Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.
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By mr_debauch Thu Jan 17, 2013 7:15 am
Truly wrote:Thinking about his drums (patterns) and his signature Primo ish with samples, his explanation for how he did his drums does make sense, but it is weird to hear him say "never". I wouldn't have been surprised to hear him say he rarely used it, if at all, but kind of ruling it out like it was never a possibility, like it was completely useless, was weird.

I always thought he quantized his drums, with it just set to 1/16 (3) for the kicks.

When I made my first beats, which wasn't too long ago, I started out doing it as he explained; but that was mainly because I didn't know how to use the MPC or how to sequence drums (in general), more so than because I wanted to feel it out.


well let's say and agree that he quantizes some drum hits... snares, kicks with some hits donE in 16(1/3).. I think though if you have one single hit that needs to hit a different spot other than one of the triplet settings.... it's probably easier to hit it in with quantize off. He aint swinging snares.. right?

now, for the case of samples... I can also picture him not using swing, because he uses a lot of small chops that have space (air) between them... for swing to have an effect, the rythym of the sample has to be truncated exactly or else you are sitting there trying out swing settings for 20 minutes instead of just clicking in 64% and it's a wrap. Plus, on your track with samples... you dont want everything in the sequence to get swung. Right? So you might as well turn the quantize off and do it over a few takes if it sounds off... And for loops... the start point is bound to be cut at the right spot... and same with the loop point... so I dont picture swing doing anything to loops anyways. That is how I view it judging by the times I decided to get swing with the swing feature.

I will say though.. lets say I have some hats that I decided to add after I made 10 sequences... well I may just add them in with swing to save time... that way they are the same on every sequence.
By golden-era Wed Jul 04, 2018 3:45 pm
Are you really claiming no beat makers from the golden era used swing? You would be incorrect. It has been stated numerous times that many golden era producers who used the SP1200 did indeed use swing and double tempo programming often at 67 and 71% swing settings. Now machines like an ASR or EPS might not have a functionality called swing, but the same groove could be achieved with other functions to make a beat swing such as shift tracks and edit event. Again those methods were used by golden era beat makers on the aforementioned machines.

Your question and stance is really silly to be honest. Primo has been making beats for what 30 years and you really don't believe he has used different functions such as swing in the MPC? Of course he has. I am sure he uses quantization as well but what i believe Premier most often does on his signature sound is turn quantize off when programming his kicks and apply swing manually. If the kicks are too early similar to 1/16ths and stiff he plays it over until he is satisfied.

But to say golden era producers didnt use swing is false.