Groove
Swing and feel for a track or a clip, picked from its G button or groove menu.
A groove is a timing and velocity pattern that plays over the written notes. The project keeps a palette of them; each instrument track picks one with its G button, and a clip can override its track. The notes in the piano roll stay straight, the groove is applied on the way to the instrument, and export matches playback by construction. Toggle the metronome in the transport to hear the feel against even time.
When to use it
Swing a straight sixteenth hi-hat. Push a bass line slightly ahead of the drums or lay a keyboard part back behind them. Weight beats two and four. Give a quantized take some life without editing every note. Switch a bridge from sixteenth to eighth swing without a second track.
Controls
The G button
Every instrument track header has a G button, the common path. Its menu lists None and the project’s grooves, then Add a groove with the templates in three submenus: Eighth-note swing and Sixteenth-note swing from 54 to 75 percent, and Other styles (Laid back, Pushed, Heavy 2 and 4, Shuffle drag). Picking a template adds it to the project and assigns it in one step; picking the same template for another track shares it, so one Amount moves both. Groove library… opens the library. The button lights when a groove is in effect.
Clip menus
The groove icon in the piano roll header, and Groove in a MIDI clip’s right-click menu, follow the clip. While its track has no groove, the menu says so and offers the project’s grooves and the templates for the track, since the clip follows its track and the rest of the part should swing with it. Once the track has one, the menu is the clip’s own: Follow track, Off, any project groove, or a new one from the templates. The icon is dim with no groove in effect, lit when the clip follows its track, and labelled when the clip overrides; such a clip also shows a small badge after its name. Setting a track to None leaves clip overrides alone.
The library
The drum icon at the right end of the sequencer ruler opens the project’s grooves for tuning. Each row shows its name, a strip of its timing and velocity shape, an Amount slider heard live while you drag, which tracks and clips use it, and buttons to assign it to the selected track, duplicate it or delete it. Add groove offers the same templates; an empty library shows them directly. Switching a track to another groove keeps the earlier one here; only Delete removes a groove.
How it falls on the beat
Patterns are sixteen or eight steps covering four quarter notes and restart at every bar line, so they sit the same way in 3/4 and 7/4. Swing percentages run up to 75, where the offbeat eighth lands a full sixteenth late. Timing shifts are bounded to a step and never swap the order of two notes on the same pitch.
Deleting a groove
Deleting clears every track and clip that pointed at it; the tooltip names them first. Undo restores the groove with all its references.
Tips
- Assign a groove to the hats first and listen, then to the kick and bass. A groove on everything can feel less swung than one on the parts that carry it.
- Lower Amount rather than switching to a milder template when a feel is right but too strong.
- Gluing MIDI clips waits until the groove in effect is at zero amount, so the merge cannot change what you hear.
See also
Changes
- ImprovedPick a groove right where you are · 8 October 2026
A track's G button and a clip's groove menu now list the swing and feel templates themselves, so the first groove is one pick away instead of a trip to the library. Picking one adds it to the project and assigns it in one undoable step; while a track has no groove, picking one from a clip's menu gives it to the track, so every clip of the part swings together. Grooves you switch away from stay listed, one pick away, and Groove library… in the G menu opens the library to fine-tune them.