Randomizing/humanizing timing possible?

#1

Hi, I just bought Patterning 2 and love, love it.

I’ve played with it a fair bit and am making my way through the manual (and taking notes) but I can’t see anything in the manual that addresses this:

Can the timing of individual drum parts be nudged/humanized/randomized to create a more “live person” drumming feel?

I can see randomization for other parameters but not for the actual placement of each drum hit. I fear it doesn’t exist… Please tell me it does or there’s a work around.

Thanks very much.

P.S. if this doesn’t exist, please, please, please build it into an update/new version. Though I should be able to scratch my Skinny Puppy itch with Patterning 2, my main need is to do rock drumming and some humanization of the timing would be critical.

#2

Hey Jason,
This is not currently possible, but it’s definitely high on my list of future features.

The closest things are the “nudge” arrows that move an entire pattern by a number of ticks, and the swing setting, which is a bit unique in that it applies “swing” to whatever the loops duration setting is. E.g. if you are using 1/4 notes, swing will nudge every other 1/4 note by a certain amount. I know that’s not what you are looking for, but thought I’d mention it in case it gives you some ideas to play with.

#3

That should say nudges the whole loop, not the whole pattern.

#4

Thanks, benkamen, for the quick reply.

I thought of a workaround, but it involves using a daw and the appeal of your app is that it’s a standalone solution to beat making…

Import the midi to Logic, then use the humanizing features and such in Logic.

Not ideal as I haven’t used logic in years and there’s something beautiful and stress-free about making everything on an iPad. But I may investigate it down the road if the feature doesn’t turn up in a new Patterning update or version.

I don’t suppose you have any rough timeline for something like that? Are we talking months or a couple years, for example?

Glad to hear that it’s on your list. I bet there are a lot of guitar players who would love Patterning but who want to make more “realistic” drums. Not everyone is into electronic beats — you’re cutting out a big part of the market if you ignore that population.

Again, great work and thanks for the quick reply!