A MIDI humanizer. It takes machine-perfect notes and makes them slightly imperfect, the way a real player is, by nudging when each note starts and how hard it is played. The randomness is seeded, so the same part gets the same feel every time you play or render it.
Controls
- Timing delays the start of each note by a random amount, from none up to 50 milliseconds at full. Notes are only ever moved later, never earlier, so Humanize does not need to hold your playing back to work.
- Velocity varies how hard each note plays, up to 32 steps louder or softer at full. Results stay within the normal MIDI velocity range.
- Seed picks the pattern of imperfection. Different seeds give different feels; the same seed with the same notes always gives the same result.
- The Processing on / Pass through switch takes Humanize in and out.
Both amounts start at zero, so Humanize does nothing until you turn them up. The panel draws the range each setting allows around a reference note; it is a picture of the settings, not of the notes you are playing.
Getting started
Place Humanize between a MIDI source, such as a step sequencer, a clip or a quantized drum part, and an instrument. Small amounts go a long way: a little Timing and a little Velocity loosen a rigid hi-hat line without making it sound sloppy. Try a few seeds and keep the one that sits best.
Only the start of each note moves; the end of the note stays where it was. At high Timing settings, very short notes therefore get shorter still.
