Triplets, dotted eigths & Steve Angello video

[RandolphCarter]

No this is not about getting any Steve Angello sound or anything

I was watching this video the other day:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... o%22&hl=en#



Basically it's Steve Angello at his studio, struggling to get the proper groove for his bassline (or that's the impression I'm getting).


So it was posted at a forum, and people there commented:

i remember watching the steve angello one a long time ago and wanting to shoot him for not quantitizing using triplets and wasting like 10 minutes of my time

Yeah synthesis is important but so is theory. Of course you can get by without both as Steve Angello demonstrated in the first video posted above. He flips through synth presets, records a bassline, then spends ten minutes quantizing it to 16th notes wondering why it doesn't sound right when he should have used dotted eighths or triple halfs.

A good guide to go by would be to learn enough so you don't look like a noob if Future Music ever wants to tour your studio

I wanted to know, what do they mean? I mean, music-theory wise, what does a dotted eighth have to do with triplets... and why was Steve Angello having such a hard time with the bassline because of his quantizing?


Thanks in advance

[Nystul]

As he plays the bass line live, he is playing it very evenly in a 3 against 2 pattern. That is to say, for every 2 beats of the kick, he is playing 3 evenly spaced bass notes. That length of note is a triplet quarter note. Each triplet quarter note last an unusual amount of time compared to notes we normally use. They last 2/3 as long as a normal quarter note, and thus 4/3 as long as a normal eighth note. So it's longer than an eighth note, but shorter than a dotted eighth note. If he wants it to sound even like he played it, then he must use some form of triplet quantization. The easiest quantization to use just for that one part would be triplet quarter note. Quantization to dotted eighth notes will not help either.

So he tried to use some sixteenth note (or swung sixteenth note?) quantization. The first note is on beat one, so that's OK. The second note should be 4/3 of an eighth note later. But using sixteenth note quantization, it will move the note further back. Instead of the first note being a triplet quarter, it now becomes a dotted eighth note (in other words, the length of 3 16th notes). So the second note in his pattern starts on the fourth sixteenth note on the grid, which is too late. To make things worse, the third note is likely to get pushed forward! Shuffling the 16th notes will fix the third note, but makes the second note even later!

When you want to quantize and tighten unusual rhythms, it really helps to understand the rhythm itself and how those notes are going to fit on the "grid" you are creating. Picking the wrong pattern to quantize to can have tragic results, and you might start to think it is because you are entering or playing the notes wrong when it's actually just the quantization.

[cosmicdawn]

This pattern isn't about triplets.

With a triplet pattern you have only 12th notes, that is kick note note kick note note kick, evenly spaced. The length of the notes is not important in that aspect.
But I remember seeing him on this video struggling to do something so easy. Kind of strange... But it looked like he really didn't want to do that video.
Or he tried to be cool...

[Nystul]

This pattern isn't about triplets.

With a triplet pattern you have only 12th notes, that is kick note note kick note note kick, evenly spaced. The length of the notes is not important in that aspect.

By length I mean the spacing from the start of one note to the start of the next, not the articulation of it. He had 6 evenly spaced bass notes over every 4 evenly spaced kick notes. To combine it you would end up with a 12 note grid. That's how it was when he played the notes on his keyboard. BUT after the quantize screwed it up, he edited it into something different. It ends up being like 10 dotted eighths followed by one regular eighth... really syncopated and slippery. Maybe that's what he was trying for in the first place?

[qa2pir]

what an idiot

[gritzildino]

Can anyone tell me why Steve Angello only uses Sharp and Flat Keys in this video. And somehow it still sounds good????

[dixib]

That's because all the black keys make up a pentatonic scale. When keeping to the five notes of a pentatonic scale nothing ever sounds really wrong, since there's no disharmony between any of the intervals of the scale.

I hope that made sence.

[gritzildino]

Yes. That works...
I am doing a bit of Music theory right now. Just cause i want to make my own melodies and chord progressions. I have just stuck with Natural and Harmonic Minor scales. and of course major scales. But I have read that 90% of dance music is in minor scales. Anyway ya thanks for that.

[jimmyprice]

Can anyone tell me why Steve Angello only uses Sharp and Flat Keys in this video. And somehow it still sounds good????

because sharp and flat keys cant clash

[jancivil]

wow. 'It doesn't want to cooperate'. It's a machine you twit.

This is a first grade arithmetic problem. Who is this guy? He's famous for doing this shit? I understood more than this about rhythm when I was 9 yrs old in my first band class. Because we were required to.

'Future Music'... great.

[Ogg Vorbis]

Well...his hair is cool.

[jimmyprice]

wow I was really unimpressed by that video I thought he would of been way better and what was up with him only playing black keys? Doesn't he kno chords or something?

[herodotus]

You haters are all just jealous.