Re: [microsound] AI & rhythm perception - 'groove' heuristics?

[David Powers <cyborgk@xxxxxxxxx>]

All I can say is, I don't think that first groove would be interesting
to the minimal or techno heads around here. The groove just isn't
"right" - this is an aquired cultural sensibility, not a mathematical
one. There's nothing "wrong" with it but it doesn't work for me. On
the other hand, the Sutekh beat is hot, it bangs, I'd play that one as
a DJ.

But I really don't see a mathematical way to prove that one is better
than the other. I trust my ears.

I'd posit that it's an acquired sensibility that comes from many
nights of making beats, mixing records and dancing with like minded
people to certain favored styles. And this sensibility is not
cross-cultural or universal - it wouldn't help me make the perfect dub
reggae beat.

What I will assert, is that whatever this mysterious quality that
makes a beat work for me in a particular context is, it's as much in
the production values, melodic content, compression, mixing, and
choice of sounds, as it is in the rhythm itself. The range of rhythms
isn't that broad, and essentially, it could mostly all be derived from
latin + disco rhythms.

~David

On 11/21/06, Damian Stewart <damian@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I think that's true, but it doesn't capture what I find interesting about
> the notion of groove.
>
> http://damian.fusion.net.nz/frey/nice-loops/richard-davis-breathe.mp3
>
> Yes, there is a continous 16th pulse in there, but what makes it groovy is
> the hihat + bassline with its sense of collection and rising between beats
> 1 and 3, the sense of sudden drop at beat 3, pause to recollect between
> beats 3 and 4 and then a little mini scramble upwards between beat 4 and
> beat 1 of the next cycle, to drop again at beat 1. The hihat skips 16ths
> over the first half, which lends energy to the bassline, but then when the
> bassline is lying prone collapsed over beats 3-4 the hihats bang out all
> 16ths as though providing a commentary on (or a roof over) the action.

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