Beats & Bars question

M

Mac Loner

New member
What are in between beats called? here's an example of what i mean

1 and a 2 and 3 and 4

what are the and-a parts called? thanks
 
I'm not sure on how to read that on a step sequencer. FL studio to be exact, because theres the first beat, then theres 3 tabs until the next beat. Are those 3 eighth notes? I'm sorry if I'm not elaborating clearly.
 
The Funk Junkie said:
eighth notes, there's two in every beat (quarter note)
Click to expand...

you have assumed that a beat is a quarter note; it probably is but it is not always the beat, sometimes it can be the half note, sometimes the 8th note, sometimes the dotted quarter

as for divisions

assuming the quarter note is the beat

half a beat is an 8th

half an 8th is a 16th at which point we usually start talking in ticks (some fraction of a beat) most daws set the ppqn (pulses per quarter note or ticks) to 480 or 960, Steinberg famously set it to 384 in pro 24 and then to 3840 in the cubase 5.1 vst32 score: some daws let you set this value yourself

half a 16th is a 32nd

half a 32nd is 64th

Mac Loner said:
Or wait, each tab in the fl sequencer is a 16th note correct?
Click to expand...

If the beat is the quarter note then yes, the tab divisions (the grid) is at the 16th
 
Last edited:
You can use the piano roll for laying down the notes. It'll make arranging the drum parts easier in terms of note lenght, velocity, and to use triplets, for example.
 
bandcoach said:
you have assumed that a beat is a quarter note; it probably is but it is not always the beat, sometimes it can be the half note, sometimes the 8th note, sometimes the dotted quarter
Click to expand...

Given his original post it was a pretty safe assumption, thanks though.

"What are in between beats called? here's an example of what i mean
1 and a 2 and 3 and 4
what are the and-a parts called? thanks"
 
If you are using FL Studio, you can be more creative by using the piano roll. The step sequencer will only allow so much but with the piano roll you have more control.
 
Mac Loner said:
What are in between beats called? here's an example of what i mean

1 and a 2 and 3 and 4

what are the and-a parts called? thanks
Click to expand...
After all this "how to use the piano roll for drums" and "note lenght music theory" answers (including myself), I realized what you asked. Just complementing, they can also be called off-beat notes.
 
and-a is more than just an off-beat though

I too realised that there was a much subtler question in play last night when looking again at some newer responses but was too tired to add an extension to my answer

in the case of 1-and-a-2-and-a-3-and-a-4-and-a- etc, I am inclined to think of a band leader counting in a compound meter tune i.e the beat is divided into three even parts, so the grid in the piano roll is at 12 blocks not 16.

if the grid is divided into 16 blocks, then the counting of the breaks is 1-e-&-u-2-e-&-u-3-e-&-u-4-e-&-u- etc.
 
actually you would set it to 24 steps so that you can have a true "and" on the 4th subdivision of the beat

the question was 1 and a 2 and 3 and 4 and

which would be the following pattern

123456223456323456423456
xxxxxxxxx

if the steps were limited to 12 then you could not exactly divide the beat into equal parts
 
Yeah you could double it to 24 giving you even more divisions to play with, like on a TR-808 you would set 12 steps and use the A-B switch.
 
Damn, I just totally overlooked the fact that other step sequencers don't work exactly the same way as the TR-808 does, where you hit the 12th step button to set where it switches from A to B, like if you look at Reason's Redrum, you would indeed set a total of 24 steps and it would switch over at 16 and 8 instead of 12 and 12 like the 808 does.
 
yes, but you have to think outside the box to do it - set step length to 24, then set your tempo to be 1.5 times what you actually want
 
Well I guess that explains why both Ddream and BrightLen recommended using the piano roll instead of the step sequencer......I didn't even realize there was a limitation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top