How To Quantize In FL Studio: A Simplified Approach To Using FL Studio Like A Pro

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Are you ready to discover how to quantize in FL Studio?

Yeah? Well, this is what this article seeks to enlighten you about. … The simple approach to quantizing in your FL Studio without crashing your program.

By reading this article to the end, you would also gain some other insights that would fuel your creative engine. So much that your close friends would think you’re high. The only difference is this is a good high!

As much as I am keen to show you how to quantize in FL Studio, this post would be systematic. Guiding you from the basics up to the more advanced stuff.

TABLE OF CONTENT

  • What is MIDI data?
  • What is quantization?
  • Why is quantization important?
  • How to Quantize in FL Studio.
  • How to auto quantize in FL Studio.

For starters:

What Is MIDI Data?

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. If you hear MIDI data, let your mind picture the various commands an instrumentalist would send to a musical instrument to get particular sound output.

The command can be keystroke, plug, or (drum) hit—all these sums up what we refer to as the MIDI data. These are represented by musical notes in DAWs like FL Studio.

Going forward:

What Is Quantization In Music Production?

Quantization is simply the process of aligning musical notes recorded in any MIDI sequencer or a DAW (like FL Studio) with the ‘grid’ to make the imperfect rhythm of the recorded sounds to be made perfect.

You are getting that? Yes. Good!

Why is Quantization Important For Making Timeless Music?

Simply put:

Because of human imperfection, it is impossible for humans to play any instrument without any glitch. Such performances are expected to be affected by human error no matter how little or big of an impact it is, you would detect the degree of error in the sound output.

For instance:

Imagine an instrument is played by a novice instrumentalist. The sound output is awful. The sounds is uneven, sometimes he is going too fast, other times too slow.

It’s the fault of the instrumentalist but he is definitely not intentional about this error.

He can not help (to a perfect degree) giving every keystroke, plug, or hit at a regular pace or perfect timing and velocity throughout the process of recording.

But with Quantization, this seemingly problematic human error can be eliminated in your FL Studio.

Showing You How to Quantize in FL Studio In 4 Simple Steps

  •  Switch to piano roll and record MIDI data
  • Open the quantize tool in your DAW.
  • Quantize the tool settings.
  • Finally, choose a groove template.

Now, let’s analyze each of these steps in-depth.

Step 1: Switch to Piano Roll and Record MIDI Data

To do this, 

First, add Sytrus or Harmor to the Channel rack, and then set your ‘recording filter’ to record notes and automation only.

Next is to turn the metronome on (to keep time) and click the Record button. After this, click on the Spacebar to start recording MIDI data.

Step 2: Open the Quantize Tool

Make sure you are still on to the Piano roll window and click on ‘Alt+Q’ on your keyboard.

Or, you can get to the ‘Quantize’ tool through the arrow at the top left of the window…

Then, go to Tools> Quantize. 

Immediately you click on the ‘quantize’ option, you’ll see some interval of red lines indicating where the snap points for notes are.

Step 3: Quantize Tool Settings

Here in the quantize tool setting, you will see a panel opened up for you so that you preview any changes before applying quantization.

On this panel, you’ll see three knobs, which when adjusted, change the properties of the notes, and with them, you can customize your quantization.

These three knobs are tagged “Start time, Duration, and Sensitivity.”

Also, you will see a select option box that contains four options that allow you to switch between quantize modes. These four modes are “Quantize duration, Quantize end time, Leave duration, and Leave endtime.”

This is what each affects while you quantize in FL Studio…

  1. Quantize duration would adjust the note lengths to meet up with the red quantization lines, such that the notes have the same starting times and end times.
  2. Quantize end time would quantize the end time of the notes to the snap grade so that the end time of the red lines and the notes have the same end times.
  3. Leave duration would snap the start times to the nearest red lines, but retain the lengths of the notes at the original note duration.
  4. Leave end time would snap the start times to the nearest red lines, but retain the original end times of the notes.

Step 4: Choose a Groove Template

Groove templates are files in FL Studio that can be used to change the way the red lines look. Groove templates affect the velocity of notes.

To see the array of Groove templates, just click on the folder icon at the top right of the Quantize tool window.

With this, let’s now show you how to auto quantize for a faster quantization experience.

Hence, we move on to…

How to Auto Quantize In FL Studio

This feature (I.e auto quantize) allows you to quantize faster than you would following the manual process. FL studio gives the flexibility you need to quantize your notes right away as you are recording them.

This sounds great? Yes. I thought as much. In this way, you can also quantize automation clips and events.

  1. Set your global snap settings to either Step, Beat, or Bar
  2. Right-click the record button, and choose the desired quantization settings.
  3. Record your MIDI data then Sit and watch in awe while your record is already being quantized.

Answers To FAQs On How To Quantize In FL Studio 19

How do you quantize shortcuts in FL Studio?

Pressing Alt+Q offers a more detailed approach to quantizing in FL studio. To save time, opt for quick quantize, Shift+Q. Ctrl+Q is also a quick quantize shortcut. 

Does FL Studio 19 have a quantizer?

Yes, it does. This is one of the reasons for fl studio’s desirability. You can align notes, audio, and other automation events in the FL Studio relative to timing.

Why is FL Studio auto quantizing?

If you are experiencing an auto quantizing problem, it is likely due to setting the Global Snap to something other than Line, Cell, or (none). Set it to Line to solve this problem.

In Conclusion

I hope what you have learned in this post has helped you one way or the other to improve on your knowledge of how to quantize in FL Studio.

What you should do now is to practice the tips included in this post. Maybe you will find it tedious with the first few trials, but it’s nothing you cannot overcome with consistency.

If you would also love to learn how to randomize velocity in FL Studio. Click here.

Published by Josh

Josh here, I am a lover of music and musical instrument. I've been a choir since I was a little boy. I later went to the university to study music and I share everything I know about music and musical instruments on this blog.