I would add that especially when you have a dense sequence, i.e., lots of events firing off simultaneously, microscope mode enables you to see, visually, whether events are piling up on a particular "tick" or "clock."

Tick #1 is a good example, though any of the eighth-note or triplet values are the same:

In dense sequences, those ticks can get "glutted" with events, leading to MIDI "slop" or latency problems.

I generally put *some* of the rhythm instruments on tick 1, maybe a regular instrument (e.g., strings) on tick 2, the bass on tick 3 (or even 4 if it's an acoustic bass), maybe another rhythm instrument back on tick 2 if things don't look too crowded, and so on. You can use the clock resolution (the 96 ticks in each beat) to spread things out like that, (1) preventing MIDI slop and note fallout (because of polyphony issues or processor overload) and (2) making your composition sound a bit "fuller", since events are note firing off all on the same tick. Believe me, you won't notice the lag time between ticks 1 and 4 or even 1 and 5 if you distribute the instruments with some forethought.

You can automate all this by quantizing first and then using Edit 11 Shift Clock, e.g., to move all your snare hits 1 or 2 ticks forward from all the bass hits, or for moving all the string parts 1 tick forward, etc. Works great.