Have you ever free-formed a MIDI recording NOT using a click?

Even though I HIGHLY recommend playing to a click, I’m going to share a cool trick you can do to have your MIDI performance conform to a GRID when you played it “free form.”

Once you complete your MIDI recording and all the notes are laid down, make a 1 to 4 bar selection of the performance using the selector tool. Work to be as precise as possible with what you consider a bar.

Once you’ve determined what 1 bar is, change the instrument track from a “tick”-based track into a “sample”-based track. Then go to the EVENT menu and choose “Identify Beat.” When the dialogue box for Identify Beat is open, enter in the start and end times of your selection. This will preserve the placement of your MIDI performance and conform it to the grid.

Now remember, you’re a human and it's likely that your “free form” tempo changes every few bars; you will likely need to repeat these steps every 4, 8, or 16 bars until the end of the performance.

After doing this, all audio and MIDI recording can be edited and or quantized to perfection.