House drum pattern

124 BPM · 58% swing · 16 steps · MM-RYTM

From Chicago to deep house (Larry Heard, Kerri Chandler): the swing of the MPC, a 909 kick and clap, open hats on the off-beats and congas.

The pattern

House drum pattern at 124 BPM, 16 steps. Each number is the velocity of the step, 9 the loudest and 3 a ghost note; an empty cell is a rest.

Voice	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Kick (BD)	9				9				9				9
Snare (SD)																3
Closed hat (CH)	5	4		6	5	4		6	5	4		6	5	4		6
Open hat (OH)			8				8				8				8
Clap (CP)					9								9
Low tom (TOM)								4						4
High tom (HT)				4								4

The sounds in MM-RYTM: kick BluePrint, snare Psy 02, hats 909, clap 909.

Why it works

Kick on every beat, the clap loud on 2 and 4, open hats on the off-beats and a swung shaker in the closed hat (5, 4, 0, 6). The toms play conga parts, low on steps 8 and 14, high on steps 4 and 12, and a ghost snare closes the bar on step 16. The swing is the key: 58%.

Two variations

Push the swing a little further for a deeper, lazier groove.
Add a closed hat on every step at a low velocity under the shaker, for a garage feel.

Program it on any drum machine

Set the tempo to 124 BPM and the swing to 58% (50% is straight).
Program one voice at a time from the grid, starting with the kick, then the snare and clap, then the hats.
Use the numbers as velocities: on a machine with only accents, accent the 8s and 9s and leave the 3s and 4s as soft notes.
Or skip all that: open the beat below in MM-RYTM, every step, sound and effect is already set.

Play it, download it

General MIDI drum notes: kick 36, snare 38, clap 39, closed hat 42, open hat 46, low tom 45, high tom 50, cymbal 49. One bar, swing included.

Change it, then press SHARE in the header of MM-STUDIO: you get a link to your own version.

From Maudite Machine

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