Quantization For Analog Guitar Track... in Pro Tools?

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NigelEHarris
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Quantization For Analog Guitar Track... in Pro Tools?

Post by NigelEHarris » Mon Mar 14, 2022 4:54 am

Hi, most Taxi screeners with their 'bionic ears' point out to me that my rhythm guitar tracks, although synched with the click at the start of the track, go off synch several times during the track.

How can I compensate for this in Pro Tools, aside from manually moving all the 'out of synch' guitar strokes in the editor?

I quantize midi digital tracks all the time but have never tried with an analog track.

Playing rhythm guitar and always be 'bang on' with the click seems like a tall order...

Any of you have experience with this?

Please share - thanks in advance

Nigel (Ottawa - Canada)

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Re: Quantization For Analog Guitar Track... in Pro Tools?

Post by Casey H » Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:31 am

Hey Nigel
You posted this in 3 places. You may want to delete the others and keep the one here.

I'm way above my pay-grade here on production (I'm a total non-producer) but I know Cubase has a "Time Warp" feature that may do this. Don't know if other DAWs have similar offerings or if there are plug ins that do this.

I'm curious what the answers here are.

Good luck!
:D Casey

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Re: Quantization For Analog Guitar Track... in Pro Tools?

Post by Casey H » Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:53 am

I found this video on a Google search if it is helpful.
https://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/ho ... -audio-687

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Re: Quantization For Analog Guitar Track... in Pro Tools?

Post by NigelEHarris » Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:11 am

Thanks Casey,

I posted in 3 places because I figured there would be more chances my question would be seen by Taxi members. Is that a problem?

Thanks for the follow-up... I will look at your suggestions

Cheers

Nigel

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Re: Quantization For Analog Guitar Track... in Pro Tools?

Post by Casey H » Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:53 am

NigelEHarris wrote:
Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:11 am

I posted in 3 places because I figured there would be more chances my question would be seen by Taxi members. Is that a problem?
When everything is on one thread, all the answers are together for EVERYONE to learn from in one place. And posting the same thing in many places is generally considered "spamming" the boards and most of us find it annoying.

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Re: Quantization For Analog Guitar Track... in Pro Tools?

Post by NigelEHarris » Mon Mar 14, 2022 7:24 am

OK Casey H -I hear you
I'll delete in other places
Thanks for the elastic audio instructions... they worked a charm!
Appreciate your support on this
Nigel

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Re: Quantization For Analog Guitar Track... in Pro Tools?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Mon Mar 14, 2022 2:06 pm

Learn to use Beat Detective

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Re: Quantization For Analog Guitar Track... in Pro Tools?

Post by Telefunkin » Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:16 pm

NigelEHarris wrote:
Mon Mar 14, 2022 4:54 am
Playing rhythm guitar and always be 'bang on' with the click seems like a tall order...
Isn't playing in time something that musicians do? ;)

Seriously, there are options:
- Keep re-taking the part until its as good as its going to get.
- Or re-take the sections that drifted out.
- Or ask someone else to play it if they can keep time more consistently (as a WFH or collaboration), and that can easily be done remotely by someone anywhere else on the planet you've never even met (a separate discussion, but its not difficult to achieve).
- Then finally, there's audio quantize (or elastic audio, or whatever you want to call it).

Personally, I don't like using audio quantize. I can't speak about PT but I believe the algorithms that Cubase uses are as good as any, yet I find the results can sound a bit unnatural. To my ears it works best on drum parts, can be OK for bass guitar, but is less appealing on guitar chords. Maybe its just me, but I'd much prefer to get the part close enough without using audio quantize, although I have occasionally salvaged an otherwise good take by manually cutting and moving odd notes here and there. That works better for me.

If you really do feel like there's no other way than to quantize, then applying it strictly to move everything until its absolutely bang on time might not be what you need. In some DAWS (not sure about PT) you can use iterative quantize to move sections closer to the beat to tighten them up without them sounding too rigid. Also, depending of the groove of the track, some parts can sit better when they're sightly behind the beat (and I'm sure you know that you can delay a track in PT). Furthermore, if the beat moves around you can create groove templates and quantize to those rather than to strict timing.

As is usually the case, there will be video content on ALL these things somewhere on Youtube. Casey found something useful right away, so you should be able to find it just as easily.
Graham (UK). Still composing a little faster than decomposing, and 100% HI.

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Re: Quantization For Analog Guitar Track... in Pro Tools?

Post by Casey H » Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:03 pm

Telefunkin wrote:
Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:16 pm
Isn't playing in time something that musicians do? ;)
Musicians??? Who said anything about us being musicians??? :lol: :lol:

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