stylus RMX has midi grooves. If you examine Stylus midi files in your piano roll, you'll see that many of the midi notes don't start exactly on the 1/8 note or 1/16 note. They start a few midi tics early or a few tics late. So instead of a note starting at 13:02:480, it starts at 13:02:476. This variation creates a unique groove.

Groove quantize captures those start times and allows you to transfer them to other midi (or audio) files. It can also perform other tasks, like transfering velocity and note lenth. My main concern is with start times.

For what ever reason, the process is not working properly in Sonar 4 and I have no reason to believe that Sonar 5 is any better.

[Cap'n Spanky]

I'll got the unpopular route and suggest Cubase. Excellent Piano Roll, it has Groove Quantize and isn't too awful to switch to from Sonar.

Thanks bduffy. I knew Cubase had it. It also appears have a great piano roll and killer midi editing. This may be the path I go, if I can't get it resolved in Sonar.

Do happen to know if groove quantize works properly in Cubase SX?

[Cap'n Spanky]

so are we talknig about Quantising, Humaising or Groove patterns???

Either way, OP has thenm all

Thanks Kriminal. I'll look into Orion Pro.

You can do this is most hosts, but FL Studio is really great for it because you can change the quantizing accuracy so you can quantize but not be robotic about it.

Thanks, smart. FL is another realistic option for me.

in reason there is a function called called "get user groove" (in case u have some nice groovin midi files to start with). u can apply the extracted groove to everything else. or export the new quantized midi files back to sonar.

Didn't know that. Thanks, rolarocka.

[bduffy]

I'll got the unpopular route and suggest Cubase. Excellent Piano Roll, it has Groove Quantize and isn't too awful to switch to from Sonar.

Thanks bduffy. I knew Cubase had it. It also appears have a great piano roll and killer midi editing. This may be the path I go, if I can't get it resolved in Sonar.

Do happen to know if groove quantize works properly in Cubase SX?

Well, tell me: how is it not working in Sonar? AFAIK, Groove Quantizing works well in Cubase, but I don't use it much myself. The strength of the piano roll I can vouch for, especially coming from Sonar to Cubase. Mind you, Sonar has improved greatly since I left.

[Cap'n Spanky]

Well, tell me: how is it not working in Sonar? AFAIK, Groove Quantizing works well in Cubase, but I don't use it much myself. The strength of the piano roll I can vouch for, especially coming from Sonar to Cubase. Mind you, Sonar has improved greatly since I left.

I'm trying to quantize the start times of midi notes so they start at the exact same time (in relation) as the notes in a Stylus midi groove. Sonar does move the notes when I execute the Process > Groove Quantize command, but they are not in sync with the Stylus groove. I've tried every single available option in the command and it's not working. I'm having to move the notes by hand, which is a major PITA!

If you're still confused, see my explanation to kriminal above for more detail.

I wish Cubase had a demo so I could get proof it works. That's one thing Fruity Loops has going for it.

[Hink]

I have to go along with smart...I think that FL has the best piano roll I've used (not that I've tried them all). The latest addition of being able to use one piano roll for up to 16 midi channels is fantastic, the tools included in the FL paino roll in the past were often overlooked, but they too are great...just my 2 cents...

EDIT, what I meant was you can write in one PR 16 different parts with ease...