Diving into the Groove Pool
Step-inputted or fully quantized sequences can lack the feel of real performance because they are “too perfect,” “too on time,” or just sound unnatural and quite robotic. The same can be said about certain audio loops as well. Applying groove will slightly change the timing and “feel” of a sequence.
To make things even more interesting, we can also extract a groove from real-life recorded material and apply it to our MIDI.
Let’s have a look at how to do it:
- Navigate to the clip on the 808 Fairweather kit called k c hh m.
Figure 5.17 – The k c hh m clip selected
Note that this clip has a flat equal velocity on all the notes, which are all strictly arranged on the grid. If we play this back, it sounds super unnatural, flat, and just doesn’t have any life. Let’s breathe some in it!