Quantizing drums in 6.5

Cubase
1

Hello,

I have a grip of drums which are at a relative tempo of 86.5, I know this from tap tempo and beat detection. I’ve created a tempo track from tempo detection, and a signature track, grouped the tracks into a folder, created hitpoints for all of the regions, and identified a point where the drums start to rush the click. I want to quantize the drums BACK in time to lock onto the click, and it doesn’t work. I select a region, enable group edit, open the quantize panel, select slice rules, create slices, then quantize. If i quantize to anything but 1/4 notes, I don’t get any lock onto the click. If i use audiowarp quantize, it sounds horrible and doesn’t time right. I have tried using time warp to warp the tempo markers, which works in a fashion, but makes the click rush and sound horrible.

I have imported the drums via the pool, set their tempo manually in the pool, and enabled musical mode and set the algo to standard - drums. However, I’m not using musical mode when trying to quantize, as that doesn’t work. I could time correct these drums using audio warp manual mode, but then I lose phase. Time warp would almost work for this, but it won’t play nicely with the click.

I just don’t understand why this doesn’t work. I’ve seen videos with time correction using quantize on drums, and it’s usually with fairly unremarkable change as the drums weren’t that far off. Even these are not that far off, but with a drift of relatively 1/4 ahead of the tempo, it’s not going to work.

I feel like I’ve done everything I can do here, including not using a tempo track and setting a fixed tempo at what I know to be the relative tempo of the drums, and nothing syncs. Is there something I’m missing about quantizing drums in Cubase? In protools with beat detective, I can sync these drums.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you!

2

Have you set the group edit button on the drum group track? before using the quantise panel

Also it can help to cut and slide the drums close to the grid if they wander too far before using the quantise panel.
Then go through the performance in segments.

There is also another way that can be very successful by creating a tempo map of the drums using the timewarp tool then using set definition from tempo, then deleting the tempo map and plotting back in any intended tempo changes.

3

All the drums are in group edit mode, and I could try trimming the drums and sliding them around on the grid. I’ll try that.

As for the time warp tool - the method you’re describing would basically be writing tempo notes using the time warp tool, rather than tempo detection?

4

Yeah, basically. I manually move the grid (timewarp tool) to the drum beats (more accurate), creating a tempo map of the performance.
Then use the set definition from tempo command. Once you have done that, delete the tempo track and set it to the original tempo of the track, all the drums will now follow the fixed tempo. (Multi track time stretch)

When you are happy with the result, use bounce selected to fix the time stretch, deselect musical mode in the pool and in the inspector… job done.

5

Ok, interesting approach. Thanks. I’ll give it a try.