Drum Programming Cheat Sheet PDF

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DRUM
PATTERN
CHEAT
SHEET

FREE E-BOOK

SUBAQUEOUSMUSIC.COM
Welcome,

This e-book is a collection of


drum patterns I made for some
jams. The real strange ones.
The kind of nights with a bunch
of electronic music were linked
up with laptops and making
strange music. Well, it was
mostly music.

In preparing for the jam


sessions, I wanted a quick
reference for drum beats that I
could build on my push to get
an idea started. Once I got the
basic rhythm I could start
editing it live and still keep a
solid groove as a foundation.

Out of those jams, this


resource was created.

For future resources like this,


check out

www.subaqueousmusic.com

Enjoy the beat making!

Written by Subaqueous
aka Isaac Cotec
Let's get started making beats!
For each drum pattern, I have broken down the beat into
six elements. Such as Hats, Toms, Snare, Kick, and so on.

For each of these elements, I have created two rows of 8


boxes. Making a total of 16 for each. The idea is that you
set the grid size of your MIDI device to 1/16th notes. This
means each sequence is only one bar long.

Remember these are stupid simple patterns just to get


you started. You can always expand from here. 

Below is an image of a House beat. You will notice the


BPM and Genre is at the top. After that, you have a
pattern for each element.
Doing this "In the Box"
You can also use these Drum Patterns to build the beat
directly in Ableton Live using the MIDI editor. Here is an
example of what the House Drum Pattern would look like
in Live.

Set your Grid Size to 1/16 and make the length of the


MIDI Clip 1 bar. Then draw in the notes per element, like
the image below. 

PRO TIP: You can also check how well you emulated
the House Drum Pattern by creating it with you MIDI
Step Sequencer and looking at what it looks like in
Live. If it looks the same as the above image, you did
it correctly. 

Some of the images also have a lighter blue and darker


blue. Lighter blue notes have a softer velocity. Some
MIDI devices, like push or hacked Launchpad, lets you
change the velocity of your notes.

Regular Lighter Very Light


What this looks like on Push
To use these Drum Patterns with Push, make sure you
have selected a MIDI track with a Drum Rack on it. 

Once it is loaded go to the Note mode. Once in this mode,


you will see the Drum Sequencer on Push. The last step is
to make sure you set the Grid Size to 1/16 for these
patterns. 

If you have any questions on how to do that, I suggest


looking the manual for Live. It is really well written and
helpful. Look at "29.3 Playing and Programming Beats"

Now that we are all set up, here is an example of what


three of the elements from the House Drum Pattern would
look like on the Push.

Open Hats

Closed Hats

Kick
Dubstep (70-75bpm)

Open Hats
(or crash)

Closed Hats

Cymbal

Snare

Kick

Sub Kick
Riddim (70-75bpm)

Open Hats
(or crash)

Closed Hats

Clap

Snare

Kick

Sub Kick
Old School
Hip Hop (85-95bpm)

Open Hats
(or crash)

Closed Hats

Cymbal

Snare

Kick

Sub Kick
Dirty South
Hip Hop (80-90 bpm)

Open Hats
(or crash)

Closed Hats

Clave

Snare

Kick

Sub Kick
Moombahton (85-110bpm)

Open Hats

Closed Hats

Cymbal

Snare

Kick

Sub Kick
House (120-130bpm)
Open Hats
(or cowbell)

Closed Hats

Toms

Snare

Kick

Sub Kick
Brit House(120-125bpm)

Open Hats

Closed Hats

Cymbal

Clap

Kick

Sub Kick
French House(120-128bpm)

Open Hats

Closed Hats

Shackers

Clap

Kick

Sub Kick
Chicago House(120-125bpm)

Open Hats

Closed Hats

Clap

Snare

Kick

Sub Kick
Dirty House(125-128bpm)

Open Hats

Closed Hats

Clap

Snare

Kick

Sub Kick
Trap (135-145bpm)

Open Hats
(or crash)

Closed Hats

Toms

Snare

Kick

Sub Kick
Trance(130-150bpm)

Open Hats

Closed Hats

Cymbal

Clap

Kick

Sub Kick
Drum & Bass(160-180bpm)

Open Hats
(or crash)

Closed Hats

Toms

Snare

Kick

Sub Kick
Thanks for checking out this e-
book on Drum Patterns. This
idea came out of hours of
jamming with friends, and I am
elated to share it with the wider
music community.

For future resources like this,


check out

www.subaqueousmusic.com

As the ancients say...

Party on!

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