Boom bap drum patterns: eight ways to hit 2 and 4, on a machine that plays them
Boom bap is one drum pattern - a hard kick on 1, a snare cracking on 2 and 4, swung 16ths between them - and thirty years of producers moving one hit at a time. This page is that pattern in eight of its settings, from the 90 BPM classic to an 80 BPM loop to the no-hats school, each a step grid you can read, a machine above that plays it, a MIDI file for FL Studio, Ableton or an MPC, and a PDF of all eight to print.
We counted every hit in the eight patterns on this page - 342 of them. All eight are on the same kit and the same skeleton, and the numbers show how little the skeleton moves: all eight put the loud snare on 2 and 4, the tempos span only 80 to 94 BPM, and swing runs from 14 to 30. What varies is the kick and the top: 58% of all kicks land off the quarter-note beat, on an "and" or an "a", 45% of snare-family hits are ghost notes under 0.45 velocity, and the hat count runs from 0 a bar (no hats) to 16 a bar (swung 16th hats). For contrast, the half-time trap pattern from the hip hop sheet has 3.5 kicks a bar, puts its loud snare on 3 only, and swings exactly 0. One caveat: these are our own programmings of each variation, not transcriptions of specific records, so the numbers describe boom bap as it is played here. The raw hits are in the MIDI files below and in the page's data file, so every figure can be checked.
- Classic 90 90
- Soul bounce 92
- Slow and heavy 86
- Kick stutter 93
- Swung 16th hats 94
- Slow 80 80
- No hats 88
- Shaker and conga 91
- Fill turnaround 92
How to read the grids
Each grid is two bars of 16ths, left to right, four lanes: kick, snare (including claps, rims and ghost notes), hats (closed, open, tips, shakers) and percussion, where the 808 also sits. A full cell is a loud hit, a lighter cell is medium, and a hollow cell is a quiet one - in the snare lane that is a ghost note, a snare played so quietly it is felt more than heard. A ringed cell is an open hat. 32nd-note and triplet rolls show in the 16th cell they start in. Press Load into the machine and the same pattern arrives in the drum machine at the top of the page, on the kit it was written for, already playing; open EDIT there to move any hit, and SHARE to send your version to someone.
1. Classic 90
The pattern the word means: kick on 1 and the "and" of 3, snare on 2 and 4, ghosts before the backbeat
Kick on 1 and on the "and" of 3, snare on 2 and 4 with a softer second snare layered under beat 4, and ghost snares whispering on the "a" before each backbeat. The hats are straight 8ths, louder on the beat, with an open hat on the "and" of 4 pulling the two bars round. Swing 24 pushes every off-beat 16th late so the loop drags like a sampled break instead of marching.
Try
- Mute everything but kick and snare. That is the whole style; the rest is decoration.
- Swing 24 here is 62% on an MPC (ours = (MPC% - 50) x 2). Try 16 for stiffer, 34 for looser.
- Turn the ghost notes up to 0.8 and hear why they have to be quiet.
2. Soul bounce
The second kick moves to the "and" of 2, and a hat tip on every "a" makes the swing audible
Same skeleton, but the second kick lands on the "and" of 2 as well as the "and" of 3, so the low end bounces towards the snare instead of away from it. A quiet hat tip sits on every "a" - the last 16th before each beat - which is where the swing lives, so at 28 you can hear the lean rather than just feel it. The ghost snares crowd the end of each bar, three of them in the last four 16ths.
Try
- Delete the kicks on the "and" of 2 and it is the classic again; that one hit is the bounce.
- Pull the swing back to 20 and the hat tips straighten out and stop reading as a shuffle.
- Move the hat tips from the "a"s to the "e"s and the pattern leans backwards instead of forwards.
3. Slow and heavy
Sparse, unswung, a rim under every snare and almost no ghosts: the menacing end of the 90s
Five kicks in two bars and the low kick doubled under beat 1 so it lands like a door. A rim click under every snare turns the backbeat into a crack rather than a thud, and there is one ghost note in the whole loop, on the last 16th. The hats are quieter than the drums they sit over and a low tom answers the end of each bar. Swing 14 is barely there: this style marches.
Try
- Bring the hats up to 0.85 and it loses its menace instantly; this pattern is a mix decision as much as a rhythm.
- Add ghost snares on the "a" of 1 and 3 and it turns into the classic, slowed down.
- Set swing to 0 and drop to 84 BPM: the same hits become a modern, Griselda-adjacent loop.
4. Kick stutter
The kick doubles itself on the "a" of 1 with a pickup in front of it: the East Coast hiccup
Beat 1 is followed by two more kicks - a soft one on the "and" and a firmer one on the "a" - so the first beat stutters before the snare cuts it off. Bar 2 does the same and adds a pickup kick on the "e" of 4. The snare is dead straight on 2 and 4, the ghosts sit on the last 16th before every backbeat, and a low tom ends the two bars where a fill would go.
Try
- Delete the kicks on the "a" of 1 and 3 and it is plain boom bap; put them back and it is New York.
- Turn the soft "and" kicks up to full and the stutter becomes a gallop - too much, but hear where the line is.
- Swap the low tom on the last step for a kick and the loop stops turning over.
5. Swung 16th hats
Hats in 16ths at three volumes, swung hard: the jazzy, busy end of boom bap
The kick and snare are the classic, with a pickup kick on the "a" of 2 in bar 1 and the "and" of 2 in bar 2. What changes is the top: hats on every 16th at three distinct levels - loud on the beat, medium on the "and", quiet on the "e" and "a" - and swing 30 drags the quiet ones so late they almost touch the next 8th. That is the jazzy shuffle, and it is timing plus velocity, not extra notes.
Try
- Set every hat to the same velocity and it turns into a drum machine demo; the three levels are the whole part.
- Drop the swing to 12 and the 16ths straighten into a break, closer to the sampled-drums sound.
- Mute the hats entirely and notice the kick and snare are almost the classic 90 pattern.
6. Slow 80
The same skeleton at 80 BPM, with hat tips on the "e"s so the slow bar still ticks
At 80 BPM a bar of 8th hats is three seconds long and starts to feel empty, so a quiet hat tip on every "e" fills the first half of each beat while the "a" stays open for the swing. The kick keeps 1 and the "and" of 3 and adds a soft pickup a 16th before each of them, and the ghost notes drop to one per bar, on the last 16th. The low kick sits under beat 1 so the slow downbeat has weight.
Try
- Delete the hat tips and hear how much space opens up at this tempo - and how quickly it starts to sag.
- Raise the tempo to 90 with the same hits and it is the classic with a busier hat; lower it to 72 and it is lo-fi.
- Move the ghost note from the last 16th to the "a" of 3 and the second half of the bar stops dragging.
7. No hats
Kick, snare, a rim and three ghosts, nothing on top: the loop-and-a-vocal school
There is no hi-hat. The kick lands on 1, the "and" of 2 and the "and" of 3 with the low kick doubled under beat 1, the snare on 2 and 4 with a rim under beat 4, and three ghost snares in two bars. That is the entire drum part. Everything a hat would normally do - keep time, fill the gaps - is left to whatever sample sits on top, which is the point of the style.
Try
- Add 8th hats at 0.5 and it becomes ordinary boom bap. Take them away again and listen to how much louder the ghosts sound.
- Drop the tempo to 82 and turn swing to 0: the drums stop swinging and the loop on top has to do it instead.
- Load a sample onto a pad, chop it, and play a chop on beats 1 and 3 - that is the missing half of this pattern.
8. Shaker and conga
The classic with a shaker on every off-16th and congas answering into each downbeat
The drums are the classic with the second kick pulled back to beat 3's "and" only. Around them a shaker plays every off-16th at two volumes, so the swing shows up as a lopsided shaker rather than a late hat, and a pair of congas answers the end of each bar - on the "e" and "a" of 4 - leading into the next downbeat. The hats are turned down to make room for it all.
Try
- Mute the shaker and the pattern is plain boom bap; the shaker is doing the hat's swing job for it.
- Move the congas from the end of the bar to the "and" of 2 and they stop leading and start commenting.
- Push swing to 34 and the shaker and hats separate into two feels - that split is where the neo-soul lurch comes from.
9. Fill turnaround
Bar 1 is the classic, bar 2 ends in a tom-conga-snare fill into a crash: the loop that knows it is a loop
The first six beats are the classic - kick on 1 and the "and" of 3, snare on 2 and 4, ghosts on the "a"s - with a crash on the first downbeat. Then the last three 16ths of bar 2 turn into a fill: a low tom, a conga and a short snare stepping up into the crash on the next 1, with the hats dropping out underneath so the fill is heard alone. A pickup kick on the "a" of 3 in bar 2 sets it up.
Try
- Delete the fill and add the hats back on the last two steps: it is the classic 90 again, with a crash.
- Move the fill to bar 1 and the loop turns over in the wrong place - hear why fills live at the end.
- Chain four patterns and put this one last: that is a song-mode boom bap arrangement in a single move.
All eight side by side
The same eight patterns as numbers, counted from their hits. "Kicks off the beat" is the share of kicks that land on an "and" or an "a" rather than on 1, 2, 3 or 4; "ghost share" is the share of snare-family hits below 0.45 velocity. The last row is the half-time trap pattern from the hip hop cheat sheet, measured the same way.
| Pattern | BPM | Swing | Kicks / bar | Kicks off the beat | Loud snare on | Ghost share | Hats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classic 90 | 90 | 24 | 4.5 | 56% | 2 and 4 | 54% | 16ths |
| Soul bounce | 92 | 28 | 4.5 | 56% | 2 and 4 | 60% | 8ths |
| Slow and heavy | 86 | 14 | 3.5 | 43% | 2 and 4 | 11% | 8ths |
| Kick stutter | 93 | 20 | 4.5 | 78% | 2 and 4 | 50% | 8ths |
| Swung 16th hats | 94 | 30 | 3.0 | 67% | 2 and 4 | 50% | 16ths |
| Slow 80 | 80 | 26 | 4.5 | 56% | 2 and 4 | 33% | 8ths |
| No hats | 88 | 16 | 4.0 | 50% | 2 and 4 | 33% | sparse |
| Shaker and conga | 91 | 22 | 2.5 | 60% | 2 and 4 | 50% | 16ths |
| Fill turnaround | 92 | 22 | 2.5 | 60% | 2 and 4 | 55% | 8ths |
| Half-time trap, for contrast | 140 | 0 | 3.5 | 71% | 3 | 20% | 16ths |
Read down the columns and the dialects separate on two numbers. Kicks off the beat runs from 43% to 78%, and the patterns with the most - the bounce, the stutter - are the ones people describe as having the most feel, because a kick on an "and" or an "a" is a kick that leans. Ghost share runs from 11% to 60%, and it tracks the era: the sampler-era patterns crowd the bar with quiet snares, the slow and heavy and no-hats loops barely use them. Trap, in the last row, keeps the tempo family and reverses every other column: snare on 3, no swing, and the low end handed to an 808 instead of a kick.
How to program a boom bap drum pattern from nothing
- Set the tempo between 86 and 94. Boom bap has a narrow window and 90 is the middle of it.
- Kick on beat 1 and on the "and" of 3. Snare on 2 and 4 at full velocity, and do not move the snare again - it is the one fixed point in the style.
- Hats on straight 8ths, 0.8 on the beat and 0.5 off it. They should be quieter than the snare.
- Swing 20-28. On this machine swing delays only the odd 16ths, the way an MPC does, so the kick and snare stay planted while everything between them leans late. MPC 62% is 24 here.
- Ghost snares at 0.25-0.4 on the "a" of 1 and the "a" of 3, the 16th before each backbeat. If you can hear them as separate hits they are too loud.
- An open hat on the "and" of 4, choked by the closed hat on the next 1. That is the turnaround.
- Now pick a dialect from the eight above: move the second kick, double the first, take the hats away, or end bar 2 with a fill. One change at a time - the style is the sum of small ones.
Frequently asked
What is a boom bap beat?
A hip hop drum pattern from the sampler era - roughly 1988 to 1998 in New York, and everywhere since - built on a hard kick ("boom") and a hard snare ("bap") with swung 16ths between them. The name is the sound: the kick on beat 1 and the "and" of 3, the snare on 2 and 4. Every pattern on this page is that skeleton, and the boom bap groove is it as a full four-part arrangement on its own kit.
What BPM is boom bap?
86-94 BPM for most of it, and 90 is the number most producers reach for. The patterns here run from 80 (the slow loop) to 94 (the swung 16ths), which is about as wide as the style gets before it turns into lo-fi below or breakbeat hip hop above. What BPM is boom bap? has the full range and what happens outside it.
Why is the snare on 2 and 4?
Because the drummers it was sampled from put it there. The backbeat - snare on beats 2 and 4 of a 4/4 bar - is the drum pattern of rhythm and blues, soul and funk from the 1950s on, and the breaks that early hip hop was built from (the Funky Drummer, the Amen, Impeach the President) are funk drummers playing it. Boom bap kept the backbeat when it moved from records to drum machines; trap was the first hip hop drum style to move the snare, to beat 3 only, and that is the biggest difference between the two.
What is the difference between boom bap and trap drums?
Load the last two rows of the table in turn and it is audible. Boom bap: snare on 2 and 4, swing 16-30, a short punchy kick, hats on 8ths. Trap: snare on 3 only, swing 0, an 808 that is the kick and the bassline at once, hats in 16ths and 32nds. They share a tempo family only on paper - trap is written at 140 and felt at 70, half of boom bap's 90.
How much swing should boom bap have?
20-28 on this machine, which is MPC 60-64%. Below 16 it stiffens towards a break; above 34 it lurches towards Dilla. On this machine swing delays only the odd 16th steps, so the backbeat never moves - which is exactly what an MPC does. To convert an MPC swing percentage, subtract 50 and double it: 62% is 24 here, 58% is 16, 67% is 34.
Can I use these boom bap patterns in FL Studio or an MPC?
Yes. Every pattern has a MIDI ↓ link: a General MIDI drum file on channel 10 at the pattern's tempo, with the swing written into the note timing, so the hits land in FL Studio, Ableton, Logic or an MPC where they land here. Drop it on a drum track, load your own kit, and the ghost notes and swing come with it. The PDF is all eight grids on printable pages, drawn from the same hits, for the wall or the notebook.
Where do the hi-hats go in boom bap?
Straight 8ths, quieter than the snare, with an open hat on the "and" of 4 - and that is negotiable. The swung 16ths pattern above puts them on every 16th at three volumes; the no-hats pattern leaves them out entirely and lets the sample on top keep time. The hi-hat cheat sheet has the hat lanes of eight genres side by side.
Are these transcriptions of real records?
No. They are our programmings of each dialect of boom bap, written for the kit on this site, and the numbers on this page count those programmings. The records named under each pattern are where the feel comes from, not what was copied.
More rhythms
- Hi-hat patterns: trap, drill, house, garage and more8 genres · cheat sheet
- Hip hop drum patterns: all eight, with MIDI and PDF78-140 BPM · cheat sheet
- The Jungle Break: Syncopated Snares at 172172 BPM
- Boom Bap at 90 BPM: the dusty backbeat90 BPM
- Dilla-style drunk swing87 BPM
- Drill Hi-Hats: Triplet Stutters, 32nd Flicks and Gaps140 BPM
- Four on the Floor124 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
- UK Garage 2-Step Drum Pattern: the Kick That Skips Beat 3133 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
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.