Un-quantize externally-produced midi file

[Fred Kells]

Is there a way to "un-quantize" an imported midi file (not produced in CW) that was quantized by the producer?

(He recorded some guitar comping, then tightly quantized it so it sounds like a machine.  What I want to do is essentially "un-quantize" it by moving some of the start times a bit backward or forward.)

Many thanks!

      Fred

[David Baay]

So it was recorded from a real-time performance with a MIDI guitar controller or a pitch-to-MIDI convertor? If it really sounds that 'mechanical', I would expect more than just quantization of start times was done. In any case, the answer is "not really", especially if strumming was involved. As has been discussed many times, 'humanization' of hard-quantized (or even worse, mouse-entered) MIDI takes a lot of work and the results are unlikely to be fully satisfactory.  I almost always keep unquantized archives of tracks/projects to avoid unrecoverable problems like this; shame on the producer for not preserving the raw performance somehow.

Edited March 23, 2022 by David Baay

[Byron Dickens]

Ugh.

 

All you can really do is make it worse....

[John Vere]

Software can do amazing things but not that. 

[Hidden Symmetry]

Try selecting all the same notes ( eg C, B, D) then slide them +/ - a few ticks . Select another set of notes & move those the opposite way.  Start with say 10-20 ticks then increase/ decrease..

You could try doing that with extreme values then try to quantize it again with different value amounts or %.

Tricky but it might work, hard to tell w/o actually hearing/ seeing it.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Hidden Symmetry

[Lost Phases]

Maybe give this user made midi fx called Humanize a try, this is the link to the forum thread where u can find the download link to it:

https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/topic/529-new-midifx-available/

[Promidi]

CAL scripts can do that

[Fred Kells]

Thanks for all the advice, guys. (I was afraid there wasn't a magic bullet.)

I tried the fx suggested by In A Week and it definitely helps.  It easily shifts notes a bit within a guitar strum or piano chord, giving a more realistic effect. 

Edited March 25, 2022 by Fred Kells
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