How important do you people consider pulse to be? Lately I've working up speeds in a number of areas and couldn't figure out why some riffs I could play with ease, and others I couldn't no matter how much I went over them. Then I realized, it's a matter of pulse that allows a musician to play at decent speeds cleanly.

Example - This doesn't work:

|----------------------------------------
|----------------------------------------
|----------------------------------------
|-------------------------------------9-
|-------------9-10-12-10-9-10-12------
|-8-10-12------------------------------

This does:

|-------------------------------------------
|-------------------------------------------
|-------------------------------------------
|---------------------9-------------------9
|-----------9-10-12------12-10-9-10-12---
|-8-10-12----------------------------------
...........................................| here is the end of the pattern (3 groups of triplet 32nds or 16ths whatever)

Emphasize the beginning of each group or cluster of notes and actually arranging your riffs in groups (triplets, 4 16th, ... groups of 5 etc) so you CAN emphasize the beginning of each one will allow you to play so much faster, right?