Hi!
Although I’ve been at this bleep bloop thing for a while now, I think there’s one thing that I’ve neglected a bit: Getting things to settle into a good groove by using microtiming and nudging things off the grid.
Any resources? Recommended reading? I’d also love to hear any and all tips, ranging from “delay your snares” to in-depth monologues about the hallowed art of grooving.
I’ve always gone by feel & sound… I don’t use step sequencers & I almost always leave a little air before each sample (even when using synths to make sounds I sample them) that way when using quantize I can adjust the start point of the sample. For example when quantizing hi-hats I like them to hit a little late, so while the sequence is playing I adjust the start point until it sounds nice to my ears.
In my opinion going by feel & sound is the best way to get a really nice groove… & setting up the sounds so they’re easy to manipulate… that way you can adjust & experiment with the placement of the sound on the grid easily until it sounds right to you.
When I first got into electronic music I used a sp404 & made tracks in resample mode only (no sequencer). This really taught me to use my ears & feel the rhythm. For the first few months I concentrated on drums /rhythm. I started by making simple beats (sample myself playing a simple rhythm with kick & snare, then looped it), then I played with delay settings on different kick & snare hits within the loop to come up with new rhythms & would also add hits here & there. As I progressed I added more percussion, I started combining different sounds (for example using 2 hi hats instead of 1, using 2 snares, 1 short & 1 long & using 2 kicks, smaller kicks for the ghost hits) & I got better at timing (finger drumming).
I think experimenting & not using quantize helped me the most. Especially when it came to getting the groove to sound the way I like
Aaah I love fiddling with microtiming, just feel it out! 
For me I guess it’s mostly a question of finding the emphasis points in the musical flow and whether the point calls for reinforcement by microtiming neighbouring steps closer to the point or if the emphasis point wants more space around so it comes through clearer.
Essentially, as far as I see it, microtiming is for creating push and pull in your beat. Or expectation (longer pauses between beats) or a rushing sensation (shorter than expected gaps). So as others have expressed, just experiment. Keep it simple to start out. Move a hit hat forward in time slightly before a snare, or move a snare slightly later than your brain expects, or the other way round. Lots of dubstep back in the day (when it was still raw) used this push and pull nature of subtly slowing down and speeding up the beat between the main accents to create groove. Another useful resource is to apply different Ableton Live grooves then zoom into the midi notes to see how certain things are deliberately moved ahead or after the on-the-grid beats. When you find a groove you love, replicate it on your Elektrons
These two videos might be of interest to you.
I’ve spent/wasted many hours on the micro-timing journey and at times I think the key (other than gentle swing as needed) is velocity, not timing. Not that I’d know - still looking for that elusive groove myself.
velocity/level changes makes a big difference, sometimes it surprises me how much of a difference it makes.
Normally I “cheat” & will for example change the level of every other hi hat (up, down, up, down) & lower the level on ghost notes instead of using velocity. But same dif I guess
my solution was ditch the sequencer, learn to punch those buttons in time with your heart
i literally came in to post just the name “john bonham” and nothing else
why did you take this away from me
If computers have ruined rock music all I can say is thank you Mr Turing! 
On the Digitakt I live record rythms in unquantized(other than hats) and then adjust any trigs that sound like they need it. If you are using anything longer than single cycles or short hits higher notes will play faster than lower ones so there is often a need to move those forward or backward a touch to compensate.
Also sometimes I like to have longer background samples with some additional movement going on as a “bed” for the main instruments.
If this sample is mostly percussive or noisy and doesn’t have much pitch information, then a subtle random LFO to the pitch makes it either go rushing or dragging compared to the main instruments.
Generally I find that any kind of randomness to the background elements in terms of microtiming gets plenty of groove going already.
Fantastic points all round! I think the velocity point is an excellent one. I think some wood block experimentation would be in order.
If you want an easy way to see the groove, just bounce it out as midi. A lot of DnB uses push and pull on the 2nd and onwards snares. Garage too, is all about that high swing, Hip Hop, goes without saying but most people just record live. I’ll share a couple of videos that might have some info in.
There’s a relationship between triplets and swing which I think he touches on in the 1st vid.
Also, the Serato remix thing looks pretty sick, might have to give that a go, basic, but looks pretty well thought out for what it does.
Oh yeah. The opener should absolutely have mentioned the master of this: Burial.
Take Archangel. Such an understated beat, but still the shuffle gives it this rush of feeling.
Here’s a good post about timing and swing in garage music.
Interesting vid. I didnt realise the tempo fluctuations were so drastic In older songs. Gave me something to think about in regards to recording. Rick beato kinda grates on me though, he reminds me of an elitist working in a record shop talking about “how the rock died“.
There’s obviously a massive market for this manufactured rock or they wouldn’t be doing it, rock dropped in popularity because people’s music tastes became significantly more diverse, there’s so much more music now and more than that, access to it. He’s comparing rage against the machine to all american rejects, halestorm and nickelback. Comparing rage against the machine to bands which are arguably, the machine.
Even so I think I might turn the metronome off for a bit
Yeah, he’s not my favorite, but I’ve learned some stuff from him.
Logic is quite good at mapping tempos so it’s interesting to throw stuff in there and see the tempo fluctuations. If you watch any of the orchestral scoring tutorials with the big sample libraries, the composers often mention that you have to vary the tempo if you want to sound realistic. Not really a problem for electronic music, but cool to do if you like organic sounding drums.
One thing I like to do in Logic is play drums in live and then use the groove track function to quantize everything else to that track. That’s something that you really can’t pull off easily with hardware samplers. Even if two sampled loops are at the same tempo, if one has a swing feel and the other was played straight they often clash. With that groove track function, you can often get them to sit really nicely together. It’s a great feature if you work with a lot of samples.
You’ll find the masters of micro timing and groove conducting orchestras. Nudging dozens of instruments around each other is their business.
Personal fave
