Swing with Ableton

[yur2die4]

At one time it was more of a feature that could be played with live and non-destructively.

Plus it applied to both audio and midi clips . So if you're doing something live you could slowly evolve into triplets. And slowly evolve out of it. Seemlessly. With just regular clips of audio and midi.

[Tagor]

Must have been in Times when multi-midi-files was browsable in Lives Browser...

In the old times (not) everything was better

[NoSonic822]

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.

yes, it's just that you have to manually set it...in real time...using your ears.....thats why its called free rate....its actually really useful in a live set situation for things like tambourines or shakers...it actually lets you set it to any rate you want...but naturally you will use you ear and manually "swing" it into the syncopation you feel as the vibe in real time......i know it's not quantized but sometimes we have to just let the music breathe and give it some life. im talking live set situation here.....live set

but i do agree withyou, there should be some global swing knob like on zebra

[Stromkraft]

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.

I assume you want to just move the even notes? So in a 8th note pattern in a bar the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th note would be moved either late or early? And you want this globally? Or more a global control like the global groove control over tracks with groove clips have now? So adjustments globally would have different effects on actual swing provided different clips or tracks use different swing settings?

I'd say the most natural advancement would be to make Groove and recording Swing as well as playback Swing (what's relevant here) one thing in the interface, but with different underlying functionalities.

This would let you apply in a replacement hierarchy:

• One global swing or groove setting for all tracks and clips
• One swing or groove setting per track
• Different Swing settings or alternatively groove settings per clip
• Different non-destructive quantize settings on every level with percentages like how Groove quantize work today

…and if different swing or grooves were applied the global control would work like the global groove control does today making the groove less or more tight. It wouldn't make sense to me adjust a little bit per level: Global > Track > Clip, so I'd rather see each specific level overriding the more general one and global affecting all levels within their settings.

Naturally all parameters should be adjustable via MIDI and from Push. It pisses me off what is there today isn't even in the API.

[H20nly]

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!

It is an option, but it's tedious. a fader or knob that controls it over the track, or even clip, would be much more inline with what we've used outside of Live. it should only take 2 or 3 seconds to apply some level of swing.

I first used a feature like that sometime around 2007 in Fruity Loops version 5.

[yur2die4]

Okay. So I discovered that I was attempting the wrong method for adding swing previously. Two ways to skin a cat.

I was using the standard quantize method which is not controllable with the Groove percentage.

By using Swing 8-99 (or swing 16-99 if you prefer), I was able to control how swing worked from zero to 100 and is midi mappable.

I will be loading those into my default set so I can always have swing at my disposal.

Now if only we had a way to change a clip's groove from a midi controller

[Stromkraft]

By using Swing 8-99 (or swing 16-99 if you prefer), I was able to control how swing worked from zero to 100 and is midi mappable.

Please elaborate. How did you do this?

[yur2die4]

Well, it doesn't give you all the parameters.

I'm just saying that if you choose that, and then select that on all your clips, your groove % will affect them all the way that it used to work in older versions of Live.

That will be by mapping the only available mappable groove parameter (the master one). Interestingly, the moment you choose any groove in any clip, a percentage shows up on the top of the screen also.

Anyway, it is nothing new. It's just that I was trying to get the swing before by using an 1/8T base and triplet notes drawn into the midi groove file. What I actually needed to do was choose a straight base, 1/8, and draw in the triplets. That means, for all material at 1/8 intervals it will nudge the relative material towards the structure of the notes of that groove. When I was using 1/8T, my groove notes had no discrepancy from the 1/8T base, that's why it didn't do anything unless I used Quantize.

[Stromkraft]

Anyway, it is nothing new. It's just that I was trying to get the swing before by using an 1/8T base and triplet notes drawn into the midi groove file. What I actually needed to do was choose a straight base, 1/8, and draw in the triplets. That means, for all material at 1/8 intervals it will nudge the relative material towards the structure of the notes of that groove. When I was using 1/8T, my groove notes had no discrepancy from the 1/8T base, that's why it didn't do anything unless I used Quantize.

Yeah, I found an old thread and tried this approach this morning and made a complete track out of the experiment. Worked really well. i didn't use any triplets though.