MPC Swing on a Maschine?

S

StanleySteamer

New member
Hey guys, not too sure how many times this question has been asked but I have been looking on youtube and reading articles the past few days and I just can't seem to find any way to get my drums on maschine to swing and groove the way I want to. I used to use an MPC and I remember having templates and what not to groove my stuff so I was kind of used to that. I am trying to get the alchemist/araabmuzik/jdilla type of feel with the swing of my drums you know? Any advice much appreciated thanks
 
I will give you this much - the explanation of swing in the maschine manual is pretty limited

you have to remember something about mpc swing before you can get it to work in a similar way in a maschine:

mpc swing is about shifting the off-beat 16ths (in a single beat there are two on-beats on 1 and 3 and two off-beats on 2 and 4) further away from there strict timing position

50% mpc swing is the same position as normal strict timing - everything is of equal length
66% mpc swing moves the off-beat 16ths to the triplet position of an 8th-triplet-16th-triplet pair, giving us the classic hip-hop feel
75% mpc swing takes us all the way out to dotted 16th-32nd pairings

maschine allows you far greater control of these parameters and also far more opportunities to screw it up

Cycle
You can set the beat duration that the swing is applied at 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 6/16, 1/3, 9/16, 1/1, 2/1

the 1/8 setting appears to duplicate the intent of an mpc swing groove (off-beat 16ths are moved by the swing percentage)

going up, therefore, 1/4 shifts its focus to the 8th note, 1/2 shifts its focus to the quarter note, 1/1 shifts its focus to the half note, 2/1 shifts its focus to the whole note

Swing
you can set the level at which the swing is applied 0-100%

using just 1/8 as the cycle setting

33% sounds equivalent to mpc66%
50% is equivalent to mpc75%
100% sounds more like a flam, being right up against the next note

i.e. take whatever groove percentage you want from an mpc and divide it by 2 to get a similar groove with maschine

Invert
gives you the equivalent of reasons pre-50% grooves
i.e.
100% is no shift
66% shifts the off-beat 16th towards the on-beat 8th note in front of it
50% gives a 32nd-dotted 16th note result
0% is a flam again thought the flam starts on the beat rather before the beat

levels of groove application
the groove settings can be applied to
the sound
the group
the song (master)

groups settings are added to what ever was set at the sound level

song settings are added to whatever was set at the group level; at this level, though, there is only one parameter: swing %.

language note - ternary as used in the manual means triplet or compound time feel
 
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This is the kind of response I have been looking for and I couldn't be more grateful. So I just have a few things I need elaborated and then I think I've got a better understanding. Invert will make the attack or start point of a drum or note start early, while the regular groove function just swings it forward. My questions are am I supposed to swing certain things forward and swing certain things with an invert and make it pull more to the left I guess on a note grid? Do I swing my whole project as well as individual sounds and groups? Do I apply swings to samples? And lastly in addition to the groove function should I be playing my drums with no quantization at all? Currently I play with quantization at 100% and I have been trying to gets drums to groove right. I have tried doing shift+nudge to move drums left and right and see how that goes, not the best results so far. And I have also tried playing with no quantizing on my drums but it doesn't seem to come out right lol. I am aiming for the typical alchemist/malib loose feel groovy drums over the typical computer feel u know? More advice appreciated

Edit: also, how much is the typical groove percentage or swing percentage for the typical hip hop beat on an mpc? As in what should I be aiming for in maschine to get a nice hip hop groove feel going on.
 
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StanleySteamer said:
This is the kind of response I have been looking for and I couldn't be more grateful.

So I just have a few things I need elaborated and then I think I've got a better understanding. Invert will make the attack or start point of a drum or note start early, while the regular groove function just swings it forward.
Click to expand...

No not true. Invert shifts a note to an earlier position in time, but only those notes affected by the current cycle setting. Only the off-beat notes will be shifted, not all notes

My questions are

am I supposed to swing certain things forward and swing certain things with an invert and make it pull more to the left I guess on a note grid?
Click to expand...

how long was that piece of string you wanted me to cut?

Do I swing my whole project as well as individual sounds and groups?
Click to expand...

how long was that piece of string you wanted me to cut?

Do I apply swings to samples?
Click to expand...

how long was that piece of string you wanted me to cut?

And lastly in addition to the groove function should I be playing my drums with no quantization at all?
Click to expand...

how long was that piece of string you wanted me to cut?

Currently I play with quantization at 100% and I have been trying to gets drums to groove right. I have tried doing shift+nudge to move drums left and right and see how that goes, not the best results so far. And I have also tried playing with no quantizing on my drums but it doesn't seem to come out right lol. I am aiming for the typical alchemist/malib loose feel groovy drums over the typical computer feel u know? More advice appreciated
Click to expand...

how long was that piece of string you wanted me to cut? = do what works for you no-one can tell you that something will work only you can know for sure
 
dude your best bet is to start on zero and turn the dial up till you hear what you want, maschine was set up with no templates or presets in mind which i actually like because you gotta use your ears i don't know know if you saw the tuturial on youtube where this guy actully shows you how to get that mpc swing
 
No I haven't seen that video u should post a link! Also I am still having trouble with the swing. 33% seems to be good for an amount but with the 1/8th cycle swing its not affecting all of my notes. How do I get it to swing all my notes?

Edit: I am applying 33% swing with an 1/8th cycle on my kick and snares. So far only certain kicks will swing and the snare don't swing out of place with the metronome at all. Any advice? Because the other cycle settings sound funny lol
 
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if your kicks and snares aren't on offbeat 16ths they wont move at all you may need to move it up to 1/4 - go back and reread my breakdown (2nd post in this thread) to understand why this is so
 
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