From: someone@anywheret.net   
      
   "JimD"  wrote in message news:2016102022203137608-email@nowherecom...   
      
   > Over the last year or two, I've become very sensitive to timing.  I have   
   > midi tracks I've used, or made, or modified that use to be perfect   
   > sounding, but that I now hear a lot of small timing problems with.  Maybe   
   > its that I went thru stages. One being, being able to play the song at   
   > all. At that level chords mattered, and lead lines mattered.  I was so   
   > focused on those issues, that small timing problems weren't even noticed.   
      
   It's definitely about focus of consciousness.   
   Like with a TC Helicon device providing a simple comparison between your   
   staying on pitch while singing compared to the difference between that and   
   of a pitch corrected signal and the beat frequency between the two when   
   mixed together making you Very pitch conscious, so it is also that some   
   other factor, in this  case related to timing, is doing something  similar   
   in that area as well.   
      
   > What I'm talking about here is not some occasional early or late bass   
   > note. That happens.  What I worked on today was a song where someone,   
   > possibly even me years ago, played a rhythm guitar track, and the   
   > strumming of chords was off a little. To my ear, when a chord is strummed   
   > on a guitar ( midi guitar ) the LAST note of the strum needs ..   
   > to fall on the " beat ", on wherever the chord is to sound. So if I'm   
   > playing chords and strumming them for effect, I start a little early so   
   > the last note hits the correct beat or subdivision.   
      
   If that's what it  takes i.e. basically a good "follow through", then that's   
   fine...just so long as  it works...   
      
      
   > The track today wasn't like that. The beginning of most " stums " were on   
   > the beat ( or subdivision ) and each string then spead out later and   
   > later.. To my ear, that's late. So I used the editor in Logic to tweak   
   > chords where that happened a few ms earlier, fixed it.  That's easy to see   
   > and fix if the chord is on a beat. But what about upstrokes, or   
   > downstrokes that happen on eight note or triplet subdivision of the beat ?   
   > That's where the particular tune I was working on was really messed up.   
   > The off beat strums of the guitar track were mostly on even eight note   
   > divisions, or very close, yet the song is a swing beat.  In my midi   
   > editor, each quarter note beat is divided into 240 ticks.  An 1/8 note   
   > would fall halfway between, at the 120 tic mark.  But a triplet note would   
   > be at 160 ticks..   
      
   So it's more of matter of making everything 'flow' on time throughout the   
   duration, not just the initial intonation. It could be that the particular   
   material you're playing has made you more aware of the need to 'tighten'   
   things up more...which just means practicing more. I've run into songs that   
   really emphasize such things but no problem, it's all that more of a reason   
   to practice all that more ;)   
      
   > There were lots of stums where the upbeat / offbeat strum was ending on   
   > weird places. Maybe 90 ticks. Maybe 120. Or anywhere inbetween. I went   
   > thru and corrected a lot of those so the four or five note strum ENDED on   
   > or near 160.  Made a huge difference in how smoothly the rhythm tracks   
   > sounded.  How did they get wrong in the first place ?  Maybe sloppy   
   > playing. Maybe the person who did it played it straight eights. Or wasn't   
   > sure and was somewhere in between. I see that a lot, midi tracks where the   
   > rhythm is wrong.   
      
   Any time you start dividing notes up into smaller notes, timing becomes all   
   the more critical because whereas before, for an extreme example, playing a   
   whole note ;) would be easy enough ;) breaking that time down to 16th or   
   even 32nd notes would most definitely Greatly emphasize the Requirement for   
   Extreme Precision in timing.   
   And just think of how small the notes are when a chord is strummed, maybe   
   even 64th or smaller...it's practically a de facto very quick arpeggio along   
   with in a de facto legato style in the short time it takes to sound all of   
   the strings, and so for it to 'flow' properly, it Must be Precisely on time.   
      
   > As I said, just a few years ago, I'd not have been able to hear this, or   
   > know how to fix it.  So I'm learning :-)   
      
   It seems you're either getting into material that really accentuates the   
   need for such precision and/or paying particular attention to certain parts   
   of material as you're recording. In any case it's now come to your   
   attention.   
   And the fix is simple...work on that particular area i.e. timing precision   
   for the very small notes generated during strums and such. I can see where   
   it's easy to overlook such things ordinarily...but now that there's notice   
   of it, so much the better and the results, as always, will be so very much   
   more than worth the  effort.   
      
   > Another trick I've learned is to solo a track, let it play on its own,   
   > listening for any jerks or hesitations in the rhythm. In a full mix, that   
   > stuff might be missed. Soloed, it often shows up, I can hear the off   
   > timing. That's kind of a last step. I'll let the individual instrument   
   > track play, and just listen for timing issues / smoothness of the rhythm.   
   > Fix anything that stands out.   
      
   That also sounds like a good practice technique, because it brings out the   
   details you're looking to hear, and to correct.   
      
   > Hey, I'll be offline for a few days. So if it seems I've suddenly stoped   
   > hogging up all the bandwidth here with my ramblings, that'll be the   
   > reason.  No biggie, I'll talk about it when I return :-)   
      
      
   > who said " be seeing you "  ?   
      
      
   Jim   
      
   My isp cut off my usenet newsgroups but fortunately, I found some free ones   
   and that's what I'm using now...because otherwise, I would have been offline   
   here for who knows how  many days.   
      
   Ouisie   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)