Pulse, bars and the grid
Feel the beat, count a bar in sixteenths, and see how the 16 trig keys are one bar of music.
The beat, the bar and the grid
Almost all the music you love sits on a steady pulse, the beat. Tempo is how many beats come per minute (BPM). Beats are grouped in fours into bars (4/4 time), and the first beat of each bar, the downbeat, feels strongest.
Each beat splits into four sixteenths, counted "1 e & a, 2 e & a…". A bar has 16 of them, and the Model:Cycles has 16 trig keys: one key per sixteenth. That's why keys 1, 5, 9 and 13 have underlined numbers on the unit: they are the four beats.
Tempo shapes the feel
The same pattern feels heavy at 70 BPM and urgent at 130. Dub sits around 60–80, downtempo and trip hop around 80–105, house around 120–128, psytrance around 140. Your track for this course lives at 90 BPM.
Your track for the whole course
Every lesson adds something to one piece of music in pattern B01. This lesson sets its tempo and track layout, and each lesson after it adds a part until you perform and record the whole piece. Your factory demos in bank A stay untouched.
Lesson 1
- Pulse, bars and the grid.
- In this lesson you will feel the beat, count a bar in sixteenths, and see how the 16 trig keys are one bar of music.
Music sits on a steady pulse, the beat
The thing you tap your foot to.
Beats come in groups of four called bars. The first beat of each bar, the downbeat, feels strongest, which is why it's drawn bigger.
Each beat splits into four sixteenths
"1 e & a".
That makes 16 steps per bar, exactly the 16 trig keys on the Model:Cycles. The beats land on keys 1, 5, 9 and 13. Press Play and count along: "one e and a, two e and a…".
The kick lands on every number you say, the hat on every "and".
Tempo, in beats per minute, decides how a groove feels.
Each style has a home range. Your track for this course sits at 90 BPM, between dub and downtempo, where Bonobo, Air and Burial's slower moments live.
- Plug in headphones or speakers.
- Then press and hold MAIN VOLUME to switch on.
- Keep the volume low and turn it up gently.
Go to your track's home
- Hold PATTERN, press T2 (bank B).
- Then press 1.
- You're on pattern B01.
- Everything in this course is built here.
B01 on the screen.
- Tap each pad T1 to T6.
- Each plays its track's sound and makes that track active (its pad turns red).
Six different sounds. Hit the pads harder and softer: they respond to how hard you play.
Set up the track layout you'll use all course
- T1 KICK, T2 SNARE, T3 METAL (hats), T4 PERC, T5 TONE (bass), T6 CHORD (chords).
- For each one, hold TRACK and press the pad, press MACHINES, turn LEVEL/DATA to the machine and press BACK.
Same layout every lesson, so your hands learn where things are.
Set the tempo
- Press TEMPO, turn LEVEL/DATA to 90 BPM.
- Then press BACK.
Switch on the metronome
- Hold FUNC and press GATE for about a second.
- Press PLAY and count "1 e & a, 2 e & a…" over the clicks.
- Press STOP.
The high click is the downbeat, the 1 of each bar.
Put a kick on every beat
- Press RECORD so it lights (grid recording), select T1.
- Then press 1, 5, 9 and 13.
- Press PLAY.
Four on the floor: a kick on each beat, lined up with the click.
- Press RECORD to leave grid recording.
- While it plays, tap T3 on every "&", halfway between kicks.
- Then try tapping on every "e" and "a".
The "&"s are easy to find. The e's and a's are quick and slippery: that's where groove will live.
Feel tempo change
- Set TEMPO to 70.
- Then to 120, listening to the same kick.
- Set it back to 90.
- Turn the metronome off (hold FUNC + GATE).
- Then save: hold FUNC and long-press SETTINGS.
Same four kicks: sleepy at 70, pushing at 120.
Which trig keys are the four beats of a bar?
Answer
Beats: 1, 5, 9, 13 (the underlined ones). The "&"s: 3, 7, 11, 15. All the even keys are e's and a's.
Every idea in this course lands on this 16-step grid. Count everything in "1 e & a".
This lesson's challenge
Put on three songs you love and tap the beat. Guess their tempo using the TEMPO menu's tap function (hold FUNC and tap TEMPO). Write the numbers in your notes.