> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gridshift.studio/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Humanize Dynamics

> Re-level note velocities and audio hits after a groove or phrasing shape — not at random, and without changing the overall level.

**Humanize Dynamics** re-levels what you played after a musical shape: accents on the backbeat, a phrase that swells and falls away, a chord whose top voice sings. It works on MIDI note velocities and on the clip gain of audio hits.

Every note or clip moves relative to its own level, and the average stays where it was. Switching a shape on makes the part neither louder nor quieter, so you never have to re-level afterwards.

## Apply a shape

<Steps>
  <Step title="Mark what to shape">
    Open a MIDI clip's piano roll, or mark MIDI clips or audio clips on the timeline. With notes marked in the roll, only those notes change.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open Humanize Dynamics…">
    Press `⌘K` and type `humanize`, or open the **Clips** group.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Walk the shapes">
    Use `↑` / `↓`. Each row previews as you land on it — with the transport running you hear it on the next pass, in place. Press `⇥` to switch between **Subtle**, **Medium** and **Strong**; the row stays put and plays again at the new amount.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Press Return">
    The shape is applied as one undo step. `Escape` puts everything back exactly as it was.
  </Step>
</Steps>

The number on the right of each row says what Return does: the velocity range before and after, or how far the clip gains move in dB.

## Shapes

**Position in the bar** — for MIDI and audio:

| Shape | What it does |
| - | - |
| Downbeat | One strong, three medium, the rest lighter |
| Backbeat | Two and four lead |
| Eighth Pulse | Loud on the beat, soft on the and |
| Sixteenth Pulse | One loud, e soft, and medium, a soft |
| Offbeat | The ands lead — skank, house piano, comping on the off |
| Push | The last sixteenth before the bar leans in |
| Tresillo 3-3-2 | Accents on 1, the a of 1 and the and of 2, again from 3 — dembow, afro |

**Phrasing** — MIDI only, because it reads pitches and chords:

| Shape | What it does |
| - | - |
| Lead | Phrases swell and fall away, high and long notes lead |
| Ballad | Wide phrase arcs, the chord's top voice sings |
| Comping | Top voice forward, inner voices back, strums fade |
| Pad | Voicing balance with a slow swell |

Applying a second shape after the first combines them — for example **Offbeat**, then **Comping** on a keys part.

## Audio clips

On audio the shape moves each clip's **gain**, from where the clip starts in the bar. Clip gain works before the effects and shows in the waveform, so you can adjust any hit afterwards like any clip gain.

* It is made for one hit per clip — drum hits, slices, one-shots.
* A linked clip is unlinked first, so the accent on the "2" does not land on every copy. The sample stays on the track.
* A loop with several hits in one clip has only one gain, so it is skipped; the row says how many loops were left out. To shape a loop, split it at its transients first (**Split Clips at Transients**).

<Note>
  Near full velocity (127) there is no room to push a note louder. The whole shape then slides down until its loudest accent fits, so the accents keep their size.
</Note>


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