A simple and very common use of the groove engine is to apply a shuffle or swing feel to a clip.
Above are several variations of a 1/16 note swing. Before getting into using it, let’s define what that means.
If you apply 1/16 note swing to a clip, you are delaying every other 1/16 note starting with the second. A great way to wrap your head around this is to try doing it manually. Here’s a one beat loop containing four 1/16 notes. (The grid is set to 1/32).
To give this a swing feel, we need to shift the notes at 1.1.2 and 1.1.4 to the right. Hold down Shift to select them both:
Click and hold down the mouse button. Before dragging the notes, press and hold CMD(Mac)/ALT(PC) to temporarily disable the grid. Drag to the right a little.
Voila! You’ve created a swing feel. The further you shift the notes, the more intense the swing. This is what the numbers after the dash refer to in the different swing grooves:
The higher the number, the greater the intensity of the swing.
