Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.
By PillsInfinity Sun Feb 17, 2019 5:36 pm
I was making stuff lately and i noticed that i've been relying on using the mpc swing in ableton as a reference to catch the swing percentage i want when i'm making beats for a very long time.

I just figured while that while im making something right now like i'm pretty sure most people don't do this.

how do you guys manually decide on the amount of swing you're supposed to use; before i got ableton i can only remember being at like 70 or 75 or something as i was in to the new york style boom bap stuff heavily 5-6 years ago. Before i got my mpc i was in FL and i just used to use that somewhat godly/convenient swing meter.

what techniques or timing knowledge do you have to have to just do it manually without having to reference a program and match the mpc based swing settings on the DAW i want with the tempo like me? just curious.
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By saltmcgault Sun Feb 17, 2019 6:03 pm
PillsInfinity wrote:I was making stuff lately and i noticed that i've been relying on using the mpc swing in ableton as a reference to catch the swing percentage i want when i'm making beats for a very long time.

I just figured while that while im making something right now like i'm pretty sure most people don't do this.

how do you guys manually decide on the amount of swing you're supposed to use; before i got ableton i can only remember being at like 70 or 75 or something as i was in to the new york style boom bap stuff heavily 5-6 years ago. Before i got my mpc i was in FL and i just used to use that somewhat godly/convenient swing meter.

what techniques or timing knowledge do you have to have to just do it manually without having to reference a program and match the mpc based swing settings on the DAW i want with the tempo like me? just curious.


It’s a trail and error thing for me. If i have high hats on 1/16 notes. I’ll use the swing on 3/16 and with the % i just keep guessing 68 and up and ususally have it set to “later” instead of “earlier” same with the kicks, but that just depends on how it sounds. If it sounds good i’ll leave it. If it doesn’t i’ll hit undo. I won’t use it on the snares. If all of that fails. Just turn the T.C. off play your sequence and get a feel that you think sounds good down and record it in yourself and keep trying until you get it sounding exactly the way you had been playing it over your jam. just load up a drum kits and just make a 4 or 8 bar sequence and lay a crazy or simple pattern down with quantizing on and then just start trying diff % do it way “earlier” and then “later” etc. etc. get a feel for it. i know the swing mode varies with different OS’s i know out of the ones i’ve messed with JJOS128XL’s is pretty dope.

crazy cuz pk1 and i were talking about this last night.
By PillsInfinity Sun Feb 17, 2019 6:14 pm
saltmcgault wrote:
PillsInfinity wrote:I was making stuff lately and i noticed that i've been relying on using the mpc swing in ableton as a reference to catch the swing percentage i want when i'm making beats for a very long time.

I just figured while that while im making something right now like i'm pretty sure most people don't do this.

how do you guys manually decide on the amount of swing you're supposed to use; before i got ableton i can only remember being at like 70 or 75 or something as i was in to the new york style boom bap stuff heavily 5-6 years ago. Before i got my mpc i was in FL and i just used to use that somewhat godly/convenient swing meter.

what techniques or timing knowledge do you have to have to just do it manually without having to reference a program and match the mpc based swing settings on the DAW i want with the tempo like me? just curious.


It’s a trail and error thing for me. If i have high hats on 1/16 notes. I’ll use the swing on 3/16 and with the % i just keep guessing 68 and up and ususally have it set to “later” instead of “earlier” same with the kicks, but that just depends on how it sounds. If it sounds good i’ll leave it. If it doesn’t i’ll hit undo. I won’t use it on the snares. If all of that fails. Just turn the T.C. off play your sequence and get a feel that you think sounds good down and record it in yourself and keep trying until you get it sounding exactly the way you had been playing it over your jam. just load up a drum kits and just make a 4 or 8 bar sequence and lay a crazy or simple pattern down with quantizing on and then just start trying diff % do it way “earlier” and then “later” etc. etc. get a feel for it. i know the swing mode varies with different OS’s i know out of the ones i’ve messed with JJOS128XL’s is pretty dope.

crazy cuz pk1 and i were talking about this last night.


yeah i think i really wasnt too fond of the trial and error process when i first got mine come to think of it.
then somehow head nods to ableton swing settings got me understand what i want.

definitely need to upgrade my os still. hahaha.

Salty with the big facts again after he acknowledged i'm not a poser. Thank you Salty, I cherish you.
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By saltmcgault Sun Feb 17, 2019 7:06 pm
PillsInfinity wrote:Salty with the big facts again after he acknowledged i'm not a poser. Thank you Salty, I cherish you.


yeah when i realized that you weren’t i manned up ate my words and apologized. It’s all good. i hope you get your machine working properly.
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By Lampdog Tue Mar 19, 2019 10:21 pm
ringmaker wrote:if you start to hear it, it‘s too much.


What’s the point of doing it if you can’t hear it?
I’ve heard that saying before and never agreed with it.
Your supposed to be able to tell it’s there.
I thought it was when you start to hear it stop and dial it back just a touch.
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By Wal Martian Fri May 03, 2019 8:05 pm
For a good explanation of swing I reference the MPC60 manual. The concept is the same for the newer beige non-Roger Linn machines.
MPC 60 manual pg. 44 wrote:• The Swing% field:
This field only appears if the Note Value field is set to either 1/16- or 1/8-
notes. The swing feature is a variation of timing correction. Whereas
normal timing correction moves your notes to perfect 1/16- or 1/8-note
intervals, the swing feature moves your notes to swing-timing intervals.
The amount of swing is measured as a percentage of time given to the
first note in each pair of 1/16- or 1/8-notes. The range of values is from
50% to 75%. For example:
• A swing setting of 50% gives perfectly even timing with no
swing effect; the first and second notes of each pair of 1/16- or
1/8-notes have equal (50%) timing.
• A swing setting of 66% indicates a technically perfect swing;
the first note of each pair of 1/8 or 1/16 notes has a timing value
of twice that of the second note, giving the effect of 1/16- or 1/8-
note triplets where the middle note of each triplet is silent.
• A swing setting of 75% is the highest swing setting; the first
note of each pair of 1/8 or 1/16 notes has a timing value of three
times that of the second note. This creates a very exaggerated
swing timing.
A very important use of the swing feature is to add a human rhythm feel
to the timing of your music. Here are a couple of useful settings to
experiment with:
• Note Value = 1/16, Swing = 54%, Tempo = 100 BPM:
While not enough swing for a true swing feel, this small amount
of swing timing removes the stiffness from perfect 1/16-note
timing and is especially useful on drum sequences using 1/16-
note hi-hats.
• Note Value = 1/16, Swing = 62%, Tempo = 100 BPM:
This creates an 1/16-note swing feel that could be described as
more relaxed than a perfect triplet swing (66%).