Skip to main content

​
Open Humanize Dynamics

​
Try the shapes

​
Apply a shape

​
Shape audio hits

​
Good to know

  • It follows a musical shape, not chance. Accents on the backbeat, a phrase that swells and falls away, a chord whose top voice sings. Use it when a part played or drawn at one level sounds flat.
  • The average level stays where it was. Every note or clip moves relative to its own level, so a shape makes the part neither louder nor quieter and you never re-level afterwards.
  • It works on MIDI note velocities and on the clip gain of audio hits. With notes marked in the piano roll only those change; with none marked, the whole clip does.
  • Applying is one undo step, named after the shape (Humanize Dynamics: Backbeat). A second shape combines with the first, for example Offbeat, then Comping on a keys part.
  • A loop with several hits in one clip is skipped, because it has only one gain. The row says how many loops were left out. Split it at its transients first, and the next Humanize Dynamics acts on the hits.
  • In Dynamics Mode the notes fill up to their velocity, so you see each change.
  • The command lives in the Clips group as Humanize Dynamics…. With nothing to shape marked, the palette says No Clip instead; with only audio loops marked, Only Loops Marked.
  • The preview plays where you are. With the transport running you hear it on the next pass, in place. Stopped, the first bar of the clip plays through its instrument. After ⇥ the row stays put and previews again at the new amount.
  • The row’s number says what Return does. For MIDI it is the velocity range before and after, as low–high → low–high. For audio it is how far the clip gains move, as clip gain lowest…highest dB.
  • Sampler ignores velocity in that spot means the track’s built-in sampler has velocity sensitivity at 0 %. The change is not heard until you raise it.
  • The amount is a level in dB. It sets how far the note or hit the shape weighs most (or least) moves from its own level: 3 dB for Subtle, 6 dB for Medium, 10 dB for Strong.
  • Phrasing shapes are MIDI only, because they read pitches and chords.
  • 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.
  • Audio shaping 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.
  • Near full velocity (127) the shape slides down. There is no room to push a note louder, so the whole shape moves down until its loudest accent fits, and the accents keep their size.
Last modified on October 22, 2026