Problem: Did an improv playing fast arpeggio notes over a 37 bar loop. The notes progressively slow down and accelerate throughout these 37 bars.
I really like the effect and how it sounds but it’s slightly off as I did not play over a tempo click track.
I have tried redoing it but it becomes very clinical and loses its character and using quantize doesn’t help as it doesn’t match the grid.
How would one overcome this ordeal?
From all of my research I couldn’t figure it out so thinking an expert’s opinion might work well here.
I have uploaded a screenshot of the midi notes for reference.
It just needs some smoothing up/cleaning up. I’m thinking a quantize based on distance between notes and not something in reference to a grid might work? Something like a distribute feature: distribute evenly between selected notes. (Is there even such a thing? I would really be interested in something like this)
Edit: I forgot to mention that I also tried using the time warp feature, thinking I could engineer a stable time signature that would eliminate the acceleration so that I can have each note fall correctly on the beat. I was thinking that I would then use automation to speed the tempo as I wish. This method didn’t provide the best results, unfortunately
So, option would be to redo it according to tempo click track and then automate the tempo? Problem is, I have gone through the notes and it seems I have switched time signatures as I was playing.
Wondering if there is any way of saving the improv as it has that certain “i don’t know what but it works” feeling.
You will enter many tempo points on the tempo track, and adjust the tempo, until the improv falls on the grid as it is supposed to, or very nearly to how it’s supposed to. Then you can quantize if you want to. You don’t need to redo the improv.
You can also chop up the midi part and just stretch each slice directly in the project window, over a steady tempo.
It’s a bit difficult to understand what’s the improv’s relation with the other material. Is the tempo of the whole song going faster/slower together with the improv , or is it just a free improv that goes faster/slower against a steady tempo?
Thanks for the pointers!
I have uploaded the rough, first version, here, for reference.
The improv starts playing around minute 1.
The improv is on top of a series pedal points that also swoop here and there. Being mostly in relation to pedal points it doesn’t have to adhere to a certain tempo, but it would be good to clear those errors where the notes don’t flow as smoothly as they should.
I have started to clean the improv up and hopefully I’ll get somewhere soon. Kept imagining a magic wand solution that just does things with one click. Guess I cannot avoid the hard work.
Normally I try to plan ahead but this time i was just having fun and decided to do a midi retrospective recording as I liked the feeling and figured I’d polish it into an intro/song.
I’ll keep you guys posted on what option works best.
Thank you for everyone’s involvement!
Another approach would be to render the MIDI to Audio using a piano or other percussive instrument so the attacks are really clean. Then use that to generate a Tempo Track. Greg has a video on the Cubase YouTube channel on how to do that.
