In beat making, there exist two spatial factors that are often overlooked: time-sensitive density and swing. We'll be taking a look at the latter in this article, as there are a lot of beat makers who have not paid enough attention and have not applied the most basic principles of using swing on drum samples and instruments.
The first question we often hear is: why should I care about adding swing to my drum samples and other tracks? This question actually appears on so many forums and blogs, it's not funny anymore. It is a very serious topic if you want to be a great beat maker and music producer, so let's start at the beginning. The human ear loves musical variance. It is simply science. We pay more attention to things that we see and hear that are not normal, things that have not happened before. Imagine if your favorite artist started and finished their concerts by simply playing their latest album in the same track order, with the same exact notes and more. It wouldn't be very pleasing to your ear!
If you're tapping out drum samples, then using swing is like quantization - it will help you keep on time if you're not very accurate at the moment. Even if you are spot-on, it will apply your hits to the groove/swing template.
What exactly is the swing we're talking about, you ask? Swing, in music production, is a quantization level that can be adjusted and custom made. A lot of hardware devices have their own swing settings. It's nearly the same as snap-quantization except that the hits are a little off every time to give the beat a humanization factor. For a 50% swing, there is no variance at all, it lands on the grid. Going up one level to 51%, though, the swing would be one percent off either way. It can be random or hard-coded into a groove template. The famous MPC swing is hard-coded into the MPC, for example.
When composing a beat or music project and using electric synthesizers - it can be neat to apply the swing template to just a few elements of the song. This way, you could, let's just say, have the drum samples track with swing and the synth without swing and then just introduce one other element. This element on its own could be subject to a swing pattern, which can egt very interesting results depending on the sound device and the sound patch used in MIDI.
Starting to implement these methods can be a bit daunting to start with. What you should probably do is perform some controlled experiments. If you can start with swing template percentages of 51% to66% or so, you'll be well off to a testing start. Apply the groove to a drum track (dry preferably) and then remove it. Go back and forth and try to catch the difference. Your ears will start to hear the effect that the swing has on your drum samples, and you will then be able to make creative decisions easier.
The first question we often hear is: why should I care about adding swing to my drum samples and other tracks? This question actually appears on so many forums and blogs, it's not funny anymore. It is a very serious topic if you want to be a great beat maker and music producer, so let's start at the beginning. The human ear loves musical variance. It is simply science. We pay more attention to things that we see and hear that are not normal, things that have not happened before. Imagine if your favorite artist started and finished their concerts by simply playing their latest album in the same track order, with the same exact notes and more. It wouldn't be very pleasing to your ear!
If you're tapping out drum samples, then using swing is like quantization - it will help you keep on time if you're not very accurate at the moment. Even if you are spot-on, it will apply your hits to the groove/swing template.
What exactly is the swing we're talking about, you ask? Swing, in music production, is a quantization level that can be adjusted and custom made. A lot of hardware devices have their own swing settings. It's nearly the same as snap-quantization except that the hits are a little off every time to give the beat a humanization factor. For a 50% swing, there is no variance at all, it lands on the grid. Going up one level to 51%, though, the swing would be one percent off either way. It can be random or hard-coded into a groove template. The famous MPC swing is hard-coded into the MPC, for example.
When composing a beat or music project and using electric synthesizers - it can be neat to apply the swing template to just a few elements of the song. This way, you could, let's just say, have the drum samples track with swing and the synth without swing and then just introduce one other element. This element on its own could be subject to a swing pattern, which can egt very interesting results depending on the sound device and the sound patch used in MIDI.
Starting to implement these methods can be a bit daunting to start with. What you should probably do is perform some controlled experiments. If you can start with swing template percentages of 51% to66% or so, you'll be well off to a testing start. Apply the groove to a drum track (dry preferably) and then remove it. Go back and forth and try to catch the difference. Your ears will start to hear the effect that the swing has on your drum samples, and you will then be able to make creative decisions easier.
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