I'm a good guitarist - But not a robot

M

Magreni

New member
How do you all think I should go about quantizing my recorded audio tracks to be exactly on beat? Using FL for my projects but open to try whatever if it means i don't have to cut up everything a million times to put it all on beat.
 
With audio (I regularly track bass guitar) for me it's a case of 'play it til it's right' then 'truncate and process' and finally 'place and arrange'.

I definitely tend to treat my recorded instrumentation in the same way as I do a sample off vinyl but I'll often track in an instrument for several minutes in order to capture a 2 to 4 bar loop that works.

Rinse and repeat.
 
And why would you want everything to be exactly on beat, if the little discrepancies are what gives that "human" sound to music?

I mean, only if you're covering Fear Factory, then it's fine.

IMO, you should practice to get everything to sound fine under a metronome and you're set to go.
 
As others have said the key is repetition. Even your looking for a 2 bar loop you may have to play for 5 min before you get a usable take to make a loop
 
I don't know about FL, but in Ableton you can warp an audio clip to hit right on the beat. When I first started recording guitar, I was having some major latency problems, and being able to warp it back into time was a godsend.

Building your skill of keeping the beat will pay big dividends...but definitely, don't erase all the human touch. Robots are overrated.

Also...sometimes, I like to purposefully swing things and creatively go off the beat a hair (especially with guitar solos) and I've found that even in those situations, the most important beat to stay in time with tends to be the first beat of each bar. So, depending on what you're trying to accomplish, you might get what you need and save a lot of work by just concentrating on getting your audio to hit on the first beat.
 
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