Wednesday, June 27, 2007
What's Important in a Groove Track? Swing!

Another subtle thing that many drum programs and drum machines let you do is to edit the "SWING." We've covered swing before in the TIPS (do a Kalimba Magic search on "SWING" to find more information if you forget what SWING is). Just to remind you, swing is a systematic shifting of the off-beats in one direction, and can profoundly affect the way the music or drum track makes your body move. Swing is natural for the kalimba, i.e., if you are alternatiing Left and Right strokes, you just delay one hand but not the other, and you are swinging. Play with the "swing" parameter in the drum loop until you hear what it does, and then fine tune the swing until your kalimba and the drum track are totally IN SYNC with each other.

Warning: often the swing parameter only applies to eighth notes or to sixteenth notes, so if you don't have anything played on the particular spots on the grid that are affected, adjusting the swing won't do anything.

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