What IS swing?!

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Another part of Samuel Prather's "A Reason to Create" series; in this installment Sam answers the question of what swing IS and what the difference between the technical definition is as a producer versus as a musician on stage.
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[@ricardofranciszayas]

Very impressive video. I’ve been teaching this stuff for over 30 years and your explanation is concise and very understandable. You’re a brilliant young musician.

[@blackpranther]

Thank you! I don’t know whether the adjective I treasure more these days is “brilliant” or “young”, but I appreciate them both 😂

[@Browny93]

This is a really good explanation of the concept and so well produced that im shocked it barely got 4k views

[@ShivSagar010]

Thank You Very Very Much Sir!

[@wkenneth8752]

6:51 shuffle 8:45 swing

[@timpullen4941]

If you take your quantise and apply 66% to the 16th notes. It swings, but it has no zing. Delay that last 16th a tiny amount and this is when the swing comes alive. I usually quantise 16ths to 69%.

[@blackpranther]

The possibilities are endless, 72% might be it for one song/song section/figure, 62% for another. Try it all out to get that “Zing”

[@aaronYoh]

this deserves much more love

[@thomasglover5019]

Thank you, Samuel, for taking the time to produce this and for the clear and precise explanation of swing and grove, especially as it applies to Reason. I have never opened the Groove Mixer, as I really had no idea what it was supposed to do! I’ll give it a try, now, thanks to you.

[@blackpranther]

Wow! Thanks Thomas. I’m glad it helped

[@nwhelan1743]

This was the video actually got me to understand this 😅

[@timboslyce1290]

Man this was like remedial 101!! Great Video! definitely subscribed.

[@tomlewis4748]

When I first started recording in the box, I realized something was not working. What it was was that I was being too precise and not using any swing. At least that was my suspicion. Okay, so I'll try to add swing. How much? What works to improve things? How much would be too much? What notes will hit late, or early, and what notes won't? I had no idea. So I did some research. I have looked very closely at nearly 200 pop, rock, and jazz recordings, and used my DAW to actually measure where the notes precisely hit on the timeline. I noticed a pattern that exists in at least 95% of the songs I examined, not including those that have obvious swing. These songs on the surface are primarily all 4/4 songs without obvious swing. What I noticed is that all whole, half, 1/4, and 8th notes hit fairly precisely where one would expect them to, directly on the grid. And so did the odd-numbered 16th notes (which coincide with 8th notes). What I discovered is that practically all even-numbered 16th notes were delayed, in all instruments, in nearly every song. And they were all delayed about the same amount, which is roughly 20 ticks (in Logic Pro), or 1/12th of a 1/16 note, which is the functional equivalent of placing a 1/192nd note rest before those notes. (in Logic, a measure is 3,840 ticks, and 20 ticks is equivalent to 16th-note swing they designate as 'B' swing. Logic has infinite amounts of both 16th and 8th note swing capabilities). IOW, nearly all artists in these genres regularly use about that amount of swing on nearly everything, whether they know this consciously or not. It's subtle, and difficult to spot just from listening, but if it were missing, it just wouldn't 'rock'. (which is exactly why my early stuff wasn't) This is why drummers like Steve Gadd, John Bonham, and Keith Moon sounded as good as they did. For example, a drum fill with this amount of swing sounds light years more professional and human than something locked precisely to the 16th-note grid, or something with just time slop in it. The right amount of swing, used fairly precisely, is what seems to work, and 20 ticks seems to be the sweet spot for 16th-note swing on 4/4 projects. This is what virtually every professional has been using, for decades. This is very similar to what your explanation reveals. What it comes down to math-wise is that swing delays only the even-numbered 16th notes (or 8ths, if you use that instead), by an amount that is nearly a standard. Everything else remains untouched. I applied this to most of my recording projects, and this fixed everything. As for playing ahead or behind the beat, that seems to not exist in recorded songs other than a lead or solo instrument or vocal can play with the timing and place some notes either ahead or behind the rhythm section, which is a cool way to do things. But as for the drums, perc, and bass, that's actually not possible. The drums/perc ARE the beat. If the drummer tries to play ahead of the beat or behind it, that becomes the beat, because the drums/perc are what establish the beat, which is the frame of reference for everything else. What is important there is that all of the drums and perc are in total sync, including how much swing there is. Otherwise, it will just sound sloppy, which is why that seems not to exist in the 200 examples I checked into.

[@blackpranther]

Wow. I really appreciate the detail! I'd love to know what 200 hundred songs you used and now I'm tempted to do some research of my own...please publish this if it's not already, it sounds like a great candidate for a major music publication.

[@tomlewis4748]

@@blackpranther Thanks. It's easy for me to see that you are a really intelligent, smart guy and you know what you're talking about, and that you know how to express these things clearly and simply, which is pretty rare. So your viewers get a lot of ideas to work with that they will find easy to comprehend. Keep up the great work. Of course my 'research' isn't empirical or absolute, it only reveals this pattern, and there are many ways to approach swing that are legit other than mine. And swing patterns in other genres such as hiphop and EDM could turn out to be a little different. I haven't researched those, or country, or rap, or classical. My dream as a kid was to be a recording engineer and a studio musician. I got sidetracked and became a broadcast engineer (audio/video/and maintenance) and a novelist instead. My biggest problem was, still is, that I can write fiction just fine, but try as I might, I can't write songs (dammit!) Long story short (too late?), doing covers in the box became just my hobby. The songs I cover are the songs I investigated, which is mostly jazz from the 80s-2000s, and also classic rock, and a big love of mine which is R&B from the 60s-80s. Maybe a little pop. But they all show this same precise swing pattern in 4/4, going back half a century at least. They all have that in common, and it has not changed for decades. So back in 2013, I would pull the original into my DAW as a template as step one. And this allowed me to look closely at the waveform as well as to have a goal based on what I heard on playback. Logic will conform its grid to the precise tempo relative to 1/4 notes and allow a close inspection of exactly when notes hit relative to that grid. What I noticed at first is if I tried to mimic the drums, for instance, they would sound mostly in sync if I fully quantized what I had, with the original on playback (which I figured was a good place to start). But then I noticed that accent notes and fills, which have even-numbered 16th notes in them, would sound like they were flamming. If I tried to copy a lead, what I had might have the exact same notes and the instrument might sound exactly as it should, but the rhythm sounded 'stilted'. The granularity of the Logic grid only extends to 1/4 notes, so those 16ths sounded 'late' compared to my quantized ones, and this was a big fat clue that there was some timing aspect I was missing, which turned out to be swing and revealed itself over and over again in this same, exact pattern, regardless who the original artist was. That's what lead me to look closely at the timing, and changing that by virtue of that subtle swing pattern (a 20 tick delay on all even-numbered 16ths) made all the difference. Fills don't flam, they sound 'human'. Leads sound professional and funky.

[@blackpranther]

@@tomlewis4748Thank you! I’d still love to see that list if you still have it and please drop any links to other videos or links that talk about swing from the technical side.

[@docaardra]

Thank you so much for the clarity in your explanation! Just what I needed.

[@perryjude1230]

Thank you. I have had the hardest time with this.

[@neckpainmusic]

Excellent lesson!

[@lunacynthia5570]

Love the content !

[@NaveedandtheNavlets]

That was explained really nicely, thank you!

[@Guitarisforgrins]

Great explaination!

[@scottwheldon9992]

I wish I knew about this a long time ago.

[@blackpranther]

Thanks bro, I’m glad it helped.

[@PeterRabbit000]

Samuel, this is master class material.

[@blackpranther]

Thank you🙏🏾

[@dbo514]

Really great insightful content! The concepts you share are universally helpful and not just for Reason users.

[@blackpranther]

Thank you! Please leave any ideas for future shows down in the comments👍🏾

[@thedude4594]

One of the best explanations ever!

[@blackpranther]

Thank You!

[@yansheredega2560]

Great video! Thank you Samuel

[@blackpranther]

Thank you! Your welcome 🙏🏾

[@eddiehitler1400]

Thank you. Very well explained!

[@blackpranther]

Thanks Eddie, glad it was helpful! (sorry for the delayed response)

[@christianmerkle5303]

Thanks a lot for this video. I thought you did an exceptional job explaining swing and that the video was very well shot and edited. You've helped me wrap my head around the swing concept almost completely. Now all that's left is to "put pen to paper" so to speak.

[@blackpranther]

Thank you! Fantastic

[@UxJ7]

My maaaaaaaan subbed

[@samstits8982]

Cool name.

[@mariolucki212]

Thanks

[@jasondatura9243]

I make electronic music, but this really helped me and u explained it great . Thanks bro!

[@blackpranther]

Dope! Thx!

[@jimmygster]

Really helpful tutorial! I'm a Reason user as well. I set up a "beep track" (instead of a standard click track) that plays the swing of the track, using Little LFO sine waves (I put the swing/shuffle on top of a straight 4). It helps when I'm tracking vocals and the music drops out. I also use my "beep track" to help me set the groove for my virtual players, and I use it when I'm sending tracks to the drummer, or an instrumentalist. You have some really cool techniques that will really help me. Thanks.

[@blackpranther]

Sweet! I might try that beat track myself👍🏾

[@jimmygster]

@@blackpranther I actually left a simple beep track in a song, because it sounded so cool. I didn't know anyone else was doing this sort of thing. Setting my groove for a song came late to me, but before my release. So I used it to tighten up all my tracks, to varying degrees. Not only did it make a significant difference, it helped me easily clear up some "mistakes" in my timing. Thanks again for your video. I appreciate your time and effort.

[@blackpranther]

Thanks Jim! Let me know if there’s any ideas for future shows that you want some help with

[@joelvann1815]

thanks for this, helps a lot

[@blackpranther]

Happy to hear it✊🏾

[@01ryan10]

Thanks ice cube

[@blackpranther]

😂

[@DamianHang11]

No prob Sun shine

[@dpalaoro]

So...are swing and shuffle synonymous?

[@blackpranther]

I’d say so, especially for production. Live performance is a little different because “Shuffle” or “swing” is the name of a specific family of drum grooves for drummers and “swinging” is used to describe a state of rhythmic danceability in jazz similar to the way “grooving” or “in the pocket” would be in funk or R&B

[@marcusaurelius45]

Hey samuel, I'm an intermediate guitarist and want to get into jazz improvisation and blues guitar playing. Any places you'd recommend for me to start?

[@blackpranther]

I’m going to be doing some improvisational content soon but for a guitar player I would probably check out papastache. His whole channel is a great place to start kzbin.info/www/bejne/al67iHeYgtmFY7c

[@jimmygster]

I learned a lot about how to improvise jazz and jazz blues from Jimmy Bruno's site. He has the most efficient approach I can think of. He's a little snarky at times, though.

[@blackpranther]

@@jimmygster I don't mind a little snarkiness LOL. I might check him out

[@aramovski]

Remember... All he's offering is the Swing, nothing more..

[@blackpranther]

🤣🤣🤣