808 Drum Machine: Program Classic Electro and Boogie Beats in Your Browser
The 808 sound is built on one trick: the kick is not really a kick, it's a long tuned sine wave that rings out like a bass note, so the low end of the track and the drum part are the same instrument. Everything above it is short, dry and mechanical — a snappy snare with almost no tail, a three-burst handclap, a metallic cowbell and sizzling hi-hats sitting on a dead-straight 16th-note grid. Most 808 records live between 100 and 120 BPM, with zero swing, so the groove comes from where the kick lands against the backbeat rather than from any human push and pull.
How to program 808 drums
- Treat the kick as the bassline. Its long decay means two kicks close together will overlap and blur, so leave the boomy hits room to ring and use short, quieter kicks for the in-between 16ths. If you want the note to change, retune the kick rather than adding another instrument.
- Layer the clap on top of the snare for beats 2 and 4, but only on the strongest backbeat of the two bars — snare alone on beat 2, snare plus clap on beat 4 — and the pattern instantly sounds bigger without getting louder.
- Keep swing at 0 and get the movement from velocity instead: hi-hats loud on the downbeats, half as loud on the offbeats, and maracas at around 0.3 on every 16th in between. An open hat on the last offbeat of the bar is the classic way to pull the loop around.
Other styles
- Boom Bap drum machine88-94 BPM
- Trap drum machine130-150 BPM (half-time feel)
- Lo-Fi Hip Hop drum machine70-85 BPM
- House drum machine120-126 BPM
- Techno drum machine130-140 BPM
- Drum and Bass drum machine172-176 BPM
- Afro House drum machine120-124 BPM
- UK Garage drum machine130-135 BPM
- Funk drum machine100-110 BPM
Rhythm breakdowns
- The Jungle Break: Syncopated Snares at 172172 BPM
- Boom Bap at 90 BPM: the dusty backbeat90 BPM
- Dilla-style drunk swing87 BPM
- Four on the Floor124 BPM
- The hip hop skeleton: kick on 1, snare on 2 and 4, ghosts in the gaps90 BPM
- The Full House Groove: Four on the Floor, Offbeat Hats and a Rolling Shaker124 BPM
- The Dembow Riddim96 BPM
- Trap Hi-Hats: 8ths, 32nd Bursts and a Triplet Turnaround140 BPM
DRUMMY is inspired by classic 16-pad sampler and drum-machine workflows. It is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Akai Professional, Roland, or any other manufacturer.