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The problem with pattern sequence drum machines: implicit quantization
I am a drum machine nut. I love them. But, I am also a drummer, and I am always bothered that I cannot lead or trail the beach with a pattern based drum machine. Four example, triggering your snare just microseconds before the beat will help it stand out. Same goes for trailing the beat with your hats.
Producing in a DAW, ou might nudge your samples as needed. I wish drum machines had an option to specify when a note triggers relative to the beat.
This came to me as I was using Patterning 2 this afternoon. It’s a great drum machine, but it’s still a machine. Playing with timing would help.
Comments
I hear that. One of the reasons Modstep is working for me. Pattern sequencer, but you can easily run without quantization.
Do swing settings not cut it for adding a human feel? Perhaps swing per part would do it or no? I definitely hear you though, it seems like most drum machines still require too much tinkering after the initial programming to really make the groove come alive
Garageband has probabilty % per step aside swing and velocity. Sounds pretty decent to my ears.
Grooverrider and Beatstep Pro (hardware, not app) are nice for that: step sequencing with time shift per step. Swing has never been enough.
If you closely analyze most rock and jazz (probably others, these I know) music, youll find there are a multitude of swing patterns. Didnt even fully grasp this myself, coming from my very unquantized background forst recording to reel to reel ha, I felt it without knowing.
Some programs on the PC/Mac OS have the ability to create and save these, e.g. Logic calls them groove templates. That can work for me, but all and all, just easier for me to play it. (I played drums, bass, keys, long before meeting a step sequencer).
You could have the main part of your pattern playing in Patterning 2 and play the offset beats on the drum pads with your fingers- whilst recording it for later use in Audiobus.
Also Patterning 2 has individual swing per drum- though I know this is not really what you are looking for- but it’s always something
Auria Pro has groove templates
I don´t have P2, but I´ve seen that it allows you to nudge a loop slightly off the grid. Does that not cover your feature request?
Just use Cubasis. Apparently, it can’t keep time for shit.
In P2 the little double-arrows to the right allow you to nudge the entire loop ahead or behind by ticks (96 PPQN).
Does Patterning 2 allow you to nudge each drum part by ticks?
Maschine is really good at this. It has a shortcut for 50% quantize right on the hardware, plus you can change the note resolution and undo right there also. You can gradually tighten up your sequence without using strict quantize or swing, so it just sounds like a better version of what you meant to play.
Of course the hip-hop way of doing this, in sense of getting around the limitations of hardware sequencers like MPCs, was to quantize some elements and keep other contrasting elements live and unquantized. So perhaps your kick and hihat are strict quantized but the snare, clap, and percussion are not....or vice versa.
Agree - IOS drum machines and editing in IOS format pretty much bore me to tears as far as cool beats go.
DAW is still king for push and pull.
Quantize exists for pussies
Anecdote: I used to be a drummer in the 90s, and my drumteacher was of the school of tight-as-a-drum-machine playing as the highest attainable quality for a drummer. This was in the days that grunge was starting to become popular, which he thought was an abhorrent display of human sloppiness.
Personally I think the tightness provided by drummachines is a stylistic choice (with or without swing/shuffle). "Human inaccuracies" are not inherently superior to mathematical tightness in my book, especially for electronic music.
You can trail notes with a pattern-based sequencer by doing it the same way it was (accidentally) done for the LM-1 snare: add some empty space to the beginning of the sample.
I like the 'grooves' quantize function of Ableton Live.. You can choose a groove to quantize your midi drumpattern.. I don't know of other sequencers have this feature but we need that on iOS too...
Yeah, I understand that...
But the idea of Ableton grooves is that it doesn't affect the notes position in the pattern.. only the groove is applied an that's what you hear.
So you could apply that to the snare only you'll hear that it shifts it back or forward.. That way you can still program your drumhits on 16 steps in a pattern but you'll hear a more 'loose' drumtrack...
DrumPerfect Pro is of course excellent in this area. Every hit can be individually time-shifted both forwards and backwards. (Plus it has other humanizing functions.)
This is what the OP is looking for IMO - @johnfromberkeley have you used the little dots / arrows next to the main sequencer ring? (just to the right of the ring in all the pattern edit pages)...
This allows you to 'micro' shift the beats in front of or behind the main grid, and you can vary it as much as you like per pattern and per track. SUPER COOL!!!
It would be nice to have a randomize for forward / back shift, set it quite small so the notes jump around in front of and behind the main beat.
No it doesn't just shift the audio... it shifts the midi timing..
And it isn't a black box: you can specify the quantisation of the grooves and make your own 'groove presets'.... You can see that the bottom in the screenshot: that's the timing of the selected groove that will be applied to your midi clip...
True... if you want to see what happens to your midi clip you'll have to push the 'commit' button to see the new position of the notes..
Boring as a strict rule. Ignores a vast amount of complexity of music.
Agreed. I am definitely one to think in every song and part what the right groove/swing is. But my ideas for parts come up mostly from a subconscious place and sometimes I come up with an idea that is absolutely quantized, and that is even talking more rock-techno music.
And thank you for Ruismaker & Ruismaker FM. When we have a new album in the next year, I suspect they are gonna be the main percussion. Such rich pallets to work with.
Yes, similar to some others.
That can work for me, especially with a little random. But even where it is not a feature, e.g. in Modstep, once I get the groove right, I just copy it to the next track for reference, transpose out of the way. Or, again, just play them all if I have it in my head well enough.
Post just before yours:
Would be great if Patterning 2 had a per step +/- adjustment for triggering but yeah, if you just want your snares to be a little rushed, etc, the arrows on the right of the wheel will do it. If you need more control, can do multiple patterns or two tracks with different offsets.