Dilla-style drunk swing
This is a two-bar loop at 87 BPM with the swing pushed to 40 — every off-grid 16th (the "e" and the "a") lands almost halfway to the next step, so the whole pattern lopes instead of marching. The backbeats are the anchors: full-velocity snare on beat 2 and beat 4 of both bars, with a clap doubling beat 2 to fatten it. Everything else is deliberately shoved off the grid — the kick answers on the "a" of beat 2 in bar 1 and the "a" of beat 1 in bar 2, and a deep second kick sits on the "a" of beat 1, so the low end always arrives a hair after you expect it. The drag comes from the ghosts: a 0.32 ghost snare on the "a" of beat 3 in bar 2 leans into the beat-4 backbeat, and a lone clap on the "e" of beat 4 trails behind it like the drummer's hand landed a beat too heavy and too late. Listen to the soft hats on the odd steps against the hard hats on the even ones — that uneven long-short-long-short lurch is the entire Dilla feel in one layer.
Play it yourself
- Hit play, then mute the soft hat pad (pad 6) — the groove instantly straightens out. Unmute it and the drunk lope comes back: that pad is where the swing lives.
- Play along on the snare pad (pad 3) on beats 2 and 4 while the loop runs, then try landing deliberately late. Your late hits should feel right, not wrong — that's the target feel.
- To push it further, drag the kick on step 7 to step 11, or nudge the beat-4 snare in bar 2 from step 28 to step 29 and drop its velocity to 0.8. Raise swing toward 45 for a sleepier stumble, lower it to 30 to tighten it up.
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
- Boom Bap at 90 BPM: the dusty backbeat90 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.