Drum and bass drum patterns.

10 drum and bass patterns at 174 BPM. Play one, change any step, take it to your DAW as MIDI.

Drum and bass is fast and spacious at once: 174 BPM, but the snare only on two and four, so the bar feels like a brisk walk with a lot of air in it. The kick decides the character. One kick on the one and one on the and of three is the two-step, the frame most modern tracks use; the chopped breakbeat of the nineties is the same tempo with the hits rearranged.

Two-step. Kick on one, snare on two and four, the second kick on the and of three.

Hat
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Amen rhythm. The two-bar break rhythm that became a genre, on a sixteenth grid, our sounds, no audio.

Ride
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Rolling. Shaker sixteenths and a rim ghost under the two-step so the bar keeps moving.

Hat
Shaker
Rim
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Two bars, kick variation. The second bar moves the extra kick, which is the whole art of a dnb groove.

Open hat
Hat
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Liquid. Softer: ghost rims on the swung sixteenths, a ride on the offbeats, the kick kept simple.

Ride
Shaker
Rim
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Jungle, chopped. Snares shuffled across two bars the way a chopped break answers itself, at jungle tempo.

Crash
Ride
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Neuro, kick heavy. Three kicks a bar and a clap stacked on the snare: the harder end.

Open hat
Hat
Clap
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Half-time (drumstep). Snare on three only at full tempo: the 170 that feels like 85.

Hat
Rim
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Sparse intro. Kick on one and snare on two and four only, no hats: the first sixteen bars.

Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Jump-up. Kick on one and the a of two, snare on two and four with a clap, hats in sixteenths and a crash on one.

Crash
Hat
Clap
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

How a drum and bass beat is built

The kick

The snare on two and four

Hats in eighths

Then a variation: Amen rhythm

Snare on steps 5 and 13. Kick on step 1 and on step 11, the and of three, which is the two-step: the second kick lands just before the fourth-beat snare and gives it a run-up. Hats on every eighth, straight. That is the whole basic pattern, and the reason it works at 174 is that nothing lands on beat three, so the ear hears two long pulses instead of four fast ones. The rolling version keeps the kicks and snares and adds a shaker on every sixteenth and a rim on steps 8 and 16, so the gaps fill without the kick getting busier. The amen rhythm is a different animal: two bars, kicks on 1 and the and of 1, snares in a pattern that stumbles on purpose, a ride on every eighth. The grid gives you the rhythm with our sounds; there is no sample.

More drum patterns

The beat you want is in a song you’re playing.

DOT records anything your Mac plays, with its BPM, so you can loop the part and program it here.

DOT Audio Recorder

Free to try · $49 once · macOS 14.4 or later

Download DOT for Mac

Questions.

Is the amen break here a sample?

No. It is the rhythm, written step by step onto the grid and played with our own sounds, so there is nothing of the original recording in the page or in the MIDI you download.

What tempo is drum and bass?

170 to 176 BPM; the grid opens at 174. Jungle sits around 160 to 170 and liquid at the slower end; neurofunk and jump-up go to 176 and above.

Why does my dnb beat sound like fast house?

Because there is a kick on beat three. Take it off: the two-step has nothing on three, and that gap is what makes the tempo feel half as fast as it is.

More free tools

All free tools →

Drum sequencer

Program a beat on a 16-step grid.

Drum pad

16 pads on your keyboard, your own sounds too.

Metronome

A steady click, and a click track to download.