CHAPTER 9: GROOVES AND TEMPO

9.1 Grooves

A groove sets how many ticks each step lasts. Groove 00 is 6, 6: every step lasts 6 ticks. At 125 BPM a 6-tick step is a sixteenth note.

To add swing:

1. On the PHRASE screen, press CTRL + DOWN. The GROOVE screen appears.
2. Change the two values to 08 and 04. The steps now alternate long and short.

To use another groove on one channel, put a G command with the groove number in a phrase.

9.2 Tempo

To set the tempo, type it into TEMPO on the PROJECT screen, or use SPACE + CRSR.

To tap the tempo:

1. Move the cursor to TEMPO.
2. Press RETURN in time with the music, at least twice. SIDJ uses the average of the last four taps.

To nudge the tempo, for example to match another player by ear: on TEMPO, hold C= + RIGHT to play about 3% faster, or C= + LEFT to play about 3% slower. The tempo returns when you release the keys.

With the mouse, click TEMPO or the TAP label in time to tap, and hold < or > on the TAP row to nudge.