Reference Guide

704
Editing MIDI events and continuous controllers (CC)
Changing the timing of a recording
To delete a groove
1. Choose Process > Groove Quantize to display the Groove Quantize dialog box.
2. Click the Define button to display the Define Groove dialog box.
3. Select the file containing the groove to delete.
4. Select the pattern name of the groove.
5. Click the Delete button, and confirm that you want to delete the groove pattern.
6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for each groove you wish to delete.
7. Click Close when you are done to return to the Groove Quantize dialog box.
Groove Quantize tips
Here are some tips to help you with groove quantizing:
Aligning sloppy tracks with a good one. Select the portion of the “good” track that you want to
apply to the “sloppy” tracks and copy it to the Clipboard. Select the portion of the sloppy tracks you
want to modify. Choose Process > Groove Quantize, choose the Clipboard as the groove source,
and click OK.
Accenting beats in each measure. Create a sample measure containing note events at the
desired accent points. Give the notes on the accented beats a greater velocity and the others a
lesser velocity. Select the measure, copy it to the Clipboard, and then choose Process > Groove
Quantize. Set the velocity strength as high as necessary so that the notes get accented the way you
want.
Stealing that feeling. Suppose you have a dry piece that was composed and entered into
SONAR with a rigid sense of timing (for example, using step recording). You’ve recorded a bass line
that has exactly the off-beat rhythmic dynamic you want for the dry piece. You’d like to force your
other tracks to share that feel. Copy the bass track to the Clipboard; from the Groove Quantize
dialog box, select the Clipboard as the groove source; choose a resolution value roughly on the
order of the duration of the bass notes and a window of 100 percent. SONAR aligns the melody note
events with the nearest bass notes.
Synchronizing rhythm and solo tracks. If you want to preserve the unique rhythm of each track
but want to synchronize them together in time, try a larger resolution value and a smaller window.
For example, suppose you have one track with a highly stylized drum beat and another track
containing a jazz solo with some very nice runs in it. The drum beats fall primarily on quarter notes,
but the solo consists of runs of fast notes that aren’t quite sixteenth triplets. Copy the drum track to
the Clipboard, and groove quantize using a quarter-note resolution and a window of perhaps 10
percent. SONAR aligns the solo notes near the quarter-note drum beats but maintains the feel of the
solo during the fast runs of notes in between.
Correcting off-tempo tracks. Suppose you have both rhythm and melody tracks recorded, but
the melody was played erratically. First, copy the rhythm track to the Windows clipboard. Then use
groove quantize with a whole-note resolution, a window of 25 percent or less, and with the Scale
Time option selected. The Groove Quantize command will synchronize the melody track with the
groove source at roughly measure boundaries, while maintaining the relative timing of the notes in
each measure.