If you can get it into MIDI.....in the DAW and in the synths, there are controls that determine the tightness of the notes to the BPM. It's displayed as a percentage of faithfulness to the beat. The further you venture from the 100% machine level, the more you get hits before and after the beat, by how much that deviation is, and the randomness of said deviations.

Obviously, some will be more "human" sounding than others. Drum synths tend to have the most control over this particular area, for obvious reasons.

Also.... I heard this simple tidbit of advice many years ago. If you have a solid on the beat midi piece, and you simply add a live instrument track such as rhythm guitar, there's enough natural human deviation in that one instrument track to fool the brain into thinking all the tracks are more natural sounding.


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www.herbhartley.com
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The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.