i understand this is going to make me sound dumb but can anyone tell me exactly what accenting your beats mean? i hear people talking about it and im not quite sure what it is. ive guessed that it means to accentuate certain beats so does this mean just by giving some a higher velocity value or layering another beat on top? and is this to draw attention to the desired beats? thanx for any help sorry for the stupid beginners question.

Accented beats are a bit louder than you normal beats.

Or, you can accent a beat by layering something on top of it.. So you got it right really.

thanx man. nice to hear im not as dumb an american as i thought i was.

I was thinking the same thing the other day, I found my answer, cheers, its sort of obvious, but good to have it confirmed : )

When you use analog stuff, accenting can do multiple functions. It can increase the output vlume, as well as change the sound, i.e. changing the attack on a sound, the decay, the pitch envelope amount, filter cutoff, modulation amounts, all kinds of stuff. Accenting is a very cool tool for building a 'feel' into a pattern you're writing. With just a litle accenting, you can take a four beat loop of sixteenths, and just with accenting, turn it into a very cool groove, if you have the desire. Also, accenting can help a groove to 'swing'. You'll see.



Ape

What kind of machine does that? I mean, that'll let
you choose the accents destination and set the
accent level differently for each beat? Do you
mean an old analog or something like the xbase?

The Roland Tr808 and Tr909 do that. And probably most other drum machines ?

yeah... my tr606 does it as well.