Hey folks, I’ve got an idea for an improvement to the Swing effect. In Ableton, there is a parameter called “Groove”, and it is a phenomenally powerful tool to add expressiveness to one’s compositions. However, it’s not the first time any sequencing tool has done something like this. In fact, way back when, Cubase 1.3 on the Atari ST series computers had the ability to create custom swing templates, which you could then incrementally apply to your notes. I forget what the maximum resolution was, but it was at least 16th notes.
So imagine you have a grid of 16 points in a measure, and you have the ability to slide every point as fine as one midi clock tick (192ppq) in either direction, allowing for very precise push and pull within a bar. Of course different numbers of points could be used, different time signatures, etc., allowing for polyrhythmic feels, different ethnic swings, allowing for far more richness and complexity in one’s compositions.
So how about this? On an unused track, one creates a pattern (or up to 64 of them), and the Swing effect can point to the selected pattern, applying the swing as percentage of that pattern? Or maybe even on a pattern in an active track that you recorded without quantization, and really like the feel of?
I’m going to hit up Squarp directly about this, of course, but I’m just wondering if it would be of interest to others.