The Second Line groove
The rolling, heavily shuffled New Orleans street-parade beat: marching bass drum, buzzed wire snare and a tambourine wide open on the backbeat.
What makes it feel this way
Second line is the parade rhythm of New Orleans brass bands, played on a marching bass drum and a wire snare while the horns walk out in front. The bass drum never just marks the downbeats: it rolls on a shuffled 3-3-2 tresillo, and the two-bar phrase resolves with the "big four", a heavy accent on beat 4 of the second bar that everything else leans toward. The snare answers with displaced accents and a constant fog of buzzed press-roll ghosts sitting on the last triplet of each beat, which is exactly where the shuffle lives. The core of this kit is modal: a struck marching bass drum with real shell air, a wire-rattling snare, two tuned toms, a hand-struck rim click, and the open tambourine, ride and crash all built from irrational metal partials. Analogue voices are kept for colour only, on the deep boom drum that lands the big four, the buzzed press roll, the tight hat, the washboard, the two tuba notes and the horn stab. Listen for the hole the drums leave on beat 3 of the second bar, and for the way the washboard keeps scraping straight sixteenths right through the stripped section, so the parade never actually stops walking.
What BPM is second line?
The second line groove on this page runs at 92 BPM, swing 48%, over 2 bars. Change the tempo in the transport if you want it faster or slower - the pattern keeps its feel because swing and velocity travel with it.
It is loaded and playing
This page loads the groove as a full four-part arrangement - a main groove, a variation, a stripped-back section and a fill - chained together, on a kit built only for this rhythm. Press Space to hear it, open EDIT to see every hit on the step grid, and change anything you like. SHARE copies a link that rebuilds your version.
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BAP Studio 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.
Made by Max Berggren.