Intense Tech #07 — Groovy Groove and Tick Tricks, Part 2 (Defense Mechanism)

More lsdj groove tricks from intense-tech: slow tables, Hop + Groove combinations, 3/4 time and triplets from grooves, and a two-channel delay made of nothing but grooves (defense-mechanism).

Key claims#

• A table groove of 2, 3 or more ticks slows a table down — useful for arpeggios and duty-cycle changes. Groove and Hop commands combine "to create complex timing changes in both phrases and tables"; the example is a table from Hypnogram's "Zenarchy".
• Other time signatures such as 3/4 can be written with a groove alone, without a Hop (a trick from Zef); the example groove is shown only in a figure.
• Triplets: the default 6 is divisible by 2 and 3; an eighth-note triplet spans two eighths = 24 ticks, so each note lasts 8 ticks — G08 under the numbering convention — and the two extra ticks per note must be given back at the end of the phrase with another G or an H that hops to the next phrase; with three notes, an H00 skipping the last 6-tick line does it "to allow the next phrase to start on beat 1".
• Two-channel delay (from Hypnogram): the second pulse channel's first line gets a groove whose first line lasts 0A (10) ticks, so every following note is delayed by 4 ticks; the next phrase reverts to groove 0 and the delay stays; a second groove whose last line lasts only 2 ticks resets it. Finetune on the pulses thickens the pair.

Practical takeaways#

Grooves are an arithmetic tool: extra ticks on one line shift everything after it, so a delay, a triplet or a bar of 3/4 is a question of where the ticks are added and where they are taken back.

Notable quotes#

"You can actually use grooves to write in other time signatures such as 3/4 without using a Hop command!"

Pages touched#

shuffle-funktempo · fake-echo · rhythm-and-groove · chord-arpeggio · lsdj · intense-tech · defense-mechanism