I don?t mean this to be a diversion away from the technical issues but I thought I might give some observations from a drummers perspective. Interesting that Innerclock?s reading of the MD show a regular irregularity if you might call it and Rudebop?s TR808 observations show solid groove with occasional wide fluctuations. IMO Elektron boxes have already confirmed their reputation as funky boxes, capable of creating sick grooves. I can appreciate that the MPC3000 is also a funky box capable of robotic or tight electro beats or funkiness can be created by offsetting notes manually against a very stable midi clock. My point is that perhaps an irregularity is a contributing factor to the funkiness when heard against a theoretical perfect pulse.
I don?t want to get caught up in a theoretical vs. practical aspects of timing debate as science and art will always be coming from different perspectives but as a point of departure two things that have interested me are:
1) Tactus in early Rennaisance vocal music. In a historical period where no barlines existed in music manuscript the importance of a pulse that each singer recognized universally, albeit via a conductor/choirmaster (master clock), was essential for the proper interpretation of a piece of music. If you ever see original manuscript from the period there are individual pages given to each performer with nothing but a series of different note values and pitches, each singer having to accurately place complex syncopated melodies against the other singer's parts.
2) The influence of African rhythm in American music. When listening to BigBand Jazz of the 1920?s onward, Funk, Rock and RnB, the relationship to dancing is unquestionable. Why is it that bands who never even listened to click tracks grooved so hard people couldn?t help but get down on the dance floor? There is a constant in all these styles whether you call it The Funk, Swing or Groove. Take any number of great bandleaders, Count Basie, James Brown, George Clinton etc. Miles Davis was very particular about feel, the list goes on?but what is it raises them above the rabble?
From a drummers perspective, but this could go for any musician, the most important thing to develop is your internal clock. All the other stuff will come but if you can?t keep good time internally it doesn?t matter how good your chops are it?s not going to groove. Sure you can push and pull the feel but against what? There has to be a constant that all band members follow. Take for example a simple 4/4 pattern playing 8th notes on the Hihat with your right hand and accenting the 2 and 4 on the snare with your left. If you switch to a pattern playing 16th notes on the hihat leading with your right hand suddenly your right hand is accenting the 2 and 4 on the snare and you have to calculate, or delay compensate, for the time it takes your right hand to get from the hihat to the snare and back for the next hihat 8th note without interrupting the flow of the groove. This is by no means an easy feat and impossible if you don?t have a good internal clock.
So my point is that if a box does have reliable clock with the occasional stutter then this is funky but if it?s all over the place and you don?t have a reliable reference point to begin with then the overall feel is going to suffer. Computer sequencers present a whole range of synchronization problems but maybe there is something simple at the core of it? One machine needs to be master but if they are all dancing to the beat of a different drum they?re not going to sound like a tight band are they? I?ll leave it to the more technically minded to discuss these finer points of computer sync and I hope this wasn?t too off track from the issues. I just thought a drummers perspective might not be out of place, since most often a drummers job is to make sure people tap their toes and boogie down.
