ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC
BEAT TOOLS: EUCLIDEAN BEATS
Euclidean Beats are a way of thinking about rhythm that has become popular over the last
few years. Essentially the basic idea is to take a number of STEPS (say a bar of 16 steps)
and evenly distribute a number of HITS within those steps. If you use 16 STEPS and
evenly distribute 4 HITS, you get a very basic 4 beat bar, since the most even way to
divide 4 HITS in 16 STEPS is to put one HIT every 4 STEPS. So far so disco.
It gets more interesting when the numbers are less even. For example, 3 HITS in 8 STEPS
gives you a nice funky rhythm that’s quite commonly heard in a lot of different musical
styles.
Another thing you can then do to those HITs is SHIFT their position. The default is always
to start with a HIT, so the first HIT will typically occur on STEP 0. However if you SHIFT
earlier or later you get a slightly different rhythm, even though it will still be built from
same basic ratio of 3 HITS to 8 STEPS.
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