Home Beat Making Tutorials Adding Some Swing To Your Patterns
Adding Some Swing To Your Patterns

Adding Some Swing To Your Patterns

Ever finished up a 8 bar loop or a 16 bar loop and got excited that you might be on to something but after you play it a few times the ‘charm’ simply goes away? Or maybe you play it the second day, forget the mixing you had in mind to set up for your new tune and you start thinking that the song is actually not worth the effort to continue?

Well you should know that this is pretty common for producers and not all projects should be deleted when your at this state. Today we decided to front you with a few tips when it comes to adding some glamour on patterns you just created. Let’s see how it goes and don’t delete your pending projects just yet because we might just figure something out.

First off, the ‘swing’ is great for synths and bass lines so if your mixing just got dull or your sound construction just became boring or useless first consider messing around with some ghost notes and then pass on to Reverb and Echo. This should do wonder in case we’re talking about synths but remember not to overreact when adding this type of effect modification.

In some particular DAWs you’re able to use presents to actually spark your patterns so all you have to do is open up the Piano Roll and look up for different presents that have the right parameters already set up while you get to enjoy the changes made in a heart beat. Usually this type of implementation is measured in percentage so it’s really easy to modify and flex however you want to but then again, don’t overreact with adding a high percentage because the final sound will get blurry.

Start off slow (from around 30%) and only go up if it’s necessary. Usually the right measurements are placed around 30 and 40% but additional tweaking can be done when the mixing process takes place. Don’t jump onto that because there’s a lot more that can be done and by now you should know that diversity is what makes a song sound good. That is if you got the right beat. 🙂

Check out the video placed below to see this type of present being implemented on a simple drum pattern and hopefully this was some great help offered so you can upgrade your sound as a proud beatmaker. Enjoy and feel free to post a few tracks below.

Alex Moruz Alex is a keen music aficionado who has written and published acclaimed opinion pieces on modern music genres such as techno, hip hop, rap and new age. He is a musician by training and has co-produced several records.