Help :)

[debmccall]

Hi out there! I am celebrating ...woohoo... God let me retire and now I hope to have the time necessary to learn this stuff. I have had 7 forwards in 5 years...but lots of rejections for poor production etc...the midi driven stiffness is one of the top comments...
. How do I avoid midi driven stiffness when I don't have a drummer,
. Do you need to have acoustic sound deadening for vocal mics...if so, where is the optimum place to put them.

I am really thankful for this forum and hope to hear from you all! Thanks

[lesmac]

HI there. My two cents:
Midi stiffness can come from not practicing the part well enough to be in the groove and then applying quantisation. This is my experience. If I practice to a click track it can sound okay with the click playing back with the performance. Muting the click is the real test here though. With the click 'out' the performance can sound stiff, jumpy etc. Then it's back to the drawing board-more practice! Once you can play to the click and push and pull the beat but still stay in time, you have it under your belt and a little soft quantisation can sound okay.
This applies to VIs and real instruments.

For recording vocals a lot of people use some kind of reflection filter especially if their rooms are quite reflective and the room sound intrudes on to the recording.
https://www.storedj.com.au//se-electron ... gIcavD_BwE
These are placed on the opposite side of the mic to the singer. Some recommend hanging a blanket, doona or some such behind the singer as well.

[debmccall]

HI there. My two cents:
Midi stiffness can come from not practicing the part well enough to be in the groove and then applying quantisation. This is my experience. If I practice to a click track it can sound okay with the click playing back with the performance. Muting the click is the real test here though. With the click 'out' the performance can sound stiff, jumpy etc. Then it's back to the drawing board-more practice! Once you can play to the click and push and pull the beat but still stay in time, you have it under your belt and a little soft quantisation can sound okay.
This applies to VIs and real instruments.

For recording vocals a lot of people use some kind of reflection filter especially if their rooms are quite reflective and the room sound intrudes on to the recording.
https://www.storedj.com.au//se-electron ... gIcavD_BwE
These are placed on the opposite side of the mic to the singer. Some recommend hanging a blanket, doona or some such behind the singer as well.

Thanks, Lesmac! I have been using a drum machine...so it's not very flexible. Your idea of quantizing (once I figure out how to do that sounds really helpful. Also good tip for the vocal mic, thanks again, God bless!

[edmondredd]

Hey debmccall,
midi stiffness, or unnatural sounding music, comes mainly from 2 major things (putting the sound of the sample aside):
1. timing
and 2. velocity
So basically if everything is 100% precise, it's not human. The trick here is to have oh so slight variations, or a swing. In your DAW you definitely have the option of quantizing, a percentage of it and a percentage of swing as well.
For velocity, it's when all the notes are playing at the same "loudness". Basically, again depending on the library, if you're playing the same sample over and over again, it doesn't sound 'human'. Picture a drummer hitting a snare drum. There is no way in the world to have 2 similar, matching levels, snare hits. So what you do is either manually change the velocity or your notes, or use a 'randomizer' or 'humanize' option in your DAW

Hope that makes sense,

[lesmac]

by edmondredd » Wed Aug 29, 2018 9:34 pm
Hey debmccall,
midi stiffness, or unnatural sounding music, comes mainly from 2 major things (putting the sound of the sample aside):
1. timing
and 2. velocity
So basically if everything is 100% precise, it's not human. The trick here is to have oh so slight variations, or a swing. In your DAW you definitely have the option of quantizing, a percentage of it and a percentage of swing as well.
For velocity, it's when all the notes are playing at the same "loudness". Basically, again depending on the library, if you're playing the same sample over and over again, it doesn't sound 'human'. Picture a drummer hitting a snare drum. There is no way in the world to have 2 similar, matching levels, snare hits. So what you do is either manually change the velocity or your notes, or use a 'randomizer' or 'humanize' option in your DAW

+1 to what Edmond laid out there. Thats probably your quickest and easiest solution.

[debmccall]

Thank you for the input...You guys are much more advanced on the techy-recording side of this...
i have been using the drum loops from a Korg piano...mostly ...maybe it would be better to actually play them from the keys manually.
As for the recording process, the biggest problem is not knowing enough about the DAW that I have...it is Sequel 3 ( a steinberg product) I also have CUBASE 7.5 and it's much more complex, and I'm sure it will be wonderful once I begin to use it. I am thankful that my husband and I have the time and freedom now to learn the Cubase and hope to get past this problem...
Sure do appreciate the help and hints, God bless!

[DavidSJH]

Hi Deb,
These forums are great places to ask questions and get qualified answers as evidenced by the replies so far.
We’ve all battled the “midi stiffness” when starting out using virtual instruments. Loops are a bit better for groove as opposed to basic midi tracks. There is a ton of information and tutorials on YouTube for Cubase and you’ll find some great ones that are geared toward sophomores. There is also a Cubase Users Group ( that’s the name) on Facebook and the members there are quite helpful. And of course the Steinberg forums but it can take awhile there to get answers. Once you start to get a handle on Cubase you will find it very easy to use and quite intuitive for music production. Keep at it. It does get easier.

[cosmicdolphin]

I would avoid any drums built into any keyboard and get stuck into your DAW...look at stuff like Ez Drummer etc. and learn to use those