Groove - Am I missing something?

[broken_specs]

Hi All,

Is the Groove functionality simply for people who program rigidly, maybe using quantisation, and then want to add a bit of randomness and swing to their music?

If I'm purposely programming my music to already avoid that rigidity, is there any use for the Groove functionality?

May seem like a silly question to some but it's been bothering me.

Cheers

[Angstrom]

I tend to play non-rigidly and then drag what I've played into the groove library. That way I can conform any programmatic elements to my user groove making it all sit together without sounding robotic.

You might think that it's better to have some real varied timing discrepancies if you want a naturalistic sound but I've A/B ed this and found the conformed versions are much clearer in a mix. Essentially its better to have a hold of the timings, so you can adjust them all against each other to get a better mix out of it.
EG: It may be that you find you need to push your ALL your bass playing further into a groove than the drums in order to maintain clarity of each instrument (often snares).

So anyway, that's what I do now. I play it badly, then conform the badness and then use the groove sliders to manage the awfulness in order to get a better mix out of it.

[Grappadura]

I use it when I begin a track. I extract the groove of a song I like, and then drag and drop the groove on an empty midi track. then assign sounds to the midi notes. Makes little sense to apply it later in the process, especially if you´ve adjusted decay and release settings to the timing of your song.

[Angstrom]

Makes little sense to apply it later in the process, especially if you´ve adjusted decay and release settings to the timing of your song.

I think that comment applies specifically to the sort of music you are making, it certainly doesn't apply to the sort of music I am making.

It's totally possible for me to apply a timing template later in the process, and I have done, and it made more sense.

[Grappadura]

well if you´re making dance music you try to tighten up the sounds so they flow into each other perfectly, milliseconds matter. groove can be quite destructive here.

[Angstrom]

I don't make dance music.

I'm currently making music that sounds like Cabaret Voltaire time-travelled to 1974 to fight Iggy Pop for Ennio Morricone's back catalog. Nobody wins.

[broken_specs]

Ok, thanks for the replies guys.

I have tinkered with it and I see how it works, though I wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something mindblowing

I find the whole concept interesting, especially when you hear about people loving the swing of old drum machines (MPC etc).

As long as there's nothing gained from applying a groove template, over manually adjusting your notes, then I'll sleep easy tonight

[oblique strategies]

I don't make dance music.

I'm currently making music that sounds like Cabaret Voltaire time-travelled to 1974 to fight Iggy Pop for Ennio Morricone's back catalog. Nobody wins.

Except maybe the listener

[Spectrumdisco]

It works well for me and I make the ocassional remix and dance track