So how can we benefit from technology while yet preserving humanity?
Finding the right balance between grinding for perfection and maintaining a line of sight to the defects that really make music stronger has been one of the hardest things I’ve had to acquire.
You must intentionally generate faults if you want to give your songs a handcrafted, individual vibe.
You are, in fact, bringing human variation back when you humanize MIDI chords.
Velocity & Pan of the MIDI chords
The first things we can change to make our notes sound more human are the velocity and pan.
Velocity and pan may be significant elements when exploring making MIDI chords sound likely to listen.
My preferred method is to use Randomizer(Alt+R to open Randomizer in Piano Roll), a feature that allows me to shuffle the parameters of the notes I’ve previously picked (Alt+A to select all notes in your Piano Roll).
I randomly adjust the velocity and pan using the Randomizer so that not all notes hit with the same force. The contrast between the velocities of various notes must be heard.
Strum and MIDI chords arrangement
Another strategy is the arrangement and combination of the notes.
Drawing your notes manually on the Piano Roll differs significantly from recording a live performance on an instrument. The live recording includes imperfections and delays that make the chords appear to be performed by a person. Since a genuine guitarist’s finger movement isn’t always exactly in sync with the BPM, there is a slight delay while they play. Chords sound mostly human because of this.
White noise
White noise quickly brings to mind acoustic and analog equipment. A sound may go from being computerized and harsh to being natural and lush by just adding some appropriate white noise.
Most of the time, we won’t even be aware that there is white noise in a recording. Surprisingly, that will completely change the sound and feel of the chords, making the final step outstanding
White noise may be included in one of two ways: by using a noise generator or high-quality samples.
I prefer to use the iZotope RC-20 plugin’s vinyl crackling noises for my songs.
Conclusion
I strongly advise implementing these three techniques and passing them along to your friends since they raised the quality of my beats.
However, it is well known that live recording cannot be replaced. When you record an instrument, it retains some of the energy of the original, and I wish we could all be in a place where we could play and record any instrument that came to mind.
