Half time, double time

Another post got me thinking about this...

I have a great VSTi drum machine from Steinberg (Groove Agent) that operates quite like an arranger in many ways. You select a 'style', and then a plethora of 'Variations' is available, along with fills that go to and from each of them (there are dozens of 'Variations' with very subtle differences in them as they build from almost nothing to busier than Neil Peart on crack!... but that's another topic altogether!). You can even control the whole thing with MIDI commands, for an almost arranger-like live feeling.

But the coolest thing about the whole thing is, for every style, every variation, there is a button that says 'Half-time'. And this immediately thins the variation out to a half-time feel. Now obviously, some variations aren't quite as good as others on this, but 9/10, you get something useful.

I imagine how this works is, once the variation is created, the producer goes through it with a tool that 'marks' some of the notes to be not played when the 'half-time' button is pressed... (or maybe it's just an alternate variation, derived from the primary)

Now, I don't know about you, but this seems a FANTASTIC thing for any manufacturer to add to an arranger... Of course, you are going to have to think long and hard to make it work for the pitched parts, but what a great feature!

Now, while we all wait endlessly for someone to implement this, here's an idea...

How about taking your busy styles, and be the 'eraser' yourself?! Get in there on the drums part, and start erasing notes until you have a half time feel (maybe move some around, whatever). Save the style as xxxx1/2T (where xxxx is the main style name) and then make them either next to each other in your style list, or create Performance pairs that call them up.

Pretty hip, eh?

I like it. Probably won't do it because I'm so lazy.
I enjoyed the button on PSR740 that instantly changed the groove, say from Ballad to Swing. You can still do that, but you have to go into Style Creator and there are several steps.
The manufacturers giveth and they taketh away!
DonM

I have a Yamaha third-party style file for "Suspicious Minds" that does that in the fourth variation. The one I have for "New York - New York" also has a similar half-time change in one of the variations. Pretty neat stuff.

Gary

A lot of the time with a 'half-time' groove, the high hats or ride stays pretty much the same, but just the kick and snare patterns get thinned out (or moved).

It's not quite as difficult as it sounds...

In fact, a 'half-time' groove, for say 8 or 16 bars, might be a perfect use for one of those unused Intros...

This is all well and good on paper but Id like to "hear" what the heck you guys are talking about? One listen is worth a thousand words.

Is it easier to setup and use than Jamstix Diki? Does it come with drumkits?

Thanks

Dennis

PS: reason is I find Jamstix to be a pita 0 others don't but I do

Think 'Rosanna' by Toto, Donny. Notice how the bridge goes to kicks on each quarter note, but the hook has a pretty busy high hat (thanks, Mr Pocaro!) but the kick and snare go to the one and three?

Think of it as a groove that goes from 'Kick-a-snare-a-kick-a-snare-a-Kick-a-snare-a-kick-a-snare-a-' to 'Kick-e-and-a-snare-e-and-a-kick-e-and-a-snare-e-and-a-'

That help?

Not sure if it is still in production Dennis, but Google away!

It came with kits, but would also output as a MIDI track, so you could re-route it to whatever you wanted.

I can apparently get version 3 out here???

I better check further, maybe it is an old web listing..

Thanks

Mine's a much earlier version, for OS9 on my old Mac.

Not sure how far along it got.