(Rant warning)

So lets say some drummer is hired to lay down live tracks for a head bobbing/swing flowing/trip hopesk project. Tracks get sent off & everyone loves the vibe. A month or two later the songwriter isn’t pleased. She asks why do the tracks sound so different after “joe the mixer” got his hands on them? I listen to the rough mixes for about 30 sec & say, “well he quantized the F#$% out of them. Killed all of the swing/flow”. All drum & bass parts had been quantized & locked to a straight grid. Turned a swing feel into a rock track.

Moral of the story, Stop using Beat detective, Audio Snap, Audio Quantize, etc by default! The human swing & timing deviations are what help translate musical expression. Leave it be. When should you correct timing? When timing is a problem, that’s it.

This holds true with sequenced music as well. Loops can contain all the same little imperfections that keep music interesting. You can end up with some pretty lifeless content without the contrast between locked sequences & human feel. live interaction along with programmed elements is a perfect match IMHO.

As an example I hit the REC button & tracked two loose grooves with some imperfections pretty far of the grid. I then ran them thru an extreme rough & dirty uncleaned Beat Detective pass. You can hear how the bounce is stripped & creates a lifeless groove.