Swing with Ableton

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
penguinpajamas
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Swing with Ableton

Post by penguinpajamas » Sat Feb 13, 2016 6:26 pm

Hey guys, so I've been trying to achieve some swing with Ableton and, while I've managed to do it, I'm not exactly a fan of the groove system or having to choose between 32, 16, or 8th note swing. Other things I've worked with like Maschine simply have a single control for swing ranging from 0 to 100 percent.

I'm wondering if it's possible to do this with Ableton, even is using the groove pool, where I don't have to worry about having the right type of swing selected but can just adjust a single parameter until it's right.

- Charlie

H20nly
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by H20nly » Sat Feb 13, 2016 7:06 pm

I got spoiled by a swing slider before my Ableton Live days too. I'm definitely interested to any answers to this question...

*bookmark*

yur2die4
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by yur2die4 » Sat Feb 13, 2016 7:26 pm

Do you guys have grooves loaded into your groove pool in your default sets? Just curious.

Edit: also this, which I figured may have been the case :wink:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=203989

Tarekith
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by Tarekith » Sat Feb 13, 2016 9:03 pm

I don't, but count me in for a global swing option again too. I got excited when I saw that Push 2 has that button, but it just controls swing while recording notes, not playback :(
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NoSonic822
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by NoSonic822 » Sat Feb 13, 2016 9:17 pm

the arp has a swing

Tagor
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by Tagor » Sat Feb 13, 2016 9:41 pm

Push has a Swing-Slider active NoteInput, Groove is like swing, after the input was already done ?
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=199818&view=next

penguinpajamas
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by penguinpajamas » Sat Feb 13, 2016 10:15 pm

Inversoundzzz wrote:the arp has a swing
Again though, you have to choose between 8, 16, or 32. I'd love to see a continuous swing slider.

NoSonic822
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by NoSonic822 » Sat Feb 13, 2016 11:22 pm

penguinpajamas wrote:
Inversoundzzz wrote:the arp has a swing
Again though, you have to choose between 8, 16, or 32. I'd love to see a continuous swing slider.
you have free rate.....thats continuous

penguinpajamas
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by penguinpajamas » Sat Feb 13, 2016 11:27 pm

Inversoundzzz wrote:
penguinpajamas wrote:
Inversoundzzz wrote:the arp has a swing
Again though, you have to choose between 8, 16, or 32. I'd love to see a continuous swing slider.
you have free rate.....thats continuous
Right, but as far as I'm aware, the arpeggiator's free rate has nothing to do with any swing, and regardless the arpeggiator wouldn't help you add swing to a preexisting quantized drum pattern, which is what I'm hoping for.

yur2die4
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by yur2die4 » Sun Feb 14, 2016 12:31 am

After playing around I gave up. I can only do swing with the quantize percentage for a groove if that groove is selected for all my clips.

And I cannot control that parameter via midi. :/

Stromkraft
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by Stromkraft » Sun Feb 14, 2016 1:11 am

yur2die4 wrote:After playing around I gave up. I can only do swing with the quantize percentage for a groove if that groove is selected for all my clips.

And I cannot control that parameter via midi. :/
The groove function is gold, even if there seems to be forces within Ableton that refuse to understand how good it is. Which is why there is no MIDI or even control from Push. Hello Ableton? :x

Confusing this with Swing just indicate the groove function isn't understood even if it's true it can mimic swing. Thing is you can mix different swings with the groove function, which is more like a quantize template combined with a regular quantize with percentages. How great isn't that?

The idea with grooves are to have somewhat different grooves for different parts. That's so useful it's ridiculous!.

What you seem to want is Step Sequence Swing? What is the exact effect you want?
Make some music!

yur2die4
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by yur2die4 » Sun Feb 14, 2016 1:49 am

The quantize to 8T or 16T percentage adjustment is essentially what most people know as swing.

On grooveboxes it is often at "50%" for zero or no quantization. In the case of 8th notes, this would mean that an 8th note is halfway between the 1 and 2 beats, or the 2 and 4 etc. There is usually nothing lower than 50% which would shift the 8th note in the center to the left, and squeeze leftward notes while spreading rightward notes.

But if you raise it past 50% it spreads the leftward notes while pushing the central 8th note right and squeezing the rightward notes. At full-on, you'll end up with 3 evenly spread '16th notes' within each beat.

Versions of Live before the groove pool had a swing parameter that went from 0 to 100 which did what I described as "50 to 100".

penguinpajamas
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by penguinpajamas » Sun Feb 14, 2016 1:58 am

Stromkraft wrote:
yur2die4 wrote:After playing around I gave up. I can only do swing with the quantize percentage for a groove if that groove is selected for all my clips.

And I cannot control that parameter via midi. :/
The groove function is gold, even if there seems to be forces within Ableton that refuse to understand how good it is. Which is why there is no MIDI or even control from Push. Hello Ableton? :x

Confusing this with Swing just indicate the groove function isn't understood even if it's true it can mimic swing. Thing is you can mix different swings with the groove function, which is more like a quantize template combined with a regular quantize with percentages. How great isn't that?

The idea with grooves are to have somewhat different grooves for different parts. That's so useful it's ridiculous!.

What you seem to want is Step Sequence Swing? What is the exact effect you want?
Essentially I want to be able to step sequence drum patterns and then be able to increase a swing parameter that will gradually push the notes closer together in a swung fashion, sweeping between the various amounts of swing (8, 16, 32) until you reach 100% where the notes are practically overlapping.

Tagor
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by Tagor » Sun Feb 14, 2016 5:48 am

swing swang swung
let us know if you got it work

if i need those i use Omnisphere-Swing in that - Arp
messing around with globalised swing makes my workflow dizzy
and in the end i do not know which clip/scene does what ?

anyway worth to dig it, special wann try it with some dub/reggae

good luck

doublestop
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Re: Swing with Ableton

Post by doublestop » Sun Feb 14, 2016 6:24 am

Wait, Umm.. forgive me if this sounds like a silly quesiton, But I thought there is a "nudge" capability in Live? Can you not just set quantize to freeform and then just nudge a selection a little so it falls slightly behind the beat? Maybe not as elegant solution, but its an option!

And Gee Whiz Batman! This "problem" sounds like something that some enterprising Abelton Geek who is skilled in Programming MAX could cook up? No?

A simple "swing Slider" that will apply a set delay in milliseconds or beat sub-divisions to select set of midi-Notes?

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