Hi, this is my first post on the elektronauts. First of all, a huge thanks to everyone that share their knowledge, techniques, and skill on this forum. I was able to find some very valuable information on this website, thank you so much!
I would like to share a method of working with breakbeats and drumloops based on @under-wires Velocity mod controlled sample chains post, this method allow sample loops to play in a sort of semi-randomized generated sequence, using retrig menu and trig probability.
(not a real randomizer, as there will be some component of reiteration, but it works pretty well, in my opinion)
For this method we need a sample of a breakbeat or drumloop. The sample preparation process is already well covered in an existing thread on the forum, so just follow every step as described here How I “chop” breaks on the AR/DT
The process Is basically the same, but instead of extending the sample loop for 7 and 1/2 measure, make it 8 measure long (equivalent of 128 notes)
After the sample is imported in the analog rytm, set up everything as suggested by under-wires
The only difference is that our chain is a breakbeat/drumloop sample with 128 notes (without any silence in between hits)
The breakbeat/drumloop 8 measure notes get mapped across the velocity values, and each velocity value correspond more or less to 1/16 of a note of the sample
On the sound menu, set velocity to volume off.
Place a trig on the sequencer. Open the retrig menu and set retrig on, then set the retrig’s lenght for the desired duration that you want the sample to play, set it to an integer number; and then set the retrig’s velocity to the same value of the lenght.
So a trig that has a retrig lenght of 20 will have a retrig velocity on 20
Now if we hit play, the trig will play the the sample loop and the duration of the loop will match to the retrig lenght that we have set.
Next step is to parameter lock the trig/setup page velocity of each trigs.
The velocity of the sample should correspond to 1/16 notes of the sample,
so if we parameter lock the trig/setup velocity on each trig on different values, the trigs will play the sample from different positions.
Place more trigs exactly as described, and then set probability percentage on every trigs, and we are basically done. If we play the sequence, we will hear the step retrigs playing the sample starting from various points of the sample chain; with probability each trig will have a chance of interrupting the previous trig, costantly rearranging the loop, creating different variations of the breakbeat/drumloop.
Just be careful if you have a single trig with a long lenght that play and surpasses the maximum value of its velocity; because the sequencer will play the sample normally untill it reaches and surpass the last velocity information (127) right after, since it is going beyond 127, there will be no more velocity values to draw from, and it will be stuck playing a single 1/16 retrig of the last velocity of the sample till the end of the retrig lenght
If you want to play a part of the sample that is mapped in the higher register of the velocity value, just set a short retrig lenght that can contain and reproduce the trig/page velocity without exceeding the 127 vel.
If you want single note retrigs, set the retrig velocity to 0 and adjust retrig rate and lenght.
When the retrig velocity is half the retrig lenght, (ex. a trig with retrig lenght on 20 and retrig velocity on 10) it will play the sample at half of the speed, giving a timestretch effect; increasing the retrig rate will also increase the resolution of the effect (but it may result in artifacts, depending on the sample).
With this method the tempo of the breakbeat sample can be flexible, meaning that it is possible, with some samples, to increase or decrease the original tempo of the sample to a certain degree, even as far as + 20 bpm or - 20 bpm.
With Trig Mutes and Accent we can improvise and add more variation while the sequence is playing
Considering that accent operates through velocity, we can use the accent level to change the parameter locked velocity of the trigs while the pattern is playing; remember to not give an excess level value to a velocity that has a high assess, for example adding 32 accent level to a trig with 100 parameter locked velocity, in that case when the pattern play, the trig will not play anything, resulting in a muted trig; that is because we are adding velocity over the maximum value of 127, where there is no more velocity information from the sample.
When using accent this way, be mindful to not turn the level knob while the trig is playing, otherwise the sound will get glitchy, just wait for the next trig on the sequencer to play and then change the accent level on the previous trig.
If you have created multiple sample loops this way and have them imported to the rytm, it is possible to parameter lock the different sample loop chains to single trigs, or assign a sample range value from the sample page to scenes/performance mode to change on the fly the breakbeat sample that is playing.
I mainly used breakbeats and drumloops so far, but this method is applicable with other kinds of sample.
It works well with single shot sample chains such as kick drums, snares, hi hats, percussion, ecc.
Forgive me for the lenghty post, but i’ve tried to give as much details as possible. Also i’m not an expert, so i may be wrong on some of the terminology. Althought some of the procedures that i’ve used in this method were already well known and described in other posts, I didnt see anything exactly like this posted on the forum, so i thought it would be nice to share.
I hope it can be useful
cheers