REF: MOD_M01 // MIDI humanizer // VST3 · Windows

Meatbag

Quantization is a Grid.
Groove needs a Body.

Draw the feel yourself.

Random number generators make MIDI sloppy, not human. Meatbag lets you draw the feel instead — push notes ahead of the beat or pull them behind it, shape velocity on its own curve — and it repeats that same shape bar after bar, so programmed parts actually breathe.

Download for Windows View specifications

$29 introductory  · $49 at full release

VST3 MIDI FX 64-bit Windows Lookahead delay comp 14-day free trial

Your DAW Offers Two Cures.
Both Of Them Lie.

// the old way

CURE_A

Quantize to 100%

Everything snaps dead centre. The timing problem is gone and so is the part — every hit lands at the same instant with the same weight, forever. It is correct in the way a spreadsheet is correct. Nobody taps their foot to a spreadsheet.

CURE_B

The "humanize" button

One knob marked HUMANIZE that scatters every note by a random few milliseconds. Press it twice and you get two different takes, neither of which you chose. That is not a drummer having a feel. That is a drummer having a stroke.

A real player is not random. They are consistently, repeatably off — the same push on the same hi-hat every bar, because that is how they hear the song. What you want is a shape you can draw and then keep, not a dice roll you re-roll until it stops annoying you.

What You Actually Do With It

Two things, over and over: draw the groove, then get it into your DAW without breaking sync.

USE_01 // DRAW

Draw the groove,
not the dice roll

A bar of MIDI starts out flat and even, sitting right on the grid. Meatbag gives you two lanes to draw over it. Pull the timing curve below the center line and notes lay back, late; push it above and they drive ahead of the beat. The velocity curve works the same way — above center adds accent, below softens notes into ghost dynamics. Link the two together and velocity follows whatever you draw for timing, or leave them independent and shape each by hand.

Draw it once and Meatbag repeats that same shape bar after bar, so the part stays consistent instead of drifting from one pass to the next.

▸ Under the hood: draw once, it repeats every bar — no dice roll per note.

Timing and velocity curves drawn across a bar of MIDI, with the note filter matrix underneath

FIG_01 // timing curve above the line pushes early, below pulls late · velocity curve above accents, below softens

USE_02 // FILTER

Groove the hi-hats. Leave the kick alone.

The classic move: leave the kick and snare locked to the grid, and groove only the hi-hats and percussion. The backbone stays solid while the ornamentation breathes — exactly like a real studio drummer. The note filter matrix picks which MIDI channels and notes the curves actually touch, so the rest of the part stays untouched.

Land on 1

How firmly the downbeat stays put while everything around it moves.

Groove Memory

How fast the feel catches up when you change the curve mid-pattern.

Shaping Amount

One dial to scale the whole curve up or down without redrawing it.

Lookahead

How far ahead Meatbag looks so early notes actually land early.

Max Shift

A ceiling on how far any note can move, so nothing jumps into the next beat.

USE_03 // ROUTE

Sits ahead of your sampler,
not fighting it

Meatbag outputs MIDI, not audio, so it belongs on a MIDI track ahead of your drum sampler — Kontakt, Superior Drummer, EZdrummer — reshaping the notes before any sound gets triggered.

Pushing notes early requires knowing the future, so Meatbag runs a short lookahead buffer and reports it to your DAW as latency. Your host's delay compensation absorbs that reported latency automatically, so the early notes you drew land truly early in session time — not offset by a buffer nobody accounted for.

A safety rail keeps an aggressive curve from throwing notes into the next beat. Set Max Shift in milliseconds for a constant physical feel, or switch to 1/16 fractions so the groove scales automatically when the tempo changes.

▸ Under the hood: 0–120ms lookahead buffer, reported to your DAW as plugin latency.

The timing lane with the downbeat anchor holding bar one in place while the rest of the curve moves

FIG_02 // timing lane · land on 1 downbeat anchor, groove memory, and shaping amount

What You Groove With Meatbag

Not just drums. Anything sequenced can use a little human inconsistency.

Acoustic Drums

Turn a static MIDI drum take into something that sounds like four limbs, not one grid.

Synth Bass

Pull the bass slightly behind the kick for a heavier pocket.

Keys & Piano

Spread a chord across fingers instead of triggering it as one dead stack.

Percussion Loops

Add real swing to a rigid 16th-note shaker or tambourine loop.

// the whole idea

A Feel Is A Shape,
Not A Random Seed.

Everything in Meatbag follows from one decision: the groove is something you draw, and once drawn it does not change until you change it. The same bar plays the same way on every pass, on every machine, a year from now. You can print the track, come back, and the pocket is where you left it.

That is also why the note filter matters more than it looks. A groove that moves everything is just a shifted grid. A groove that moves the hats while the kick holds is a relationship between two players — and that relationship is the thing your ear hears as human. Meatbag gives you the lanes, the filter and a ceiling on how far anything can travel. What the part feels like is still your call.

Specifications

// what it is, where it sits, what it hands on

Product Meatbag
Version 1.0.0
Format VST3 MIDI FX
OS Platform Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit)
Download Size 4.7 MB · ZIP
Signal Type MIDI In / MIDI Out
Latency Reported PDC Lookahead (0-120 ms)
Trial Period 14 Days Fully Unlocked
Licensing 3 Machines per Licence
DIST_01 // WINDOWS INSTALLER

Download for Windows

Meatbag 1.0.0

4.7 MB download · ZIP · VST3 · Windows 10/11 64-bit

Download

SHA-256 (extracted .exe): 235dbdc5602d21b80d81cba6a2ca728801daa3e0018491a0baceb30bb3d21aee

Read the Manual

Unzip, run the installer, and the VST3 lands where your DAW already looks. Rescan your plug-ins and Meatbag is there, in the MIDI FX slot — not the instrument list, and not the audio inserts. It goes on the track ahead of whatever makes the sound.

LIC_01 // TRIAL

14 Days, Fully Unlocked

The trial is the whole plug-in. No payment details, no account, no watermark, no muted bars, nothing held back. It works offline.

When it expires the plug-in stops processing until a licence is activated. Your sessions still open and your drawn curves are still saved in them — the grooves you made do not evaporate with the trial.

LIC_02 // PURCHASE

Buy Once. Keep It.

One-time purchase, perpetual licence. No subscription, no renewal, no tiers. Covers three computers.

$29  Introductory · $49 at full release

Buy Now — $29

Or unlock from inside the plug-in after the trial.

Straight Talk

  • ▸ Windows will warn on the installer. It is unsigned. Click More info → Run anyway. A SHA-256 checksum is published next to the download so you can verify what you got.
  • ▸ It costs you latency, on purpose. Notes cannot be pushed early without a lookahead buffer, and that buffer is real delay. Meatbag reports it honestly and your DAW compensates — but if your host has delay compensation switched off, or you are tracking live through the plug-in, you will feel it. Set Lookahead to zero and you keep the late side of the curve only.
  • ▸ It is a MIDI FX, not an instrument. It makes no sound. It goes on a MIDI track in front of a sampler or synth. A few hosts are awkward about MIDI FX routing — if your DAW hides the slot, the manual has the per-host placement notes.
  • ▸ A drawn groove will not save a bad part. Meatbag moves notes that are already there. If the pattern itself is wrong, moving it a few milliseconds is decoration. It is a feel tool, not a writing tool.
  • ▸ Everything stays on your machine. Meatbag processes MIDI locally and phones nowhere. The only thing that leaves is a licence activation, and it carries nothing about your music.

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