8.10. Swing
Swing introduces a “shuffle” feel to the active pattern or arpeggio. There are dozens of
settings available, ranging from 50-75% in increments of 1. To make a selection, hold Shift
and turn the Tempo/Value knob.
What the Swing setting does is shift the timing of the notes in a pattern, making the first
note of a pair longer and the second note shorter. Assuming the time division is set to 1/8,
here’s what will happen:
• With Swing set to Off (50%) each note gets ‘equal time’, resulting in a ‘straight 1/
8th note’ feel.
• As the Swing value exceeds 50% the first 1/8th note is held longer and the second
is played later and shorter. You’ll notice the sequence starts to ‘shuffle’ a bit and
perhaps sounds less ‘mechanical’ to your ear.
• The maximum Swing setting is 75%, at which point the 1/8th notes sound more
like a 1/16th note figure than ‘shuffled’ 1/8th notes.
Here’s a graphic showing the minimum and maximum Swing values in musical notation:
♪
: The Sequencer pattern and the Arpeggiator share the Swing setting.
8.10.1. Master Swing vs. Time Division
As mentioned in the previous section, the Time Div setting must be equal to or lower than
the Master Swing setting in order for the Swing to be heard. For example, if Time Div = 1/4
and Master Swing = 1/8, the Seq/Arp will not have a shuffle feel. If you set them both to 1/8
then you will hear the rhythmic figure illustrated above.
But the results are even more interesting when the Master Swing setting is higher than the
Time Div setting. In the following illustration the Master Swing is set to 1/8 and the Time Div
to 1/8, 1/16, and 1/32, respectively. The swing amount is set to 75% in each case.
Technically, the description of what happens is "If a smaller resolution is selected, the swing
period will be subdivided in 2^n trigs of equal length."
The extremes of the Swing setting
The three Time Division settings with Master Swing = 1/8
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Arturia - User Manual MiniBrute 2S - Seq / Arp: shared features
