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Re: [microsound] AI & rhythm perception - 'groove' heuristics?
michael trommer wrote:
Interesting that you'd mention the mpc...The whole mpc 'groove' factor is
one that has driven tech boffins to the point of insanity...does it have an
actual built-in grooviness that other drum machines/samplers lack ? Go to
http://www.mpc-forums.com for the hilarity.
I don't think it does. I think the reason it has this aura is because it's
got a user interface that emphasises making changes to the velocity of hits
over the duration of a loop/groove. Based on my own experiments the easiest
way to make a machine beat feel 'groovy' is to alter the velocities of the
notes. As a very simple example, if you've got a closed hihat sample
banging out once every sixteenth note, to make it sound groovier (to make
it sound like it is swinging, even) you alter the velocities of each hit in
a way that emphasises the underlying meter. My dad's studying jazz piano at
the moment and he was telling me about one of the things he discovered,
namely that to make certain kinds of swinging piano line you time the notes
like a metronome /but alter the velocities/.
I still think that an intellectual analysis of something that is so
obviously based on pure feeling is missing the point...dancing about
architecture and yadayada...
I suppose I believe that 'based on pure feeling' is another way of saying
'instinctively mathematical'. Besides, the point in my case is to generate
new music. If I can come up with some kind of understanding of groove from
a different vantage point to 'pure feeling' then I can accentuate the 'pure
feeling' aspect when I'm actually playing. I've watched more talented EDM
producers than myself programme grooves in real time using an 808-style
step-sequencer interface, and watching them I can tell on a 'pure feeling'
basis that what they're doing has some kind of a logic to it.
--
Damian Stewart
+64 27 305 4107
f r e y
live music with machines
http://www.frey.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/freyed
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