OK, I’ve decided that before we get into the nitty gritty of groove, I want to talk a little more about quantization. You’ll see why in a minute. After that, we’ll plunge right into the groove pool. (This will also give you a chance to get into your Speedo. Or bikini. Whatever.)
An often overlooked aspect of Live’s Quantization Settings is the Amount. This option is available whether you’re quantizing MIDI or audio:
The default is 100%. This means that every note will be moved to the nearest note value specified in the Quantize To menu. In the above example, Amount is set to 80%. This means that every note would be moved 80% of the way from it’s current location to the nearest 1/16th note.
What this does is tighten up the timing, while leaving some of the timing variations of the original performance in tact.
When quantizing to 1/16ths at 100%, these two notes…
…will end up looking like this:
but when quantized 80%, you get this:
