Different electronic genres use characteristic swing percentages that define their feel

Swing is not applied uniformly across genres. Techno uses little or no swing; mechanical precision is the aesthetic goal. House uses light swing (52-56%) to add human feel while maintaining the steady pulse; deep house leans toward more swing than tech house. Lo-fi and hip-hop use medium to heavy swing (55-60%), producing the signature laziness. DnB relies on syncopated kick/snare placement rather than global swing for its groove. Trap uses minimal swing on the main pattern but applies its own timing variations to hi-hat rolls. The exact value is found by A/B comparison against a reference track.

Examples

House reference: set swing to 53% and A/B against a reference track. For lo-fi: start at 57% and adjust. For techno: leave at 50% (straight).

Assessment

Match five genres to their approximate swing range: techno, house, lo-fi/hip-hop, DnB, trap. Explain why DnB’s groove comes from a different mechanism than swing.