Fig. 3: Timing manipulations.
Schematic representation of the timing manipulations we used in the experiment to probe the effects of microtiming deviations on the swing feel. Importantly, all manipulations were done so as to keep the same swing ratio for the soloist (i.e., piano). Full lines represent exact quarter note positions (metronome beats). The dashed line shows the position of the offbeats corresponding to a chosen “optimal” swing-ratio, referred to as ropt in the upper-left frame. Black notes and gray notes denote timing positions of soloist and rhythm section, respectively, in the different manipulations. In the “quantized original” version (green background) underlying all further manipulations, the microtiming deviations of the soloist's original performance are suppressed and the notes are aligned with the grid. In the “both delayed” version (red background), all notes of the soloist are delayed by 85 ticks. Finally, in the “downbeat delayed” version (brown background), additionally, the offbeats of the rhythm section are synchronized with the offbeats of the soloist. This procedure creates downbeat delays of 85 ticks for the soloist without changing the soloist's swing ratio, but increases the swing ratio of the rhythm section.
