Tips for working with very short notes in DAW?

[Stamped Records]

Naw, that’s just an example. The essential part of syncopation is that it puts the rhythmic accents on weak notes or divisions to make it feel off-time. One way you can envision it is to play or sequence one of your favorite melodies into your DAW along with a drum track (works best if the melody has some dynamics). Then, move the melody notes over by a sixteenth note, or an eighth note, or three sixteenth notes, etc. so that it starts on a weak note or division, and listen to how it’s changed the interaction with drums and gives it an off-time feel.

So syncopation pertains to the position of the note that starts the melody?

I mean, if instead of starting my melody on the downbeat, I start my melody on the offbeat immediately prior to the downbeat so that it is introduced in the bar before, is that syncopation, regardless of what the rest of the melody does?

Offbeat accents is syncopation, is that really all there is to it?

[cryophonik]

So syncopation pertains to the position of the note that starts the melody?

No, I was just suggesting a simple exercise to help you or the OP hear it.

Offbeat accents is syncopation, is that really all there is to it?

In a nutshell, yes. The idea is that stressing the weak divisions disrupts the natural feel by temporarily shifting the accents away from the strong beats.

[vurt]

yup, try it with a drum loop.
write a normal 4/4 loop, then every 4th pass, move it an 1/8 over.

it's still bang on time, but it sounds like you're drum machine is tripping over, can be effective if done well, to enhance even the simplest of beats

[jancivil]

If by "weak beats" we are including say 2 & 4 in 4/4, accenting those is not syncopation. And that's usually called weak beats. The criteria essentially is 'unexpected', and these are anything but, cf., the backbeat.

1 & 2 & ... is.

[vurt]

If by "weak beats" we are including say 2 & 4 in 4/4, accenting those is not syncopation. And that's usually called weak beats. The criteria essentially is 'unexpected', and these are anything but, cf., the backbeat.

1 & 2 & ... is.

isnt the & an 1/8 over?

[jancivil]

uh, yeah

but it was asserted that all syncopation has to be is an accented weak beat, 2 and 4 are called weak beats in 4; 2 is a weak beat in 2. Some might believe that the even-numbered bars of Bernstein/Sondheim America are, 1 2 3 4 5 6 with the expectation 1 and 4 are strong and it might even be cited in a Wiki. I think that might be too elastic a definition*


*CF: not sure what a strong beat is per se in 9/8, unless one believes it's a triple meter in every case, which is debatable.
so a 5 + 4, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 would be 'unexpected' if the expectation is that "strong" must be = 1, 4, 7 but I wouldn't use the word myself for that.

[vurt]

uh, yeah

ah cool, just got really confused and doubted my numbers

not sure why id be confused...

[jancivil]

if the denominator is 8 (eg. 4/8), shifting by an 8th may not do the trick, albeit sometimes that 4/8 is 'really' 2/4.

I should offer at this point that sliding loops about in a DAW is not really how we want to learn rhythm.

[vurt]

if the denominator is 8 (eg. 4/8), shifting by an 8th may not do the trick, albeit sometimes that 4/8 is 'really' 2/4.

I should offer at this point that sliding loops about in a DAW is not really how we want to learn rhythm.

ah, definitely, in more general terms.
id imagine most "modern electronic" (dance/hip hop) tends towards accents on 1 and 3.
at least ive not heard a great deal that didn't, it's all about making the masses move like clockwork robots

that said, a lot of trance, only accents the 1, doof duf duf duf doof duf duf duf on the kick.
with multiple snare riffs weaving in and out and a couple of hat patterns to create some movement in the drums.
real interest is in any eastern perc layered over it.
(old school trance, not sure about post 2000 tbh, it all went a bit iffy imo).

[jancivil]

DOOF
the music was thudlike

[vurt]

all DOOF all the time
the music was thudlike

thats more modern

[jancivil]

"making the masses move like clockwork robots"
hup two three four

[jancivil]

you know what's thudlike af is that gadawful Adele record wif teh two billion views

"the music was thudlike" is Beefheart on Bongo Fury regarding the Trout Mask Rreplica Replica procedure of muting the drums AND CYMBALS.
Don demanded that the cymbals have pieces of corrugated cardboard mounted on them (like mutes), and that circular pieces of cardboard be laid over the drum heads, so Drumbo [ John French ] wound up flogging stuff that went "thump! boomph! doof!" - FZ
it may be Frank's line

[vurt]

well i never! beefheart invented edm!

[jancivil]

actually that was the CIA