I think there was some misinterpretation, obviously i know what swing is and i’m aware that i’m using software, I thought maybe someone had some tips to make it sound more human without me going in for 4 hours moving lines around afterwards or banging on some plastic. It’s fine, i actually sort of like doing that sometimes.
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Swing is a built-in option in the Clocked module from Impromptu, it can be applied to the clock pulse going to any destination.
Keep in mind though that when using any of the Impromptu Sequencers, they will ignore swing when they are set to a different internal clock resolution value then the default, which is 1.
For the DRUM SOUNDS I am pretty happy with the combination of Bogaudio Sine Oscillator, NYSTHI AD and Vult Punch and Freak (or other Amps and Filters with Drive/Saturation/Distortion). For the kick I find it important to have control over the starting phase of the oscillator, to get consistent attack transients. I have downsized my Drum Synths a bit by using the phase modulation input of Bogaudio Sine and the PW input of Bogaudio Pulse to mix in some noise for snares and hihats.
You can see my drumsynth here, in the lower left corner of the screen:
Another very good small option for hihats is to use two Pulse oscillators and have them modulate each others Pulsewidth, while the classic approach would be to use six pulse oscillators to create metallic hihats and cymbals.
Oh and if you want some dirt in your drums try modulating the Filter with noise. That goes for dirt on synths as well…
I didn’t mean to imply you weren’t aware you were using software, what I was getting at was whether it is the particular swing in Clocked you’re not fond of (but might like the swing in Ableton for example) or whether it is digital swing in general you don’t like.
Swing created by humans is a different beast as everything is slightly out of time and inconsistent, even within itself.
If you are looking for that then a couple of approaches might be:
• Find some swung drum patters that have been converted to midi files and use them in a midi file player module
• Find some audio of drums with swing you like and run that through an envelope follower and then put the resulting envelope through a comparator to generate gates you can use for your drums.
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Nice didn’t think of that, cheers
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You can add a very small amount of drift to the BPM with something like BogAudio’s Walk or my BrownianBridge, which on top of a set swing makes things considerably more organic in my opinion.
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This is indeed an amazing oscillator for creating kicks with its phase and sync inputs/knobs - I use it all the time.
Interesting - will try that out.
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One thing I learned in the past is to shift individual drum lines relative to each other. Particularly rides can have a big effect. Pulling them a little ahead can add urgency, pushing them back adds a lazy loucheness. But just splitting out the individual drum triggers and running them through differing delays could well add some of what you are looking for.
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Never thought of use a midi file with swing thank you!!!
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i’m thinking of making a pattern in ableton every 32 then apply on it a swing that i like (notator) then open It in a player and combine It with a vcv drum seq using a trigger buffer 
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You could use the free entrian player: drummer. Set up a Midifile in Ableton with different clock divisions for the notes C4 to E5 (Notes from the C-Major-Scale) and quantize that to your swing in ableton. Then load that into the entrian player and the different gate outputs correspond to the different clock divisions.
- mo
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Now why didn’t i think of that? hehe thanks mate
Seq++ also lets you read and write midi files.
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Yes, but: Entrian has a gate output for every note (clock division) and Velocity. [Wrong: and can handle longer files]. So if you want to use a groove from ableton with a little variation (random parameter of a groove in ableton) and baked in velocity entrian would be a more conveniant way.
I would like to share the midifile, but .mid is not allowed here…
- mo
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Yes, Seq++ does not have velocity. But it can (and always could) handle infinitely long files.
If you make a request in the forum feedback category for .mid files to be allowed, Andrew will hopefully add them to the list.
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Oh I am sorry. It did show only a part of the file and I could not scroll, but I really have should looked up that before posting.
well, let’s split the difference and say it’s a usability issue 
You aren’t the first person to run into it. Actually, for no good reason, I went to a bit of effort to make sure if would be efficient with very long, dense sequences.
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For the sound :
Either I use samples of my own, or I layer drums with a Mult. The kick will typically be a Hora with little distortion on it (for the oomph) layered with an acoustic Autodafe (for the highs). Eq accordingly if needed ; and I like Palette since it can add some gritty spreaded percussion on top of it with CV modulation or not, very cymbal-ish. Maybe a PsiOp too but it can’t be phase-locked so it will weaken the overall sound.
For the snare I use my own samples, made in Vital or Serum, used with a sampler, still layered with whatever stuff I like, acoustic snares, cymbals, noise, oscillators. Filtering & EQing is part of a good layer (but sometimes it sounds good enough without it, just deal with volumes)
I always test a Bernoulli Gate or a Vult Caudal to control layers, it can render some nice chaos. Sometimes it’s awful tho, depending on what you like.
For the boring part :
When I’m in a rythmic session, I use two Count Modula 8x16 step sequencers. One will play its steps straight and will have strong elements. The other will play a 3 bars pattern, or 5 steps, or whatever I need to sequence the soft elements (snare ghost notes, percs, electronic stuff…) and achieve the groovin’. Eventually I will modulate length and direction.
For the velocity part :
I use several LFOs connected to inverted saw VCAs. I have a global reset for them on step 1 of the straight sequencer, again using a Mult. My individual drum outputs are connected to the VCA’s inputs. This way I can have crescendos, decrescendos (slow or fast), or just subtle variation control with an attenuverter. (The summing hell is because I want a hard reset on step 1 each bar & when I launch)
For the interesting part :
You can also use a Bernoulli Gate on cymbals or whatever you like. Variation is key. Ghost notes are key. Sublte (or not) polyrhythms are key.
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