Liven the Groove With These 3 Techniques

Groove It Up

I feel that there are many things you can do as an electronic producer to make your MIDI sequences sound more life-like. Perhaps the most obvious is the use of different velocity levels. Also, there is humanizing, a feature found in most MPC-style VST samplers like Battery 4. In short, humanizing automatically takes in the sound and offsets its level and timing by a small, determined amount. This tool is excellent for livening percussive sequences, especially hi-hats and shakers. Furthermore, the shuffle is a process that delays the position of notes between downbeats, creating a swing or hip-hop feel. In this article, I used all three tools to make my drum and arp groove more dynamic and natural.  

Drums

In this first example, the dynamics are pretty flat. Of course, each sample has the same velocity, and there are no offsetting processes. Therefore, If you heard this outside of this article, you would probably be able to tell it was electronically produced immediately because this type of performance rarely exists naturally.

~ static velocity, no humanizing

Moreover, the following example has various velocities for each source. Notice how the dynamic range has expanded.

~ varied velocities, no humanizing

This example has humanizing implemented. The difference is, however, subtle. Nevertheless, if you listen carefully, you can hear that the timbre and timing of particular hits (shakers, claps, stick click) are not precisely conformed to the raw sample and grid.  

~ varied velocities and humanizing

Arp

Additionally, I made a patch in FM8. As can be seen below, the first example below accordingly demonstrates how mechanical and uninteresting the sequence sounds with no accents, offsetting, or automation.

~ static velocity, no automation, no shuffle

For the most part, this example is nearly the same as the first. However, accents are added, and velocity sensitivity is turned up a little. Consequently, notice the dynamic range has expanded a little.

~ varied velocities, no automation, no shuffle

In my opinion, this is an important step. The images below show how I have "Read" the note length parameter in FM8 to SoundBridge and drawn in some automation. Given these points, notice how the articulation is dynamic now.

~ varied velocities, automation, no shuffle

Equally important, now is the time for the shuffle. In essence, I just turned up the shuffle amount in the arpeggiator section of FM8 a bit. Most arpeggiators have a parameter like this. It may be called "swing" or "MPC". Notice how the rhythm has changed correspondingly. Generally speaking, It grooves. I also dropped a SoundBridge delay on this chain and automated our wetness parameter.

~ varied velocities, automation, shuffle, and delay

All Together

In the end, take a listen to the examples below. Notice the differences in dynamics, processing, and groove. I hope this shows the importance of offset and humanizing in sequenced music.

~ static velocities, no humanizing, no shuffle or offset

~ different velocities, humanizing, automation, offset quantization, shuffle, FX, and context.