origineel http://www.ableton.com/_common/downloads/UserManual4-EN.pdf
9.1.3 Groove
The Clip Groove chooser selects the type of groove used for the clip. “Swing 8,” for example, applies
an 8th-note groove.
The Control Bar’s Global
Groove Control.
The Global Groove control defines the amount of the groove for every clip in the Live Set.
So, how does it work? Imagine a simple one-bar MIDI clip that has a time signature of 4/4. Our
MIDI clip is made up of 8th notes– eight of them– that play either on or between each of the four
beats. With a Clip Groove setting of Swing 8, the timing of our one-bar clip becomes a bit like
a rubber-band that is pinned down at each beat but flexible in between. The 8th notes that fall
between beats can shift slightly forward. With a Global Groove setting of 50, for example, the notes
will wait until 2/3 of the way through the beat to play, where an 8th-note triplet would normally
fall.
16th- and 32nd-note swing works similarly, but on a smaller scale: Every other note shifts forward,
toward the nearest 16th- or 32nd-note triplet position.
Returning to our rubber-band analogy, we can see that Swing 8 can actually affect more than just 8th
notes. Actually, any notes that do not lie directly on a beat will be affected when the rubber-band
is stretched– including 16th and 32nd notes. By the same token, Swing 16 (where our rubber-band
is anchored to positions just an 8th note apart) can affect 32nd notes.
Groove can be applied to both MIDI clips and audio clips. Applying groove to audio clips does require
that the Warp switch be activated and a Warp Mode (see Adjusting for Good Stretching Quality) other
than Re-Pitch selected. If an audio clip is in Beats Mode, the Transients setting must be greater
than or equal to the Clip Groove chooser’s swing setting (e.g., with a Transients setting of 1/16,
Swing 8 and Swing 16 can be used, but not Swing 32).
Because of this feature’s dependency on note timing, we recommend that you quantize (see Arranging
and Quantizing Notes) MIDI clips prior to applying groove– provided you want predictable
results. For audio clips, any swing contained within the original sample can be removed by appropriately
setting Warp Markers (see Manipulating Grooves) prior to applying the “artificial” swing of
the Groove setting.