In this quick tip we are going to demonstrate a quick and easy way of adding timing variations to MIDI. Specifically drums, but all MIDI is fair game. It’s quick and easy to do and will give you another option to add to your go-to regroove patches.
It won’t completely transform your programmed drums on its own, but when combined with other techniques such as velocity variations– it can subtly alter your grooves into something a little more organic sounding.
Adding Timing Variations The Method:
- Press F8 to bring up the Tool Window.
- Then, click on the Groove Settings tab.
The settings are as follows:
- Timing impact 100%.
- Velocity Impact 100%.
- Note Length Impact 0%.
- Random Timing 3 ticks (try between 1 and 4, 3 is usually a safe bet).
By default it will be set to Groove Channel A1, you can change it to any available ReGroove slot from the same window as the above changes were made. Once you have set up the groove variations to taste, you then need to apply it to your drum tracks:
- In the Sequencer, click on Select Groove on your drum track and choose the ReGroove Channel that you used for your randomise drum pattern groove.
- You can also save your patch in the Tool Window. We called ours ‘in 3 ticks’.
And that is all there is to it. Saving your patch and giving it a memorable name makes it easier to spot when routing tracks to it and will also speed things up a little the next time you are working on programmed drums.
Check out some other Reason Feature tips.