my question is how often do you use polyhythms?? and for what precise reason do you use them?? is it to create a more complex percusion pattern?
These days, I find it hard to not use them. This tunes doesn`t have any, which is a rarety.
I use them for a number of reasons. Firstly in a 4x4 - 16 - 32 - 64 environment, polyrhymic parts (both percussion AND some of my lead sounds in cases) takes away some of the predictability of the formula. They also provide a kind of never ending rolling effect that drives the tunes on. Hardfloor made a carreer out of the use of 303`s and polyrhythms.
They do have their downside, they make programming a little more complicated and it makes it harder for DJ`s to mix.
Personally I mainly use em cos I found myself falling into a formula, so I`m going through an intense period of experimentation, and polyrhythms are really interesting to play with and listen too.