The Full House Groove: Four on the Floor, Offbeat Hats and a Rolling Shaker
This is a straight 124 BPM four-on-the-floor: the main kick lands on every beat (steps 0, 4, 8, 12 and again 16, 20, 24, 28), hardest on the "1" of each bar, while the clap sits on the backbeats — beats 2 and 4 — and is the loudest thing in the loop. Everything that makes it move sits between those kicks: the open hat plays every offbeat eighth (the "and" of 1, 2, 3 and 4) and is deliberately cut short by a closed hat one 16th later, which is what produces the classic "tss-t" pump; the sub answers the kick on those same offbeats so the low end alternates kick-bass-kick-bass instead of stacking. Underneath, the shaker runs continuous 16ths with a fixed accent shape — light on the downbeat, ghosted on the "e", accented on the "and", ghosted on the "a" — so the bar breathes even though the note grid never changes. The syncopated second kick on the "and" of beat 3 in both bars, plus the pickup kick on the very last 16th of bar 2, is the detail that stops the four-on-the-floor sounding like a metronome: it pulls you forward into the next bar. Swing is 0 on purpose — house gets its groove from velocity contrast and offbeat placement, not from late 16ths.
Play it yourself
- Press play, then hold the kick pad (pad 1) and the clap pad (pad 4) in your head first — kick on all four beats, clap on 2 and 4. That skeleton is the whole genre.
- Mute the shaker (pad 8) and listen to the open hat (pad 7) on its own: it enters on every offbeat and gets chopped by the closed hat (pad 5) a 16th later. Unmute the shaker and the bar suddenly fills in.
- To make it your own, move the syncopated second kick (pad 2, currently on step 11 and step 27) to the 'a' of beat 4 instead, or lift the last-16th pickup kick out entirely and hear how much less the loop pulls forward.
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
- 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 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.