# Electro — TR-808 electro funk / freestyle # Reference: Afrika Bambaataa "Planet Rock", Cybotron "Clear", # Egyptian Lover, Mantronix, Shannon "Let the Music Play", # Man Parrish — all built on the Roland TR-808. # The signature is a kick that refuses to sit on the beat: it lands on 16th-note # offbeats while the snare/clap keeps a rigid backbeat on 2 and 4. # GM notes: 36=kick, 40=electric snare, 39=hand clap, 42=closed HH, 46=open HH, # 56=cowbell (the 808 cowbell), 41=low tom, 37=side stick, # 69=cabasa, 49=crash # # ── Step grid notation ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── # Each character in a step grid represents one subdivision of the bar. # Resolution controls how many steps per bar (16 = 16th notes in 4/4). # # X Strong accent — velocity = base_velocity × 1.00 (full hit / downbeat) # x Medium accent — velocity = base_velocity × 0.75 (firm stroke / upbeat) # o Soft hit — velocity = base_velocity × 0.55 (brush / light touch) # g Ghost note — velocity = base_velocity × 0.28 (barely audible, mostly felt) # . Rest — no note fired at this step # # Beat positions — 4/4 at resolution 16 (one char per 16th note): # pos 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 # 1 e1 +1 a1 2 e2 +2 a2 3 e3 +3 a3 4 e4 +4 a4 # (1/+/2/+/3/+/4/+ = quarter beats; e = "e of"; a = "and-a of") # # Swing / feel: the 'feel' field shifts odd-indexed steps (1,3,5,7…) forward in time. # straight — no shift (all steps exactly on the grid) # swing_light — odd steps delayed ~16 % of a step (light swing) # ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── name: Electro family: electronic bpm_range: [100, 135] time_signature: [4, 4] resolution: 16 feel: straight instruments: kick: { note: 36, base_velocity: 115, velocity_range: 5, timing_jitter: 0.003, duration_beats: 0.20 } snare: { note: 40, base_velocity: 100, velocity_range: 6, timing_jitter: 0.004, duration_beats: 0.09 } clap: { note: 39, base_velocity: 96, velocity_range: 6, timing_jitter: 0.005, duration_beats: 0.10 } hihat: { note: 42, base_velocity: 76, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.003, duration_beats: 0.05 } hihat_open: { note: 46, base_velocity: 82, velocity_range: 6, timing_jitter: 0.003, duration_beats: 0.13 } cowbell: { note: 56, base_velocity: 84, velocity_range: 6, timing_jitter: 0.004, duration_beats: 0.07 } cabasa: { note: 69, base_velocity: 66, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.004, duration_beats: 0.05 } rim: { note: 37, base_velocity: 74, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.004, duration_beats: 0.05 } tom_lo: { note: 41, base_velocity: 100, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.005, duration_beats: 0.18 } crash: { note: 49, base_velocity: 98, velocity_range: 6, timing_jitter: 0.004, duration_beats: 0.25 } humanization: timing_jitter: 0.004 velocity_jitter: 6 velocity_drift: 0.03 sections: intro: type: count_in hits: 4 note: 56 groove: bars: 1 variations: - name: planet_rock weight: 3 # The Planet Rock kick: pos 0 (beat 1), pos 3 ("a" of 1), pos 6 # ("and" of 2) and pos 10 ("and" of 3). Three of those four land off # the quarter-note grid, which is exactly why it walks instead of marches. # Snare stays rigid on 2 and 4 so the kick has something to fight. kick: "X..X..X...X....." snare: "....X.......X..." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." hihat_open: "......x.......x." cowbell: "..x.......x....." - name: miami_bass weight: 2 # Miami bass (2 Live Crew, Dynamix II): the kick gets busier and hits # both sides of the backbeat, clap layered over the snare for width, # and 16th hats with ghosted in-betweens for the machine-gun texture. kick: "X..X..X.X..X..X." snare: "....X.......X..." clap: "....X.......X..." hihat: "xgxgxgxgxgxgxgxg" hihat_open: "......x.......x." - name: freestyle weight: 2 # Freestyle (Shannon, Debbie Deb): the kick spreads wider across the bar # and the side stick plus cabasa take the offbeats, leaving the middle # of the mix free for the vocal. Lighter than the Miami variant. kick: "X.....X...X..X.." clap: "....X.......X..." rim: "..x...x...x...x." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." cabasa: "..x...x...x...x." - name: electro_funk weight: 2 # Cybotron / Egyptian Lover: a squarer kick (pos 0, 3, 8, 11 — a 3+5 # displacement repeated over each half-bar) with the 808 cowbell nailed # to the quarters, so the cowbell reads as the beat and the kick as the riff. kick: "X..X....X..X...." snare: "....X.......X..." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." hihat_open: "..............x." cowbell: "X...X...X...X..." fill: bars: 1 variations: - name: tom_808 # The 808's tuned low tom descending into the downbeat — the fill every # electro record uses, because the 808 tom pitch-bends as it decays. kick: "X..............." tom_lo: "........X.X.XXXX" - name: snare_stutter # Snare 16ths over the last beat only; the kick keeps its syncopation # through the first three beats so the bar still swings into the stutter. kick: "X..X..X........." snare: "............XXXX" hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." - name: clap_roll # Clap accelerating from 8ths to 16ths — cheap, effective, and period-correct. kick: "X..X..X........." clap: "........X.X.XxXX" cabasa: "..x...x...x...x." break: bars: 2 variations: - name: drop # Kick and hats only: the vocal or the bassline carries the break. kick: "X..X..X...X....." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." crash: bars: 1 variations: - name: standard crash: "X..............." kick: "X..X..X...X....." snare: "....X.......X..." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." structure: fill_every: 8 break_every: 0 break_length: 2 crash_after_fill: true dynamic_build: false