quantizing an acoustic guitar track

Cubase
#1

Hi there,

I have an acoustic guitar track that has been played to a programmed drum track! although most of the track is ok I find it difficult the play a strummy acoustic along to an ‘exact’ drum tempo as a live drummer will push and pull the beat. Some strums are just slightly ahead (or behind) the beat (probably most people would not notice it but I do). As this is a background track which has more of a rhythm effect than musical I have scope to manipulate it. I have tried using hitpoints and slices but nothing seems to sound good. Is there a way to pinpoint a particular part of the wav and nudge it left or right with out splitting the audio!

just a pointer as to which tool to use would be welcome!

many thanks!

#2

Have you tried using audio warp - free warp?

If it’s just one strum here and there it could work if you don’t have to move it too far.

#3

A better strategy may be to Identify the sections that drift off tempo, cut around the bits and slide the track within the container using Ctrl/Alt then use suitable crossfades at the cut points, I usually find the more effective than any time stretch.

#4

If you are using a single time signature, you could change it for different parts and modify the tempo for (some) corresponding sections.

Also if you are using a programmed bass line you could move notes manually or alter the envelopes using note expression and then shift drum beats accordingly via the Logical Editor.

#5

cheers guys… some good pointers there, will try each one and see whish works best from me!

One option a friend suggested was to build a tempo map from the acoustic track and the apply it to the drum map!

#6

A good idea and easy to do but you do end up at the mercy of the guitar rhythm.

#7

Good idea to match the tempo map to the played track if its not really badly out, it will humanize the whole piece if done early in the production and keep the sound quality high.

Hippo

#8

lol yea the guitar timing is good but not ‘bang on’ every quantized beat… just pesky human groove … ha ha!

thanks guys!

#9

Using “Merge Tempo From Tapping”.
Mute the drum part if you have one.
Create another drum track to generate the “tap” track and drum sound.
Tap regular 1/4 notes to the whole guitar piece (something sharp like a cowbell will do, boring I know) and then apply the “merge tempo…”
This will create tempo change events in the tempo track and you can then delete the track used to create the tempo changes and the midi parts will now follow, effectively, the guitar part. And unmute the original drum part as well and it will follow.

You may have to have a couple of goes at first when creating a “tap” track.
Also you may get “out of range” alerts but just pick another timebase (1/4 or1/8 notes etc) but the whole process is simple in the manual and simple to do. And you can go into the tempo track and delete any tempo changes that don’t quite fit but in practise I’ve rarely had to use that.