Italo disco drum pattern

120 BPM · 50% swing · 16 steps · MM-RYTM

Italo disco (Giorgio Moroder, Klein + M.B.O., Kano) is the sound of early 1980s drum machines: a straight kick, a dry snare and bouncing octave bass lines.

The pattern

Italo disco drum pattern at 120 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)					9								9
Closed hat (CH)	7	5		7	7	5		7	7	5		7	7	5		7
Open hat (OH)			7				7				7				7
Clap (CP)					5								5
Low tom (TOM)														4
High tom (HT)															4

The sounds in MM-RYTM: kick BluePrint, snare 707, hats 808, clap 808.

Why it works

Kick on every beat, a dry snare and a soft clap on 2 and 4, sixteenth closed hats (7, 5, 0, 7), the open hat on the off-beats and a small tom fill at the end of the bar, low on step 14 and high on step 15. No swing (50%): the groove comes from the bass and the arpeggio, and chorus and delay give the 80s shine.

Two variations

Add an open hat on step 16 to lift the loop into the next bar.
Double the snare with the clap at full velocity for the chorus.

Program it on any drum machine

Set the tempo to 120 BPM and the swing to 50% (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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