By default, Endlesss has a unique feature called Live Quantisation enabled. Its aim is to help you play in time with the tempo, however it may feel a little unnatural or lead to surprising results if you're used to playing instruments live or with more traditional quantisation methods.
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The short version: Live Quantisation delays your played notes until the next step (8th note, 16th note etc.) to keep your playing in time. By playing early - that is: slightly ahead of the beat - quantisation will help you stay 100% on the grid. Play a little too late and the note is delayed until the next step.
How Live Quantisation works
Live Quantisation keeps you in time when playing any of the internal instruments (Drums, Notes, Bass and Sampler) by delaying a played note until the next step (quarter note, 8th note, 16th note, 32th note).
For example: With quantisation enabled and set to 16th notes (the default setting), no matter how fast you play a note or drum sound, all notes will fall exactly on the 16th notes of the bar, not faster or slower.
Quantisation can be found in most music software, where it is usually applied after recording a midi notes or even audio in some cases. If you played the notes a little sloppy or simply want to make sure it's 100% on the grid, you can quantise the notes to fall exactly on particular note values (quarter note, 8th note etc.).
The key is: Quantisation is applied after recording. While the recording is happening, your input is played back immediately.
In Endlesss, there is no "after recording" because the retrospective looper is always recording what you are playing. So in order to make sure your notes fall on the grid the only option is to delay notes to the next step. They can't be moved back in time after the fact.
If you are experiencing unpredictable delays while playing notes or drums, you are most likely not accustomed to the live quantisation yet.
The main thing to get used to is to play slightly ahead of the beat. With a little bit of practice you will quickly get a feel for when to hit the notes and keep everything in time.
Why it's an Endlesss feature
We implemented quantisation in Endlesss for two reasons.
Endlesss started out as a mobile app on iOS. This means dealing with the inherent latency of a touch screen. If you play without quantisation on iOS, you are already forced to play slightly ahead of the beat in order to stay in time.
Quantisation can help absolute beginners with little or no experience playing instruments achieve less chaotic results.
Therefore quantisation is by default turned on and set to 16th notes on Endlesss.
Configure or turn off Quantisation
Endlesss Mobile
Tap on the Mixer icon. Open the Quantise menu. Use the slider to adjust the step size or turn quantisation off with the toggle button.
Endlesss Studio
The quantisation settings are found at the top of the screen. Click the button itself to disable or enable quantisation. Click the small arrow on the button to reveal the step size slider.