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Rhythm patterns over 16 beats

The problem

It's the last four bars of a build-up. The track has a stuttering riff, and you want the bars to answer it: five beats on, then single hits on 8, 11 and 14, then silence until it starts again. Written down, that's xxxxx--x--x--x--. You try it on a flash button and lose it on the second round. A sine effect only knows on-off-on-off, and a plain chaser steps evenly. On top of that, the pattern has to start on the one of the phrase, not two beats late.

The console can play a pattern like this exactly, every time, at whatever tempo the DJ is at. But first you have to turn the pattern into steps.

Practice

This page is working practice for electronic music, built on the chaser, effect and speed tools in the manual. The manual has no rhythm patterns; it describes the tools.

Writing a pattern down

One character per step: x on, - off. Before programming anything, decide two things:

  • The grid unit: the shortest event in the pattern. Here it's a beat. Drum machines count 16 steps as sixteenth notes in one bar; it's the same pattern, four times faster.
  • The length: when it repeats. Sixteen beats is four bars. Four, eight and sixteen bars are the usual lengths because phrases have those lengths (see Playing in time).

Then decide what xxxxx means: one long on for five beats, or five separate hits. On the console that difference matters more than any other, as the diagram shows.

Bar 1 Bar 2 Bar 3 Bar 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Pattern x x x x x x x x Chaser, 16 steps one step per beat x x x x x = one long on Chaser, 32 steps speed ×2 every x = on + off Effect, own form one cycle = 16 beats hit + decay, as points dimmer of one fixture group over 16 beats; the pattern repeats after beat 16
The same pattern three ways. A chaser with one step per beat merges the first five beats into one long on; with 32 steps at double speed every x is its own pulse; an effect's form can draw each hit with a decay.

The idea: equal steps on the show's clock

A pattern is a grid of equal steps on the show's clock. grandMA2 can fill that grid in three ways: with chaser steps, with an effect form drawn as the pattern, or with outside triggers (detected beats, timecode). Chasers and effects run off the same speed master as everything else, so the pattern stays in tempo when you tap a new one.

Chaser: one step per grid cell

The most direct way is to make each cue one step. A chaser on the speed master at the DJ's tempo changes step once per beat, so 16 cues give 16 beats.

  • Off steps store the dimmer at 0. That works with tracking on or off and leaves no doubt about what a - is. The executor's priority then decides what the - does to other layers on the same fixtures: at the default LTP, a - cuts them to dark, so a take-away is built into the pattern. At HTP, the pattern only ever adds light on top of the atmosphere (see Playback priority). With tracking off, a step that doesn't store the fixtures releases them instead (see Sequences on a busking page).
  • The feel comes from the fades. Step fade 0% snaps between steps, which is the punchy default for hits. The advanced encoders split it into in-fade and out-fade; in-fade 0 with a longer out-fade gives each step a hit and a decay.

  • Separate hits need a finer grid. Five x steps in a row store the same value five times, so the light stays on. If every x should be its own hit, double the grid: 32 steps at speed ×2, each x stored as an on step followed by an off step. A step fade above 100% (the chaser "will start fading down before the step is at full") might give the dip without the extra steps.

    To verify in onPC: check 29

  • All steps are equally long. A chaser ignores the timing stored in its cues and runs every step at the one speed. A long x--- is therefore four steps, not one long step.

    To verify in onPC: check 28

  • Loop or once. Endless loops the pattern for the groove. Shoot-Off runs it once and switches the chaser off: a 16-beat fill started on the one of bar 13 in a 16-bar build-up ends exactly on the drop. Shoot-On stops on the last step and holds it.

The steps are in Build a 16-beat rhythm pattern as a chaser.

Effect: the pattern as a form

An effect's form is the shape of one cycle. The predefined forms are sine, ramp, Pwm and so on, but you can draw your own in the graph editor of the Forms pool. The predefined forms are locked, so copy one or start in an empty cell. Draw the pattern as the form, and one cycle plays the whole pattern. The executor then has to make one cycle last 16 beats: on the speed master with a speed factor of ÷16.

What you gain:

  • One effect for any group. It runs on whatever you select, and it survives a venue with a different number of bars.
  • The hit shape is in the form. Draw the decay of each hit as points in the form. The manual allows attack and decay only for the forms Random, Pwm and Chaser, so a custom form brings its own shape.
  • Phase spreads the pattern. With a phase spread, every fixture plays the same pattern a little later, like an echo running across the rig. MAtricks wings mirror it from the centre (see MAtricks).

What it costs: the manual shows the graph editor only as a picture, so how precisely you can place sharp on/off edges is open. The speed factor stops at 32, which at one beat per grid cell means patterns of up to 32 beats (8 bars).

To verify in onPC: checks 12, 30

Longer patterns: 16 bars

A 64-step chaser for a 16-bar pattern is tedious to program and worse to edit. Split it into two levels instead:

  • Bar level: a chaser with one step per bar (speed factor ÷4). Sixteen steps cover sixteen bars, and each step can hold a different look: which group is on, which colour, nothing at all.
  • Beat level: the short beat pattern on its own executor, looped, started and stopped with the phrase.

A bar-level chaser can also start and stop the beat-level executors from its CMD column, so one Go runs the whole routine. Whether that stays in time at high tempo is open.

To verify in onPC: check 6

Outside triggers: detected beats and timecode

  • BPM triggers. A normal sequence (not a chaser) whose cues have the trigger BPM steps on the beats detected in the sound input. The pattern then follows the music, not your tap. But detection wanders in breakdowns and build-ups, which is where patterns matter most; see Let the music fire cues.
  • Timecode. For a build-up you know in advance, record the pattern against the track. It's exact, but only for that track at that tempo; see Timecode in a DJ set.

On the one, and staying there

Interpretation

The speed master gives the console the tempo, not the position of the one. Starting a pattern on the downbeat is always your job.

  • Start: a chaser starts from its first step when you start it. Press Go on the one.
  • Restart at the next phrase: switch the chaser off and press Go again on the one, or jump back with Goto Cue 1 Executor 1.12 (a macro button or the command line).
  • Effects: press SyncEffects on the one to restart all running effects together. Whether it restarts chasers too is open (check 14 on Playing in time).
  • Tempo changes: steps follow the speed master at once. If the tapped tempo is slightly off, the pattern slides against the bar; tap again and restart on the next phrase.

Which tool for which pattern

Chaser Effect with own form BPM triggers Timecode
Grid equal steps any shape inside one cycle detected beats recorded times
Feel step, in-, out-fade drawn into the form cue fades cue fades
Across fixtures per step, any fixtures phase, MAtricks per cue per cue
Tempo speed master speed master ÷ factor the music fixed track
Editing per cue graph editor per cue re-record or edit times
Best for fills, signature hits running patterns over a row the groove one known build-up

When you need it, and when not

  • Fills at the end of build-ups: a chaser with Shoot-Off on one button is the most useful pattern tool for busking. Program two or three generic fills (four bars, eight bars) rather than one per track.
  • The groove: a short looped pattern (eight steps) on one fixture type. In a dark room, one or two fixtures playing a pattern read far stronger than the whole rig, and the - steps are the darkness doing the work (see Busking a rave).
  • Patterns spread across a row: effect with its own form, once check 30 confirms that the forms can be drawn exactly enough.
  • Skip it if your patterns would fight the tracks. A pattern that doesn't match the music looks worse than plain beats, so keep generic patterns simple and save the exact ones for build-ups you know.

Sources