The problem with most ‘humanize’ functions is that it appears to be more of a random thing than an actual ‘human’ thing, which tends to be more of a feel thing, rushing the backbeat, dragging the fills, pushing the chorus etc..

In DAW’s, there’s often a thing called ‘groove quantize’ which uses grids derived from real playing (or popular drum machines like MPC), and you could often find grooves derived from session drummers that even took into account the difference in placement of backbeats on snare compared to fills, etc..

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, no arranger has this. Yes, you can get variable quantize on some, which if used subtly to impart the slightest degree of swing can get you away from that rigid 8th or 16th feel (and if used only on certain things like hi hats and rides can give you a certain degree of looseness between the drums).

But you have to do it on a part by part and division by division basis. The minute you click ‘apply’ to every part in a style, you are back to that lock-step thing you’re trying to get away from.

Me, I’m not locked to using arranger mode, in fact, rarely perform with it. But I’m not above using a style to create an SMF of the song, then import it to my DAW to get in there and do some micro surgery on the data. This is where I’ll often apply those different quantize values, and groove quantize can also offset velocities on things like hi hate to reflect the original drummer. I also tend to get in there and adjust the fills so no two are identical, mess with the bass and guitar parts to have better voice leading if there’s any jumpiness between chords, and edit any single line stuff to be more melodic across chord boundaries,

When it’s ready to go, I fly in Markers for the main structure points in the song (verse, chorus, solo, ending e.g.) so I can still perform the song at any length I want and do as many solos as I want (which I feel is often the real reason many pros use arrangers rather than backing tracks, unaware of how flexible Markers can make an SMF).

Humanize buttons never much impressed me, but maybe that’s because I was using groove quantize functionality for a very long time. I DID like the old ‘swing value’ knob in the old days, but that only worked on ultra simple styles and drum grooves that were already hard quantized to 8ths or 16ths (no flams, no changes in 8/16 base), and that’s not how modern style makers make them. I have a feeling that the humanize button disappeared for the same reason.

It would be nice to have a simple button to humanize a style, but it’s a far more complex task than simply randomizing position and velocity. On older hard quantized rigid simple styles, it certainly had its place, but with far more complex subtle styles it might not be as effective.

Bottom line, you want more ‘slop’ in a style, you can always edit it in. But that’s not as easy as pushing a button, is it?! How much do you want it? 😂👹