Steinberg Multi Track Quantizing Manual

							Zero-X BeatQuantizer – Multi Track Quantizing    
 
MULTI TRACK 
QUANTIZING 
WITH 
BEATQUANTIZER 
 
VERSION 0.55 
 
CHECK WWW.BEATQUANTIZER.COM  
FOR THE LATEST VERSION  
						

							Zero-X BeatQuantizer – Multi Track Quantizing   CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................3 
1.1 WHAT IS BEATQUANTIZER?.......................................................................................3 
1.2 BEATQUANTIZER FILE FORMATS...............................................................................3 
2. CONCEPTS.................................................................................................................4 
2.1 SLICES........................................................................................................................4 
2.2 GRID...........................................................................................................................4 
2.3 MASTER TRACK.........................................................................................................4 
2.4 MASTER GRID............................................................................................................4 
3. MULTI TRACK IN SHORT..........................................................................................5 
3.1 MULTI TRACK MODE.................................................................................................5 
3.2 CREATE MASTER TRACK............................................................................................5 
3.3 PLAY MIXED..............................................................................................................5 
3.4 GAIN..........................................................................................................................5 
3.5 MASTER SELECTION...................................................................................................5 
3.6 SYNC SCROLL & ZOOM (WINDOWS)..........................................................................5 
3.7 CLEAR GRIDS.............................................................................................................5 
3.8 LOCATE EVENTS........................................................................................................5 
3.9 COPY MASTER START/END MARKERS TO ALL TRACKS...............................................5 
3.10 COPY MASTER GRID TO ALL TRACKS.....................................................................6 
3.11 COPY GRID TO ALL TRACKS....................................................................................6 
3.12 COPY GRID TO MASTER GRID.................................................................................6 
3.13 MERGE WITH MASTER GRID..................................................................................6 
3.14 QUANTIZE...............................................................................................................6 
3.15 QUANTIZE FINALIZER.............................................................................................6 
3.16 BATCH MTQ...........................................................................................................6 
3.17 TIME STRETCH........................................................................................................6 
4. MULTI TRACK QUANTIZING....................................................................................7 
4.1 OVERVIEW.................................................................................................................7 
4.2 HOW TO.....................................................................................................................7 
4.2.1 Brief Introduction.................................................................................................................................................7 
4.2.2 Prepare the Tracks in your DAW......................................................................................................................7 
4.2.3 Open the Tracks....................................................................................................................................................8 
4.2.4 Create a Master Track.........................................................................................................................................8 
4.2.5 Set Track Start and End.......................................................................................................................................8 
4.2.6 Set Tempo..............................................................................................................................................................9 
4.2.7 Deciding what to Quantize.................................................................................................................................9 
4.2.8 Master Grid.........................................................................................................................................................10 
4.2.9 Slice up the Tracks and Create the Master Grid...........................................................................................10 
4.2.10 Quantize...............................................................................................................................................................11 
4.2.11 Finalize.................................................................................................................................................................12 
4.3 BATCH MTQ............................................................................................................13 
5. FINAL NOTE.............................................................................................................14  
						

							Zero-X BeatQuantizer – Multi Track Quantizing   1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 What is BeatQuantizer? 
BeatQuantizer (BQ) is a single and multi-track rhythm analysis and conforming software, designed to tighten the 
performance of drums and other instruments with well-defined transients. 
 
BQ is also a sample editor, built on the foundation of BeatCreator (BC), a loop based sample editor. BQ can do 
everything BC can do and more. In short BQ has more and more advanced audio quantizing tools and more multi-
track tools than BC. More general information as well as free demo versions is available at: 
http://www.beatcreator.com. 
 
Just to avoid misunderstandings, note that BeatQuantizer is not a DAW, a real-time instrument, a plug or a multi 
track audio sequencer.  
 
1.2 BeatQuantizer File Formats 
BeatQuantizer can both import and export a variety of file formats. We recommend you to work with wav files 
when importing and exporting tracks between BQ and your DAW. Most wav file formats are supported (16, 24, 32 
floating points etc). We recommend zgr files (native Zero-X Groove file format) for saving  
the slice marker positions and for importing grooves to other sessions. 
 
Other supported file formats are for instance rex, rx2, acidized wav including slice/stretch markers, sf2, rcy, midi, 
lm4, trk, aif, map, raw etc. 
 
  
						

							Zero-X BeatQuantizer – Multi Track Quantizing   2. CONCEPTS To make sure you have an idea of what we are talking about. 
2.1 If you are coming from Beat Detective 
Most of the features in Beat Detective are also available in BeatQuantizer. They are just named a bit differently. 
 
Beat Detective BeatQuantizer Trigger Pad Pre-Cut Sync point, Beat Trigger Slice/Event marker Conform Quantize Conform: Strength Quantize: Power Conform: Standard Quantize: Static Edit Smoothing Finalize Collection Mode The tracks are always sliced up individually. But by 
using the Master Track as a collection pool, you can 
easily merge/mix the slice markers in any tracks and 
create the collection. This is described in detail later on.  
2.2 Slices 
BQ is capable of slicing up the audio tracks in several ways. Either you can slice them up based on auto detected 
events (also known as transients) or you can slice them up based on a given note length (also known as a “click 
track”). After slicing up, a slice marker will mark the beginning of each slice. Each slice marker has a number and 
can also be given an individual name. The slice markers can be moved, added and deleted.  
A Slice starts from its slice marker and ends precisely before the following slice marker. 
See help file for more information. 
 
2.3 Grid 
The collection of all slices in a track, is called a Grid. The grid is also called a Groove as it can for instance be used 
as a groove template when quantizing. If you slice the track based on a given note length, the grid is called a static 
grid. 
See help file for more information. 
 
2.4 Master Track 
The Master Track can be used for several things. You can use it as a pool for collecting unique slice markers from 
multiple tracks, you can use it to perform operations that will affect all tracks, you can use it for making a master 
selection that will control what bars in all tracks that will be sliced and quantized and much more. 
 
As soon as you have loaded your tracks, it’s recommended to create a master track.  
You can either convert a specific track, or create an empty master track or create the master track as a mono mix of 
all tracks. It’s mostly a matter of taste if you go for an empty or a mono mix. Converting a track into master track is 
an advanced option and will also rename the track to “Master Track”.  
 
2.5 Master Grid 
The grid in the master track is called the master grid. 
 
  
						

							Zero-X BeatQuantizer – Multi Track Quantizing   3. MULTI TRACK IN SHORT Going thru the menu items in the Multi Track menu very briefly. 
Most options are also available from the Multi Track toolbar. 
3.1 Multi Track Mode 
Toggles between multi track and single track mode. When it is checked, all tracks will be lined up vertically and the 
multi track tools are enabled. 
 
You cannot edit the order of the lined up tracks vertically (in v1.0). The Master track, if present, is always at the 
top. 
 
3.2 Create Master Track 
Creates a master track. Either as a mono mix of all tracks, or by converting the current track or by creating a silent 
one. For more information, see “Master Track”. 
  
3.3 Play Mixed 
When checked, “Play” will mix all tracks but the master track, in real-time. 
 
3.4 Gain 
Sets the individual gain for each track when played mixed and when creating a mono mixed master track. 
 
3.5 Master Selection 
When checked, the selection in the Master Track will be snapped to bars/measures and will be referred to as the  
Master Selection. 
 
The master selection controls where in the tracks the slicing and multi track quantizing will be performed. 
 
For instance if you want to quantize bars 3-6 in your tracks, then first make sure master selection is enabled and 
then mark bars 3-6 in the master track. Now when you slice up any of the tracks, only bar 3-6 will be sliced up. 
When you select the multi track quantizer, its titlebar will say “Bar(s) 3-6”. 
 
3.6 Sync Scroll & Zoom (Windows) 
When checked, the zooming and scrolling of all tracks will be synchronized. 
 
3.7 Clear Grids 
Removes all slice markers from all tracks. 
 
3.8 Locate Events 
Performs an individual event/transient based slice on all tracks. 
 
3.9 Copy Master Start/End markers to all tracks 
Copies the loop start/end markers in Master Track to all other tracks. So, that all tracks end up having their 
loop/track markers identically set.  
						

							Zero-X BeatQuantizer – Multi Track Quantizing   3.10 Copy Master Grid to all Tracks 
Copies the grid (i.e. all slice markers) from the master track to all other tracks.  
Replaces whatever grid may be present in the other tracks. 
 
3.11 Copy Grid to all Tracks 
Copies the current grid (i.e. all slice markers) and pastes it to all other tracks.  
Replaces whatever grid may be present in any of the other tracks. 
 
3.12 Copy Grid to Master Grid 
Copies the current grid (i.e. all slice markers) to the Master Track.  
Replaces whatever grid may be present in the master track. 
 
3.13 Merge With Master Grid 
Merges the current grid (i.e. all slice markers in the selected track) with the grid in the master track. 
I.e. the current grid in the master is not replaced but merged/mixed with the current grid. If there is no grid in the 
master track, a new grid will be created (instead of merged) in the Master Track based on the current grid.  
 
3.14 Quantize 
Quantizes all tracks based on the selected quantizing options.  
See Multi Track Quantizing chapter. 
 
3.15 Quantize Finalizer 
Fills the gaps and deals with the overlap caused by the multi track quantizing. 
See Quantize Finalizer chapter. 
 
3.16 Batch MTQ 
Makes it possible to batch run multi track quantize and finalize based on the result of a multi track quantize/finalize 
session. If you for instance have more tracks than your RAM can deal with, Batch MTQ could be a life saver. 
Bring up the dialog and Help/F1 for details about the settings, and see the Batch MTQ chapter further into the 
manual for a guide on how to use this tool. 
 
3.17 Time Stretch 
Time Stretches all tracks to a common tempo. See help file for more information.  
						

							Zero-X BeatQuantizer – Multi Track Quantizing   4. MULTI TRACK QUANTIZING Finally we are getting to the point! What took you so long? 
4.1 Overview 
For information about all settings in the multi track quantizing dialog, see help file. 
4.2 How To 
Here is a basic step by step guide on how to quantize multiple tracks. Note that there is more than one way of doing 
this, so we are just giving you some hints of how to get started. The tools in BQ are very modular, letting you do 
multi track quantizing in a variety of ways. 
4.2.1 Brief Introduction 
First a brief introduction for those of you already familiar with multi track quantizing or just want to get an 
overview of how to do mtq. After this we will go into detail. 
 
1. Make sure the tracks start and end at a full bar. Close your DAW.  
2. Make a copy of the tracks to a unique folder. 
3. Open the copy of the tracks, i.e. wav files. 
4. Create a mixed master track. 
5. If needed, alter track start/end marker to make sure it starts and ends at a full bar. Do it in the Master Track 
(and all tracks will follow). 
6. Set tempo and number of bars.  
Do it in the Master Track and all tracks will follow. 
You may need to use the Tools: “Set Loop Start to Tempo” or “Set Loop End to Tempo”. 
7. Create Master grid based upon the kick and snare track. 
I.e. slice up those tracks individually and merge their slice markers together in the Master Track/Master 
Grid. 
8. Copy Master Grid to all tracks. 
9. Select Multi Track Quantize. Make sure the pre-cut is set to 5-10 ms. Apply. 
10. Check “sync slices and slice markers” and if needed, manually quantize some slices by entering Quantize 
mode and then dragging the slice marker.  
11. Select Multi Track Quantize Finalizer.  
Set Fill Gaps to either PolyStretcher or Xfade and Overlap to PolyStretcher or No processing. 
Make sure the Pre-Cut Xfade is set to 5-10 ms and, if selected, the Fill Gaps Xfade is set to 5-10ms. 
Apply. 
12. To hear what the result sounds like, check “Play mixed”, click on the ruler in any track but the master 
track and press play. Now all tracks (but the master track) are played together real-time mixed. 
13. Save back the tracks to disk, for instance using Save All. 
14. Open the tracks in your DAW. 
 
Done! 
 
So as you can see, as soon as you have loaded the tracks and setup the timing info, there are only two main step. 
Quantize and Finalize. You may be OK with the default settings or you may want to fiddle with each setting, fine 
tune the slice markers and manually quantize the slices to perfection. BeatQuantizer offers lots of alternatives. 
 
Lets start all over again but this time slowly and surely! 
 
4.2.2 Prepare the Tracks in your DAW 
Only work with wav files. 
 
It is recommended that the tracks are of the same length and required that they have the same tempo, time signature 
and sample rate. 
  
						

							Zero-X BeatQuantizer – Multi Track Quantizing   It is strongly recommended that the tracks start and end on a full bar. If they don’t, there are ways to adjust this in 
BQ but it requires some extra work. It is strongly recommended to record a click track along with the other tracks. 
Otherwise it is hard to know exactly where the first bar starts. 
You can also “bounce”, copy parts of the tracks to a new file; 
Snap to bars, range the whole area of the tracks in your DAW and bounce.  
 
 
BQ is RAM based so, if you are low on ram, have tons of tracks or work with very high sample rates you may have 
to work on your project in sections. At least 1GB RAM is recommended, but it all depends on the size and the 
amount of files. You may get along with much less ram, or you may need even more. There is an “MTQ Batch” 
tool in BQ that may come in handy when working on more and longer tracks than your ram can handle. This is 
described in another chapter below. 
 
As long as you have enough RAM you should be able to open the raw wav files that you recorded/created in your 
DAW (Nuendo/SX/Sonar etc) directly. In that case you do not need to specifically export the tracks from your 
DAW but can simply open the recorded tracks.  
 
If you want to work directly on the tracks recorded in your DAW, you mostly have to close the DAW before you 
open them in BeatQuantizer. This is because the DAW often holds the files.  
 
Closing the DAW is recommended anyway as BeatQuantizer needs as much ram as it can get.  
Still, if you have enough RAM left, if your DAW doesn’t hold the files or if you export or bounce new tracks, then 
you may very well keep your DAW up and running while quantizing the tracks in BeatQuantizer. 
 
4.2.3 Open the Tracks 
OK, it’s time to start up BeatQuantizer and get dirty! 
 
Make sure Multi Track mode is selected. 
It is recommended to uncheck the setting: “Settings – Open – Locate Events”, before you open the tracks. 
 
You can drag in the tracks from your file explorer or simply use menu item: “File – Open”. 
In BQ’s file open dialog you can preview and multi select the tracks you want to open. (using the shift or control 
key). 
 
4.2.4 Create a Master Track 
Select: “Multi Track – Create Master Track – Mixed” 
This will create a master track as a simple mono mix of all tracks. 
Note that the, per track, Gain setting can be used to control the mixed volume of individual tracks. 
 
4.2.5 Set Track Start and End 
It is very important to set the track start and end markers so that the start marker marks the beginning of the first 
full bar and the end marker marks the end of the last full bar. If you fail doing this, quantizing will fail. 
 
The track start and end track markers are also referred to as the loop markers. They are set to the beginning and end 
of the tracks unless the wav file contains information to set them differently. 
 
If your tracks are already edited to start and end on a full bar, then you are all set and you can jump to next step.  
 
If not, double click the ruler of the master track to maximize it, as moving the loop/tracks markers in the master 
track will synchronise the loop/track markers in all other tracks. Then read the following sub steps carefully. 
 
4.2.5.1 Set Track Start 
 
In the Master Track, drag loop start marker to the first beat of the first full bar.  
 
Make sure you set it carefully. Zoom in horizontally to sample level 1:1 and maybe also zoom in vertically. You 
can for instance use the key up for zoom in horizontally and page up to zoom in vertically.  
						

							Zero-X BeatQuantizer – Multi Track Quantizing   Look and listen carefully to make sure you find the exact position. 
  
You can toggle between viewing loop start and loop end marker by pressing [Tab] key.  
 
If you are sure about the loop/track end marker’s position and the tempo of the track, but unsure about the 
loop/track start position, then you can get help from a tool in the Tools menu called “Set Loop Start to Tempo”.  
For more info, see the help file. 
 
4.2.5.2 Set Track End 
 
Do accordingly for track end marker as you did for track start marker above. 
 
If you are sure about the loop/track start marker’s position and the tempo of the track, but unsure about the 
loop/track end position, then you can get help from a tool in the Tools menu called “Set Loop End to Tempo”.  
For more info, see the help file. 
 
4.2.6 Set Tempo 
If the master track is maximized after setting the start/end markers, simply double click its ruler to get it back in 
line. 
 
After setting up the track start and end markers we have to setup the tempo for the tracks. 
Make sure the Master track is selected (if not, just single click its ruler). Altering the tempo and measures in the 
Master Track will synchronise the tempo and measure in all tracks. 
 
Look at the tempo setting in the Slicing Control toolbar. If it’s correct, you can skip to next step. 
If it is not, click on the tempo edit box and enter the correct tempo. Now, the number of bars (in the same toolbar) 
have automatically been adjusted.  
 
If you enter an invalid tempo (based on the size of the track), the tempo will have been auto adjusted to the closest 
valid tempo. 
 
If you just cannot get it right, then you surely have not set up the track start and/or track end markers (or your 
memory is failing you). 
 
If the size of the tracks can’t fit the correct tempo (maybe it’s just a tiny bit missing) then you can use the resize 
option in the Tools “Set Loop Start to Tempo” and “Set Loop End to Tempo” to add silence to the beginning or end 
of the tracks. 
 
4.2.7 Deciding what to Quantize 
If you have come this far, your tracks are ready to be processed and it’s now the real fun begins! 
 
Below we will show you one way of doing multi track quantizing. But there are tons of other ways of doing it too. 
In any case, all prior steps up to this point are required. 
 
Our goal is to quantize all tracks identically. This is very important as it will keep the phasing of the mic leakage 
between the tracks to a minimum.  
This means that we can’t quantize all tracks individually. Instead we must create a common grid that we apply to all 
tracks and then quantize from (not to!). 
 
We can’t create a common grid that is based on all events in all tracks, as it would simply slice the tracks into too 
many and too small pieces and turning the quantizing into an inferno. In short, it will sound very bad. 
Instead we decide that the snare and the kick events are the ones that will form the common grid. This means that 
anything in between a kick and a snare will not be quantized. It will keep its relative groove to the surrounding kick 
and snare. But the kick and the snare will be quantized according to the quantize template we pick. 
 
It’s very important that you fully understand this. If not, please read it all over a couple of more times. If you still 
don’t get it, ask a friend who is used to multi track quantizing, perhaps using Beat Detective. If that doesn’t help, 
well you are of course welcome to e-mail us and we will try to sort it out for you (see www.beatquantizer.com for 
an e-mail support address).  
						

							Zero-X BeatQuantizer – Multi Track Quantizing    
Now, it’s about time we show you how, don’t you think? 
 
4.2.8 Master Grid 
As you know by now, the grid in the master track is called the master grid. 
 
Our first goal is to create a common grid based on the detected events in the kick and snare track.  
So, we will start by slicing up the kick track and the snare track. Then we merge the grids together and apply it to 
all tracks. The master grid will be the pool to store and merge the grids. 
 
 
4.2.9 Slice up the Tracks and Create the Master Grid 
 
Let’s start by detecting the events in the kick track. 
 
Locate the kick track, double click its ruler to maximize it. Make sure the Slice Mode is set to Events and press the 
SLICE button. This brings up the Slicing Control. Press F1/Help and read about it’s controls and how to best detect 
the events on the track. 
Close the dialog and zoom in 1:1. Use the arrow keys (left/right) and examine the start/end position of each slice 
and make sure they are perfectly positioned. You may have to bring up the Slicing Control and tune the settings 
some more. Or you can manually move, add and delete slice markers. See the help file for more details on how to 
adjust the slice markers. 
 
When the kick track is perfectly sliced up, we copy the grid to the master track. Make sure the kick track is still 
current and simply select “Copy Grid to Master Grid” from the multi track menu or from the popup menu you get 
when you right click the “hat” of a slice marker in the kick track.  
 
Continue by doing the same with the Snare track (locate, slice it up, examine, fine tune etc), but instead of selecting 
“Copy Grid to Master grid”, select “Merge Grid with Master Grid” from the multi track menu. This will copy the 
unique slice markers of the snare track to the master grid. 
 
Now the master grid contains all slice markers in the kick and the snare track. 
 
Finally Select Copy Master Grid to all tracks (from the Multi Track menu or from the slice marker popup menu) 
so that all tracks are sliced up identically.  
 
Check/enable “Sync Slices and Markers”. Now if you move a slice marker in one track, all other tracks will follow.