Swing in DAWs
Although most drum machines, sequencers and DAWs handle swing in essentially the same way – by delaying alternate notes very slightly – there are a number of slightly different ways of describing the same process.
The most common approach (and the system we use in our Beat Dissected features) is the one implemented by Linn back in 1979, where straight timing is referred to as 50%, meaning that the first beat of every pair of 16th notes takes up 50% of the time of those two notes (i.e. the full 8th note). At a 60% swing setting, the first beat would take 60% of that 8th note. You’ll still find that approach in hardware such as Akai MPCs, Korg Electribes, the DSI Tempest and DAWs including Logic and Reason.
The main swing option in Logic dispenses with percentages altogether, offering a choice of six settings instead. In the case of 16th-note swing, these are called 16A through to 16F. The manual defines those settings by swing percentage, using the same convention (50% = straight timing) as Linn:
16A: 50%
16B: 54%
16C: 58%
16D: 62%
16E: 66%
16F: 71%
Here’s the effect those swing settings have on the timing of 16th notes, with 16A at the top and 16F at the bottom. The higher the level of swing, the more the evenly numbered 16th notes (highlighted in red) are delayed.
And here’s how the same swing settings sound when applied to a 16th-note hi-hat pattern:
Here’s how those swing settings sound when applied to a 16th-note hi-hat pattern:
Note that these six swing settings are almost exactly the same as the settings offered on the LM-1 and other vintage drum machines including the E-mu Drumulator, SP-12 and SP-1200, and the Oberheim DMX. It’s very difficult to hear a difference in timing from small changes in the swing setting, so 4% increments work quite effectively; you can hear the difference from one setting to the next, but it’s not such a dramatic change that you’re constantly wishing for an option in between two settings.
It’s worth bearing in mind at this point that a lot of DAWs now allow you to achieve swing in a few different ways. Logic, for example, also offers Q-Swing and Advanced Quantization settings for each region. Built-in sequencers in plugins like Ultrabeat often also include a dedicated swing knob (in this case it allows you to dial in anything from 50-85% swing):
Likewise, the step sequencer in FL Studio offers a different approach to the groove template options in the piano roll.
Both FL Studio and Cubase use a subtly different numerical convention to achieve exactly the same result as the likes of the LM-1, MPC, Logic and Reason. The manual for Cubase 7 is the best part of 1,000 pages long, but this is just about all it has to say on swing: “This parameter lets you offset every second position in the grid, creating a swing or shuffle feel.” No wonder so many people struggle to understand how swing works! The simple explanation of the difference in this case is that Cubase uses 0% to represent perfectly straight timing, while 100% equates to triplets:
Recent versions of Ableton have integrated swing with the DAW’s groove features and, specifically, the Groove Pool. In the Groove Pool you’ll find groove templates which recreate the sound of various other sequencers and drum machines. This means you’ll need to understand both systems. In the MPC folder, for example, you’ll find 8th-note and 16th-note swing options which copy the timing of the MPC, using the convention where 50% swing equals straight timing. But in the Swing folder you’ll find 8th-, 16th- and 32nd-note options which use the convention where 0% swing is straight timing, as in Cubase and FL Studio. Again, it’s little surprise that so many people find this whole issue so confusing.
11.48 AM
another amazing passing notes article. thanks so much for this. i’ve been producing for 20 years and i never understood why 50% on an mpc wasn’t the same as 50% in cubase until now.
so why does mpc swing sound so damn good? do mpcs do something differently?
11.59 AM
Really enjoyed this article, explained a lot. Would have loved more info about the Ableton Swing function though, is there much of an explanation in the Ableton manual itself?
12.04 PM
@n94
The short answer is no, MPCs don’t do anything differently. But there’s a little bit more to it than that. As luck would have it, we have an interview with the man himself, Roger Linn, coming tomorrow which should explain everything.
12.14 PM
@ Magoo
Thanks for the feedback. Obviously we’d love to go into more detail about each DAW but things would quickly get out of hand. In basic terms, Ableton uses a mixture of the Linn/Logic convention where 50% = straight timing and the Cubase/FL Studio convention where 0% = straight timing. It depends which groove you pick from the groove pool. Things are made a little more complex by the different ways in which Ableton allows you to apply the groove you’ve chosen.
The Ableton manual explains it quite well. There’s a link to the PDF at the top of page 3 and you can also find the info here: https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/using-grooves/
We’ll be returning to explain groove templates in more detail in the future.
07.12 PM
Thanks for all of these passing notes, loving them
08.25 AM
Thanks for all these articles!
09.01 AM
Thanks! You guys make really good job!
03.17 PM
Fantastic, very educational post. Thanks
steve t
08.54 PM
Just the thing i wanted to read more about. Thanks.
G_man
07.38 AM
The Korg KR-55 also came out in 1979 and had a continuously variable “swing” knob. I think the Korg actually predates the LM-1 by a little bit.
09.41 AM
@Attack Magazine – Another excellent article, keep up the excellent work.
P.S – When can we expect some news on Attack’s music production book? 🙂
12.46 AM
Thank you guys!
10.12 AM
OMG!! THANK YOU!!
Someone FINALLY explaining to me exactly how swing works and how it should be applied!
Of course, it was always readily apparent to me when swing is applied in tracks that I hear, but I never understood enough about the basis of it to apply it in my own music.
Thank you very much for the succinct and efficient explanation!
06.00 PM
Great explaination. Exactly what I was looking for….the correct full explanation. I’ve asked a few sales reps at music equipment sites I buy from and they were dead wrong.
09.06 PM
Great article! This has been one of the things that’s been bugging me for ages, but now at least I understand the fundamentals of swing, I might actually be able to apply it to good effect! 🙂
11.44 AM
ah man – so in your beat tutorials where I’ve been sticking FL to 50% swing to match your tutorials for 50% swing… that’s actually YOUR 100% swing?
So when you say 60% – that’s FLs 10%? Am I understanding correctly?
11.28 PM
Hi Plyphon
You’re on the right lines but it’s not quite as simple as adding or subtracting 50 to convert from one standard to the other.
0% in FL/Cubase equates to 50% in Logic/MPC. 100% in FL = 66.6% in Logic.
09.46 PM
great article and great site for information in general. really surprised me to start digging into the articles and actually find them all to be well thought out and very much right on.
i’ve spent my whole life playing punk/death rock/glam/garage rock… basically rock n roll, and up until recently had always kind of ignored electronic music, or at very best it’s sometimes seemed like good, danceable wallpaper.
of course, like anything, once you for whatever reason become interested in it, whole new realizations begin forming and you see the subtle stuff that makes it either good or bad. so what a great bunch of articles to run into while i am learning all this stuff brand new to me.
so thank you and keep it up, great writing and solid take on things.
for topic on hand, just writing to mention also, that people should never overlook the use of compression to alter a groove. I was really shocked when I first realized how dramatically you could change a drummer’s push or pull on the beat by messing with attack release times and compression ratio/knee.
not really about drum machine swing at all but just adding on to the very last part about what else is similar.
12.34 PM
@Attack,
That’s just really confused me – I think i’ll just continue to do it by ear!
10.58 PM
Awesome article, really well written. This is a really newbie comment but one thing i dont understand about the terminology used is when you say 50% swing = straight timing – does this mean swing is basically “OFF”? and the hats have not been affected at all?
Also another newbie comment – why use swing when you can just draw the hat positions exactly where you want? i.e. more flexibility. Its a genuine question, im just trying to understand the advantages of using swing, i can see some time is saved, but why else? Because doesn’t using swing also mean that each of the hats are offset exactly by the same amount (66% for example). Would’nt the hi hat pattern sound better if the first hat was 66% off, the second 60% off (for example). Or is the swing feature doing this already?
Many thanks.
10.06 PM
“If you have to ask, you’ll never know” – Louis Armstrong when asked to define the rhytmic concept of swing.
You should all listen jazz music ! It will help you get the groove.
Good article and good site by the way. Congrats !
10.47 PM
This will take several reads, but thank you for the information. I wish I used Logic or an MPC though!
04.38 PM
@Attack Mpc do have something different, :), its the crystals used inside the old machines, you see, there are some small things that make the difference, but people do not realise that, same as the korg emx/esx 1
03.52 AM
I think the multiply/divide factor should be 4 and not 6??!
otherwise full mpc swing (75&) would 150% in cubase which isn’t possible…
10.07 PM
Hi, anyone can confirm the calculus done by robo? I thought the same when reading the article – if the formula (mul by 6) is true, then cubase would not be able to represent 75% MPC Swing..