I know that some more complex rhythms do not allow changing the timebase, but I, for one, sure miss the old 'Swing %' knob of of old drum machines and arrangers.... (and even new software drummers such as Groove Agent).

Surely, on simpler 8th beat and 16th beat patterns, it would be possible to vary the swing amount and be able to 'cook' a simple beat with a little swing?!

This feature used to allow us to coax a far greater set of songs out of fewer rhythms, and also allowed for some personal choice in how 'hard' a song was swung. I miss this old feature, and don't understand why it has been forgotten. Even if it is a display choice, rather than a dedicated knob, it could help a lot of jazzers and even the hip-hop crowd. After all, a lot of MPC's are still in use because of this feature!

Ideas.....?

Hello Dikki
The reason modern arrangers have difficulty playing many songs with 1 rhythm is because the backing is too sophisticated, fortunately most manufactures have now realised this so they now either allow parts of the backing to be turned off, or variation 1 and/or 2 to provide a more simple backing. (Sometimes both)
As to a swing knob I am not sure what you mean, but coming from an organ background, I always found the artists created the swing themselves, while sometimes adjusting the tempo. (I have posted a couple of links below which was recorded in the eighties, the video quality is not brilliant as cameras were less sophisticated in those days)
Enjoy whatever you play

Bill
http://rapidshare.com/files/97434/franz_spectra_swing.ram.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/98415/franz_spectra.ram.html


[This message has been edited by abacus (edited 10-20-2006).]

Abacus...

What Diki is talking about is what Yamaha call the 'Groove' control, it does seem to be missing on the latest models, here is Yamaha's discription of the feature

'The Groove function allows the modification of note timing without changing the melodic content of a style. In other words, this feature can modify an 8 Beat Pop Style with a Reggae or Swing groove. In effect, the Style is transformed in to an 8 Beat Reggae Pop Style'

I agree with Diki that it was a useful feature in that you could greatly increase your internal style count as the groove results were savable.

Perhaps as styles have now become so complex and the available styles have increased in number it is not considered so important.

Noel.

The "Groove" function is still there on the Yamaha models that have Style Creator.

You can modify any or all parts of the style and save the results.


Ian

------------------
Remember to leave good news alone.

Ian

Yes the feature is still there but it is embeded deep in the style creator feature, what we are missing is the instant groove fix where there was actually a dedicated groove button on the panel which would instantly effect the whole style.

Noel.

PSR 740 had a dedicated "Groove Button". The 8000 had an easy conversion with a special bank to store them in.
DonM

Yes, but don't you guys remember the 'Swing percentage' knob that used to be on most earlier drum machines?
Simple, easy, did what you expected. That's all we need....

Interesting. I didn't know I could do this on the PSR3K. Will have to try this tonight. I need to do more ryfm.
Starkeeper