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Hey guys

So ive heard a few tracks recently (dodge and fuski on guettastep / doctor P cant remember the track though, dont hate me please) that use a sort of reverb like synth stab on off beats between a kick and clap and it adds more kind of swing to the track,I know its an old technique since i recognise it from reggae tracks, i just wondered how its exactly achieved since i thought it was a guitar at first but then a synth it definitely has a sort of string sound to it but I cant replicate it well enough.

Is it just a piano chord or what?

Thanks for any ideas with this !

what you're talking about is called syncopation.

play with volume envelopes to try to get a plucking string sound. fast attack, slow release, no sustain.

You seem to be describing skank (or upstrumming if you're on guitar). Your example however (Guettastep) is not skank'd, it's 3 syncopated notes followed by 8th notes.

The pattern if you think of in terms of a step sequencer I believe would be:
1, 4, 7, 11, 13, 15

bassinine wrote:what you're talking about is called syncopation.

play with volume envelopes to try to get a plucking string sound. fast attack, slow release, no sustain.

Which can also work very nicely when using envelopes on the cutoff rather than the volume (try both)

It is actually quite simple. You pretty much summed up how to do it in your title. Play the stabs on the off beat. Imagine it in the simplest way possible. Kick stab snare stab kick stab snare stab. I used to use standard 3xosc with sine waves high enough up the keyboard, used to be quite nice for chilled tracks.

Might put together some samples in the sandbox so to speak, and arrange them as you would any other percussion sample.