Received a couple questions about my first electro swing tutorial, so I thought I’d make another video, to try to clarify some things a little bit, as I want to encourage people to ask questions :)
Getting that swingin’ beat can be difficult at first, but with practice, it’s very do-able.
The trick is just to have the second half of a beat pushed as far to the end of the beat as possible, and not necessarily quantizing it to any half or quarter notes.. I’m talking about sequencing, when I say that. If you have a beat that plays, and then repeats, imagine that the second half of the beat is almost ready to jump into the second looping of that beat.
Here’s an example to show you what the hell I’m talking about..
So, you see in the first row, in the image above (with each Strangeflow-with-goofy-cap ICON representing a drum sample – in this case, let’s say its just a kick drum) – do you see how there’s a StrangeFlow head (kick) on the 1, 3, 5 & 7? That’s the basic 4/4 beat. It’s what’s expected from a techno beat, electro, house, etc… And yes, there should also be snares or claps or hats, but for right now, for the basics, I’m just talking bass kicks…
The second row is much more swung out, meaning…what? Look at the StrangeFlow heads, this time. He’s still on the 1 and the 5, and still has a stupid cap on, but instead of being on the 3, he’s sorta… closer to the 4, right? And then, closer to the 8, eh? He’s not perfectly quantized. He’s just a little bit swung out…
I really encourage you to try it for yourself. Just get any kick drums. Anything. Whatever 808 or 909 kick drums you have. Or, sample something. Just for a test. Try it out until you feel you’ve got a swing.
For a second test, you could make the note (the StrangeFlow head on the 3 and the 7) into snares, and then let the heads on 1 and 5 remain as bass kicks.
Go ahead and try it out, see what you get. The thing is, it’s weird at first, but after awhile, with a bit of patience, you can get it. The closer the second drum kick is to the end of the 4 (or, the end of the 8) the more ‘swung’ out it is.
Here’s another electro swing tutorial I did, to further clarify what I’ve just talked about, and also to incorporate it into a remix of a Paul Whiteman tune!
This video clears up a question about what kick drums to use for electro swing remixes, and also shows StrangeFlow manually swanging the beats out hard, and mapping it to a big band swing tune!
Also, one last thing to point out is that the there will be a second Authentic Electro Swing Samples pack coming out soon! There have been a lot of packages coming along, here at Bassadelic, and we our excited for the next couple of months!
Stay tuned! And, I hope you enjoy the video and learn a little more about swangin’ out those beats! Once you really get how to do it, you’ll see how much fucking fun it really is! :) :)