Boom Bap at 90 BPM: the dusty backbeat
This is the classic 90 BPM boom bap skeleton: a hard kick on beat 1 and again on the "and" of 3, with the snare answering hard on 2 and 4 — that kick-kick / snare-snare conversation is the "boom bap" itself. Everything is glued together by 24% swing, which pushes every off-beat 16th late, so the tight hats on the "e" and "a" of each beat lag behind the grid and drag the groove into a shuffle instead of a march. Listen underneath the backbeat for the ghost snares (velocity ~0.3) tucked just before beat 2 and just after the "and"-of-3 kick — they're barely audible on their own, but they're what makes the loop breathe and feel hand-played rather than programmed. Bar 2 varies the story: an extra soft kick pickup after the downbeat, a kick on the "and" of 4, and an open hat on the last off-beat that gets choked by the next closed hat, throwing you back into bar 1. Accent discipline matters as much as placement — downbeat hats at 0.8, off-beat hats at 0.62, ghosts at 0.28-0.38 — because a boom bap loop with flat velocities sounds like a drum machine, not a drummer.
Play it yourself
- Hit play, then mute the hats (pads 5 and 6) and listen to just kick + snare — that bare 1 / and-of-3 / 2 / 4 skeleton is the whole genre in four hits.
- Drag the swing slider from 0 up to 24 and back while it loops: at 0 it's stiff, at 24 the off-beat 16th hats lay back and the groove starts to shuffle. Push past 30 for a drunk Dilla lean.
- Play with the ghost snares: tap pad 3 lightly on the empty 16ths between the backbeats at velocity ~0.3, or nudge the existing ghosts louder until they stop whispering and start crowding the groove — that's the edge you want to stay just under.
The pattern above is already loaded and fully editable. Press Space to hear it, open EDIT to see every hit on the step grid, then drag steps to change velocity or nudge them off the grid. When you have made it yours, press SHARE to copy a link that rebuilds your version exactly.
More rhythms
- The Jungle Break: Syncopated Snares at 172172 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
Try another kit
- 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
- 808 drum machine100-130 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.