Back on the 404

[Dj Frantic]

oh yes... she will swing.

[crowman]

you don't need an mpc or midi or swing dials or anything to pull a good swing on sp404 -

drop that shit - sp404 will do it by itself.

lay yr main beats on straight 4 or 8s....

then change quantize to 16.3 to drop some swing notes - i presume that's what frantic is doing - any cheap drum machine should let you do the same as well - while it has triplet separations.

the tracker buzz will do it and its free

probably better to assign yr swing notes to separate re-samples - slightly less volume and pitch down or up for variation.

that way if you don't hit that magic 3rd of the triplet (and it will be wack if you don't and hit that 2nd ) - you only have to change the one sample in yr pattern and not delete the entire sample sequence and start again - ouch.

shift yr bpm way down for recording - that may help - if you use this trick alongside having a variety of samples on the one pad - once you get the pattern down you can just swap yr samples inside the pattern and change the bpm to whatever you want on the fly.

of course if yr a drummer this will be easy as - if yr not you might want to make guide rhythms on a step sequencer/drum machine/tracker to help yu time when trying to hit those sweet spots.

rocking yr head and shoulders helps

sometimes laying a guide sample pattern of straight 8ths helps find the trip 16th in between.

try doing that first instead of laying yr main beats - drop some trip 16ths then delete the straight 8 track you used as a guide and play around laying other beats around the swings.

becoming proficient at 16.3 (which I ain't without assistance) also helps tying yr bass to those hits - if yr not using .3 quant but using "air" yr probably running the risk of yr beat sound like its "dragging" behind the melody and not swiniging at all.

[drewzle]

that some damn good advice crowman
especially re: bass swing and hi-hat resampling


edit: also everyone should remember that you don't need to use quantise at all - the 404 will record the hits as they land in relation to the bar, so if you're own inherent shuffle is good enough, trust in it and lay it down without quantise.

[606man]

I have an inherent shuffle - The Melbourne Shuffle!

[Dj Frantic]

oh ! also... dont forget the air swing. Leave some dead space in front of your drum hits and quantize on 16th (or w/e) and then adjust the start point of your drum/cymnbal/sample till it lands where u want it.

[fauna]

fanx for all the good suggestions, yo.

[Chulukinat]

i got the kansas city shuffle