Randomize/humanize Parameters

Ideas & suggestions
1

one of my favourite things about Live! is that there are certain parameters in the sampler playback devices which allow subtle (or not so subtle) random parameters

so, when i have a row of hihats triggered on 16th’s, i add a touch of random HPF, a hint of random velocity and pitch, and i’ve got something which sounds almost “performed”… it’s still machine-tight, but the very subtle variations on each hit give it an organic/natural quality which doesn’t sound so cold and repetative

i’ve been listening to a lot of older electronic music lately, where everything was triggered from drum machines and hardware sequencers, and while the MIDI timing was rock solid, you can still feel the slight looseness of the beats, and it gave the tunes soul and made repetition sound more dynamic, and less like you’re waiting for a bus to arrive

so i was wondering if there might be certain randomize parameters in renoise, added either in the sample playback editor, or possibly as 0x00 commands

i’d really like to be able to randomize when the sample triggers more than anything - maybe a value between 00-ff representing the range - where ff could be the next step in the sequence… so if i randomized a hihat pattern with 0R05 on each hihat event, i’d have a very subtle humanized rhythm with delays between 0 (no delay) and 5 (5/128ths of a step…?) every time a hihat’s triggered

so it really could be an effect you don’t really hear, but which changes the way a tune feels

the big advantage over using a h/w sampler (or Live!) for this is that i’d be able to keep things like snares relatively tight, and have hihat’s looser on upbeats and tighter on downbeats (just like a real drummer)

random panning, filter and tuning could also be useful, either to add that “performed” feel or for more experimental pieces at higher settings

2

Advanced edit => vol/pan/effects => modify = > humanize…?

3

no that’s not really what i meant

i mean an active random setting which can be applied to, for example, note delays - where a note delay can take on a much finer resolution e.g. 0-ff

hihat patten

c-401 0r01 (downbeat => tight timing)
c-401 0r0f (next beat a bit looser 0-f note delay)
c-401 0r03 (upbeat, tight, but a very subtle random element)
c-401 0r0f (bit looser)

you don’t really get that effect from velocity alone

4

I would then rather set a randomise mode prior to using commands… simply r01 would be turn on humanize / randomise effect values and r00 would turn it off.

5

J Swift: I know what you mean - I had a lot of fun with this in Cubase, where you can add variable depth of randomness to velocity, timing, note length and so on, on to each miditrack. F.ex. you could make the hihats a little off-beat, and vary the volume of each note. I also used this on my Yamaha DX7 where the length of the note could create very different sounds. The best thing about it is that it is done “live” and you don’t have to program or render the variations. You still deal with easy to adjust midi-notes/patterndata - instead you specify the randomness and the program will take care of it and do it with ‘true randomness’.

I’d love to see a function like this too - although I understand it could be a bit tricky to implement.

6

oh yeah so if it turned it on and off it could be used either:

c-401 0r01
c-401 0r0f
c-401 0r00

to change the range for different hits

or

c-401 0r01
c-401
c-401

as a switch

i do certainly prefer live randomness myself - i work with loops a lot of the time so it’d otherwise mean reselecting the same patterns over and over and applying a humanize type function to each

plus, i’m so anal, i’d never be happy with it set in stone, i’d rather it decide!

7

You could insert a bit of silence at the start of your samples, and use the offset command to create varying delays. This is of course not dynamically random, and only works with renoise sample-instruments, but gives you sub-tick timing.

8

Thats not a bad idea datassette

9

yeah i have used that method on occassion - sometimes it’s nice to program a slightly late snare or bassdrum to make a beat sound laid back or give it a slightly human touch

but again, if i had to program it in i’d always be fiddling and it’d end up far from random!

10

That’s a great idea! Would love something like that.

11

absolutely!

but then the slightly loose feel of MIDI timing can be nice too - which is much tighter than a live drummer of course, but just short of sample accurate enough to give the track a little air

12

Btw, I’ll upload some stuff I’ve done using the randomize function in Cubase, maybe tomorrow - just to give an idea of what is possible. :)