There is a very simple concept which can dramatically improve the feel of your MIDI drum grooves: swing.
While swing is most often associated with jazz, the truth is that drummers will often add a bit to almost any beat, even rock.
By swing, I am specifically referring to playing neither straight 8ths (or 16ths) nor exact triplets. Essentially, it is ‘playing between the beats.’
For instance, if you have added some additional 16th note snares around the backbeat snares on 2 and 4, try experimenting by moving these additional snares back and making them late. With a resolution of 240 ticks per quarter note for instance, try moving these 16ths back by:
6 ticks
10 ticks
12 ticks
15 ticks
Moving them back by 20 ticks will of course make them 16th triplets (given a ppq of 240). So if you started with 16th triplets (maybe you have a Hip Hop groove of some sort), try moving the 16th triplets forward (early).
Most sequencers and many drum modules have some built in method to add some swing to a midi groove. In Sonar, you can use three different tools:
1) Quantize
2) Groove Quantize
3) Quantize (under MIDI effects/Cakewalk FX)
#1 is just a quick and dirty quantize function while #3 has the ability to randomize things a bit. ‘Groove Quantize’ will move things around and adjust velocity according to preset templates that have somewhat descriptive names. You can adjust three parameters via slider: time, velocity and note duration.
Of course, with any quantize function, you have to be careful because they tend to move the downbeats (1, 2, 3, 4, etc) exactly on to the grid which can weaken the existing feel despite any swing you might add. You’ll need to do some experimenting for sure but the time spent is well worth it.
If you’re having trouble with any of the terminology, stop by my site and drop me an email if you’d like a midi file example using 16ths played straight, as triplets and in between.
