Piano midi not quantizing correctly

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

I used/ tried both of the quantization controls you mentioned. I've been told they are actually the same thing.

I have had someone look at it for me. The reason it does not quantize and does not even adhere to the click track and perhaps never will is that I recorded the piano with out markers, without listening to the BPM it was set to (and anyway the BPM was set to something totally different).

So, all I could do so far was to try and shift/ nudge the piano track to the right starting bar, but we are talking about manually trying to get it right, which will hardly ever be perfect.

So, that's where I am at at the moment...any more clues as to what I can do to salvage this?

I would have thought that Logic is advanced enough to slot anything that's in middle into the right tempo no matter how fast or slow it was played and no matter at which point the recording in the recording track it started, but it looks like I gae it a little too much credit..:-(

Thanks everyone, I will look into beat mapping and hopefully it'll help me out! :-)

Thanks again.

Hi, been trying to work this out but it's just no solving the problem.

The guides I have found on Logic Express 8's beat mapping are not addressing my problem or at least they explain poorly how it works.

Just to recap:

The piano track was played at 89BPM. It's a 1/32 feel groove. The 1/32 quantization setting does NOT quantize due to the way it was recoded.

I have selected beat mapping, I have selected all the notes in that track. What do I do now? Do I set the BPM to 89 or leave it 120 (where it plays the piano the way it was recorded, at the correct tempo), or do I not set any tempos. Do I need to quantize now or later or not quantize at all?

I keep getting the 'setting this beat would have caused the corresponding tempo value to high'.

For some reason the tempo has set itself to 39 BPM and won't let me change it.

I do not understand where to start, what buttons to press, what to select...I have spent over 20 hours in total trying to fix this now.

Jeez, this is suuuuch a head ache - why is this so very, very complicated. I read and understood why it is not quantizing in one of the comments here, but still - this should be easily solvable.

I just want to select all the midi notes, drag them to the start of the bar, select the BPM click, quantize and that's it. Why is this possible in Garageband and not in Logic? This should be an simple operation.

I would use GB for this but it does not export as Midi and exporting it as audio and re-importing it into Logic lowers the sound quality and defeats the object of having Logic in the first place.

Anyone willing to walk me through it step by step?

Hi CCT

Thank you very much for your detailed reply, I appreciate it a lot.

I have tried, or actually am still trying the 1st option you explained. I do have some minor problems with that and will explain in a minute.

The second option you described seems so much easier. However, pls confirm if this is how it'll work.

I set the BPM to the desired 89. I record a click track live using let's say a hi hat or something (at 89BPM). During this time the piano track will be muted so as not to interfere with my recording the click track.

I could now quantize theis click track, making it a perfect 89 BPM click. However, how does that influence the timing or tempo of the piano track? If there was such as thing as 'groove matching' in Logic Express 8 (like there is is in the the new GB) then I could set the click track hi hat as the 'groove master track' and then the piano track would adhere to this newly recorded click track. I do not believe that Logic Express 8 has this function though, so how can I 'force' the piano to follow my click track?

I have not yet recorded the click track as I wanted to know about the above first.

Back to the first option:

I have the BM function up and visible. There are severeal buttons and options in it: Analyze, Beats from region, sensitivity, protect midi. Do I select anything here or change anything or do I leave it as it is?

Important: do I leave the BPM at 120 or do I set it to 89?

Now, on the piano track, there is a space between the first bar and the actual first note (the space is pretty random, it was just the pause before we started actually playing).

I assume I should ct this space of and align the first midi note with the first bar, right? In any case it would make sense and help align it all with the BM bars I will insert.

Now, I click on the first bar of the BM. A yellow line appears.

From what I understand, I am supposed to click hold on this yellow bar and drag it to the next prominent note.

Ok, this is where it doesn't work. I am dragging it to a certain place, but it 'refuses' to put the marker where I want to set it. It lets me put it before or after but not in the place I want to put it.

In any case, I have just opted for the place before the midi note where I put the marker. Now, to put the next marker, do I drag from the original marker or can I drag form the second marker I just set (because it does let me do that, too). Also, I have noticed that there does not seem to be a need to click, I can just select the place I want the marker and click and it's there.

So this is what I ended up doing all through the piano track. I played the track and counted 4 bars at a time. This is how I set yellow markers every 4 beats/ every bar. Naturally, the bars are in seemingly 'odd' places as I am listening to the pioano and counting rather than adhering to the displayed white time markers in the track.

I have attached a screen shot, which i took while marking thsi track, so you can take a look, if this is the right way to do it.

Once I have marked everything, what do I do then? I am sure I have to select something to 'activate' the new mapping and timing.

I look forward to your reply.

Thanks very much so far!

Hi Pauloman80,

of course you are right adn the thought has crossed my mind...but the problem is I hired a pro to play it and paid several hundred bucks for it, so it's not likely that I'm gonna do that again. I have to find a way to fix this.

Hi CCT,

I am doing exactly as you explained.

I have played and recorded a click along to the piano track, with no BPM set and no Logic metronome.

It's a very simple click in line with the piano part, just a 4/4/ beat:

I went to the BM field and dragged the yellow bar to the '5th' beat (ie, the 1st beat of the second bar). That did not work. I did this as you said in your earlier post that the BM line should be dragged to the 'next significant' note event. i got this:

'Setting this beat would have caused the corresponding tempo to be too high'

So I un-did this and simply dragged the BM line marker to the second beat. That worked and now the click track I recorded was perfectly in time.

But that did not change anything in the piano track/s at all. I had the click track solo'd so i thought maybe I should solo the piano track I was working on as well. Still no change.

My own click track is perfect now thanks to BM but how do I get the piano track to now follow this new click track...or what steps do i have to take to force the piano midi to follow the BM/ click track.

it does not seem to want to follow the new BM 'timing rule' I have created by following your advice.

As usual, your help is greatly appreciated.