swing quantisation is heard everywhere, most folks call it groove (as do most daws) mpc calls it swing and there are certain types that we associate with hip-hop more than others
MPC 60%-69% is the range most hip-hop has used
it is important to know one thing about how this type of groove is applied: it is always applied to the even numbered 16ths in any group of four 16ths; i.e. 16ths 1 and 3 (the beat and the and-of-the-beat) are not affected by the groove/MPC swing: 16ths 2 and 4 are.
The number between 60% and 69% is important as it tells us in which direction the affected 16ths are moved and to what degree.
A groove/swing factor of 50% in most daws means that even 16ths stay where they are: in Maschine a value of 0 says that they are unaffected (more on that in a moment)
most daws only allow you to go out to 75%, which is the same as saying a dotted 16th-32nd pair, i.e. the even numbered 16ths are now made into 32nds and are place so as to give that hiccuping effect.
66% means move the even numbered 16ths to a position so that they are now a triplet 16th and form an 8th-T-16th-T pair, the common hi-hat pattern heard in most hip-hop and rap.
reading between the lines for each of these numbers we can say that they mean that the first 16th in a pair occupies whatever percentage of the space of an 8th note: e.g. at 50% the first 16th occupies 50% of an 8th and so does the second 16th
as a table for the more common numbers
| percentage | 1st 16th | 2nd 16th |
|---|
| 50% | 50% | 50% |
|---|
| 60% | 60% | 40% |
|---|
| 66% | 66% | 33% |
|---|
| 69% | 69% | 31% |
|---|
| 75% | 75% | 25% |
|---|
note that 66% percent swing means the recurring decimal 66.666666666%
Maschine friendly numbers are a little easier, perhaps, to understand
| percentage | 1st 16th | 2nd 16th |
|---|
| 0% | 50% | 50% |
|---|
| 20% | 60% | 40% |
|---|
| 32% | 66% | 33% |
|---|
| 38% | 69% | 31% |
|---|
| 50% | 75% | 25% |
|---|
i.e. the range from 0-100 is used and so the numbers represent a shift in percentage groove from 50% at 0 to 100% at 100. The halfway point of 50 is equivalent to a 75% groove factor in other schemes - Maschine allows you to move your grooves to the point of the even numbered 16ths coming just before the next odd numbered 16th, creating a flam or ruff effect
in addition in Maschine you can reverse the effect of the groove so that notes are shifted to before the even numbered 16th position i.e. the odd 16ths are shortened and the even 16ths are lengthened
| percentage | 1st 16th | 2nd 16th |
|---|
| 0% | 50% | 50% |
|---|
| 20% | 40% | 60% |
|---|
| 32% | 34% | 66% |
|---|
| 38% | 31% | 69% |
|---|
| 50% | 25% | 75% |
|---|
if we move all the way out to 100 we then have the even numbered 16ths hitting straight after the odd numbered 16ths creating an internal flam/ruff
