Creating Simple Euclidean Rhythms in the Grid

Tutorial | May 14, 2021

In this video, I demonstrate how to create a super simple patch for Euclidean rhythms in the grid. I show how it looks like in Hatefish, and then explain how to implement it in the grid. I explain the three most important parameters (steps, beats and shift) and demonstrate how they can be used to create interesting rhythms. I also show how to use macros to control the parameters and how to use the Grid Node Out plug-in to generate notes. Finally, I provide a preset to make it easier to use the patch.

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Questions & Answers #

Maybe you dont watch the video, here are some important takeaways:

What is a Euclidean rhythm? #

A Euclidean rhythm is a mathematical pattern used to create rhythmic patterns in music. It is based on the idea that the most even distribution of beats across a given time period will sound the most aesthetically pleasing. This is achieved by dividing a given amount of beats into a specific number of steps, and then placing the beats in those steps evenly.

What is the Hatefish plug-in? #

Hatefish is a Hornet BST plug-in for Euclidean rhythms. It allows users to create complex rhythmic patterns by adjusting the step size, beats, and shift parameters. It also features the ability to modify the note, channel, and speed settings.

How can I build a Euclidean rhythm using the grid? #

To build a Euclidean rhythm using the grid you need three modules; triggers, shift, and face in. To adjust the step size, beats, and shift parameters you need to use the remote controls. After setting up the modules, you can connect a MIDI generator to the grid node out which generates the notes. Finally, you can connect an instrument to the notes and create complex rhythms.

Transcription #

This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, so it might not be perfect. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
You can also click on the timestamps to jump to the right part of the video, which should be helpful.

[00:00.000] So for this video, I thought maybe I'd give you a super simple patch.
[00:06.540] You can build yourself in the grid for Euclidean rhythms.
[00:09.900] I know there are a lot of Euclidean rhythms tutorial already on the YouTube, but I want
[00:15.140] to make a super simple one that's easy to build and easy to understand.
[00:21.020] So first up, I show you how this looks like in Hatefish, which is in Hornet, BST plug
[00:26.660] in for Euclidean rhythms, and I used this before, before they were the grid, and I show
[00:31.640] you how this looks like, let's switch over to this one here.
[00:35.840] And it's called Hatefish for whatever reason.
[00:41.640] And you can see where we have multiple lines we can use to create Euclidean rhythms, and
[00:46.840] I just used here the first one to show you how it works.
[00:49.860] So we have like here different parameters at the left side, and we have here a grid
[00:55.100] page, which represents the triggers.
[00:58.660] So when we add here maybe a kick drum device, like the e-kick, and just hit play, you can
[01:07.940] see we have just multiple triggers because we have multiple steps here active.
[01:15.700] And you can change the step size of this, the beat size, which means basically we have
[01:23.300] now three beats into equally spread out in a grid of 16 beats.
[01:32.580] I can see it, one, two, three, or maybe five beats, equally spread out in a beat grid
[01:40.700] of 16th notes here, and it looks like this, and then we can hit play, and I have something
[01:48.260] like this, right?
[01:52.620] You can also shift this around, so we can offset where you start basically with your first
[02:01.620] trigger.
[02:02.620] We can shift this around, so we have these main three things here, step size, beats and
[02:09.460] shift, and there's also speed setting here.
[02:12.020] And we can also implement this in the grid pretty easily, and I'll show you in a minute.
[02:15.860] And you can change your channel, it's basically when you route the MIDI generation, maybe onto
[02:23.220] a different instrument if you want.
[02:24.780] You can also change the note here if you want to play in multiple notes, but that's not
[02:28.460] important for this tutorial.
[02:29.980] Just want to give you a small introduction to what it means to have, and a pleadian beat
[02:36.820] or rhythm grid.
[02:39.020] So we can also change here the step size, of course, we have 10 steps, and then we have three
[02:46.420] beats or three steps active inside the beat grid of a step size of 10.
[02:53.340] So it's always like you have triggers inside the beat grid, and these triggers are equally
[02:58.580] spread out.
[02:59.740] And this gives you some nice interesting rhythms.
[03:02.460] So when we go to 16, maybe go back here to shift to zero, beats three, then we create
[03:08.020] the different track here on this different track, we change the beats inside this one here,
[03:13.980] and maybe change also the tuning a bit in the sounds like this.
[03:20.220] And then maybe get the third one here, change also the beat size to something different.
[03:29.220] Maybe you shift this around.
[03:36.460] So you get interesting rhythms this way, right?
[03:39.180] It's equally spread out, it's mathematically beautiful, and so on.
[03:44.660] But you can do this in the grid.
[03:46.380] So like I said, we focus here on the three important parameter steps, beats, and shift,
[03:55.860] and I create your Poly-Grid.
[03:59.740] Inside the Poly-Grid, we only need, I think, three modules.
[04:04.940] This is triggers, we need shift, we need a face, face in, and we need another triggers,
[04:17.940] I think.
[04:19.940] Okay.
[04:20.940] So this one here is basically our beats.
[04:25.300] This one is steps, and then we need to clock quantize.
[04:33.060] And then we say we want to implement our steps grid, which is probably 16, then this
[04:42.300] is our beats, and then we want to shift around here, of course, our beats, and we use
[04:49.180] to shift for this.
[04:50.780] And then you get the trigger signal out of this here, right?
[04:53.660] So let's go for a module later here, module later out, and we use here, of course, my note
[05:02.420] grid out, plug in, and we modulate the gate.
[05:07.060] And then we can implement here a kick, like we did this before.
[05:11.380] And we can create now a cleaning rhythms this way, and also shift this around.
[05:18.660] And I show you this here, this one here.
[05:23.860] So we have now the steps, which is this one here.
[05:30.100] And we have the beats, so maybe go to three.
[05:33.860] And we have to shift, we can shift around basically, and trigger steps.
[05:41.020] And then we modulate here our grid node out, which then generates notes, and we can use
[05:46.340] these notes here with instruments.
[05:49.340] Super simple, super easy, and you can build this for yourself just in a few seconds.
[05:56.780] It's not easy to do, not hard to do, and then you can create multiple of these here and
[06:03.780] go in, of course, and change this.
[06:16.860] So this is the basic setup, basically.
[06:22.620] And we can now make this a bit better in this regard that we maybe use it, so macros
[06:30.100] for this.
[06:31.340] So we change here with this beat size.
[06:38.100] This is beats, macro, maybe change here this.
[06:51.580] Yeah, this is the problem with the modulation thing, right?
[06:54.860] We don't know, or maybe it's better, we go here with the remote controls, there should
[07:00.740] be a bit better.
[07:02.740] Let's go with this.
[07:06.580] Step size, then we have this number here, which is nice.
[07:13.220] The score steps, it's beats, steps, then we have shift here, again shift around, nice,
[07:24.780] and clockwise that's all we need.
[07:26.700] So okay, and then we have to remove this here, probably, so we can now change the settings
[07:33.740] of this whole generator here in front with the remote controls, which is super handy.
[07:41.300] And then we use here maybe, let's go for pitch, pitch in, use a modulator here too, and
[07:53.300] modulate the pitch like this.
[07:58.700] And maybe you use a gate in, so we want to have this only playing when there's a note
[08:10.900] on the piano roll.
[08:12.820] So we use a select, and we switch this to this, and to this, and to this.
[08:22.140] So now when we press a P or we have a note on the piano roll, this one gets activated.
[08:29.660] So when I use here now a kick, can't hear nothing because we just, yeah, disable to
[08:39.500] basically the pass of this gate signal.
[08:44.380] So what we do now is, we can paint here a piano roll note in, let's go with this, maybe
[09:08.620] go with the step size of the 16, okay, maybe you go to 5, duplicate this, and we can also
[09:23.380] use here maybe in a pool isn't, we can now change the pitch, maybe shift this around.
[09:45.940] And in this case with the shift, it's percentage, but you don't, you actually snap to the grid
[10:02.060] because we change here the face signal and the beat signal then gets synchronized with
[10:09.140] a step, step clock gate signal.
[10:13.420] So it's not like that you are completely free in terms of milliseconds, you really snap
[10:19.460] to the grid with this setup.
[10:23.420] So you don't need to be too precious with this parameter here so you can freely play
[10:28.260] around, maybe change your notes here, okay, something like this, maybe use your percussion
[10:52.980] and beat them, it sounds not nice.
[11:22.900] But I just give you an example, maybe you see an EM, E hat.
[11:45.820] And that's basically all you need, then you duplicate all your tracks here, use different
[11:50.620] beat sizes and step sizes, and there you have it, a small little arrangement of a pleadian
[11:57.500] rhythm generators.
[11:59.180] So this is the patch, this is how the patch looks like, I probably post the preset in the
[12:06.580] description for free so you can download it and play around with this, there's also the
[12:12.340] grid note out preset in there so you don't need to download this and set it up for yourself,
[12:19.260] easy peasy, okay, so I think that's it for the tutorial, it's a pretty quick one because
[12:25.100] someone asked me this, just on Discord, and I wanted to give you a quick, nice, clean
[12:33.940] answer to this, so yeah, that's it, thanks for watching this video and please leave
[12:40.580] a comment in the comments if you have some questions then please leave some comments
[12:43.820] in the comments of course, and if you liked the video then leave me a thumbs up, subscribe
[12:48.500] to the channel and I'll see you in the next video, thanks for watching, and bye.