How do you use Battery’s velocity layers to make sure the MIDI elements feel natural?
Velocity is incredibly important to making something feel alive. Making sure that the layers within Battery follow the intricacies and subtleties of performance is often the difference to whether the pocket feels good or not.
When different layers fire different samples, that is one less thing I have to program into the music. Sometimes, it is simply a different hit of the same drum. Other times, it may be a different sound in the layer that has less attack, or has more room, so that variances are more audible. Those details cue your brain to feel the music as alive, and not plateaued or copied and pasted.
Pro tip from ASHRR: I like the J Dilla approach when learning programming, where you might quantize the kick drum, but not the rest of the kit. Take the time to explore your own unique pocket and find those special moments.
