Reggaeton beat maker: everything is the dembow
Reggaeton runs on one rhythm, and it came from Jamaica. The dembow - boom, ch-boom-chick - was built by Steely & Clevie in dancehall and carried worldwide by Shabba Ranks in 1990; it has been the backbone of reggaeton for thirty years, and almost every record is that pattern with different things stacked on top. This page opens with it playing at 96 BPM on a kit built for it.
The pattern, counted out
Kick on 1, then a snare or rim on the "a" of 1 and again on the "&" of 2 - that lopsided three-against-four is the whole thing. Hats or shakers ride the eighths over the top. Once it is in your ear you will not stop hearing it, and once it is on the grid you can move a single hit and change the feel of the whole record.
Where the variation lives
Not in the dembow. Reggaeton varies by what sits around it: an open hat ringing across the backbeat, a rim answering the snare, percussion dropping out for a bar before the hook. Mute the percussion lane for one pass and bring it back - that is most reggaeton arrangement in a single move.
Take it apart step by step
The dembow breakdown walks through the pattern hit by hit if you would rather read it than reverse-engineer it.
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Wondering about tempo? What BPM is reggaeton? - 88-100 BPM, and why.
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.