EDM, trance and hardstyle drum patterns.

10 EDM, trance and hardstyle patterns at 128 BPM. Play one, change any step, take it to your DAW as MIDI.

Festival electronic music is four on the floor with a different hat, clap and bass under it for each style. Big room stacks a clap on two and four and opens the hat between the kicks; trance rolls sixteenth hats under a snare; hardstyle puts a bass hit on every offbeat so the kick and bass alternate; future bass drops to half-time; synthwave slows to 100 with a gated snare; electro syncopates the kick. The builds and drops that structure a track are patterns too, and two of them are here.

Big room. Four on the floor, clap on two and four, open hat offbeats, crash on one.

Crash
Open hat
Hat
Clap
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Trance. At 138, kick on every beat, snare on two and four, rolling sixteenth hats, open hat on the offbeats.

Open hat
Hat
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Hardstyle. At 150, kick on every beat with the 808 on the offbeats as the reverse bass, clap on two and four.

Hat
Clap
808
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Future bass. Half-time at 150: snare on three with a clap, kicks on one and the and of two, hats that skip.

Hat
Clap
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Synthwave. At 100, kick on one and the and of two, a big snare on two and four, hats in eighths.

Hat
Clap
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Electro. Kick on one, the and of two and the and of three, clap on two and four, rim sixteenths.

Hat
Rim
Clap
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Snare build, two bars. Snare eighths in bar one, sixteenths in bar two, into the drop's crash.

Crash
Open hat
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Drop, kick and clap. Only the kick and the clap for the first bar of a drop, so the bass has the room.

Clap
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Uplifting trance, two bars. Bar two rolls the snare in sixteenths over the last two beats and lands the crash.

Crash
Open hat
Hat
Snare
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

Juke, 160. Chicago at 160: kicks in a 3-3-2, a clap on three, toms in rolling sixteenths.

Hat
Tom
Clap
Kick

Drop a sound on any row to play it there.

Open in the drum sequencer →

How an EDM, trance and hardstyle beat is built

Four on the floor

The clap on two and four

Hats in eighths, the open hat and the crash

Then a variation: Trance

Big room: kicks on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13, clap on 5 and 13, open hat on 3, 7, 11 and 15, crash on one, 128 BPM. Trance at 138 swaps the clap for a snare and fills the hats to sixteenths with the open hat kept on the offbeats. Hardstyle at 150 keeps the four kicks and puts the 808 row on the offbeats as the reverse bass, with the clap on two and four. Future bass goes half-time at 150: snare and clap on step 9, kicks on one and the and of two, hats in a skipping x-xx shape. Synthwave at 100 is kick on one and the and of two with a big snare and clap on two and four. Electro at 128 has kicks on 1, 7 and 11 with a clap and rim sixteenths. The two-bar build is snare eighths then sixteenths into the drop's crash, and the sparse drop is only kick and clap for a bar.

More drum patterns

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

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Questions.

What tempo is EDM?

It depends on the style: big room and electro at 126 to 130, trance at 136 to 142, hardstyle at 150 to 160, future bass at 140 to 160 in half-time, synthwave at 85 to 110. The grid opens at 128 and each pattern carries its own tempo.

What is a reverse bass?

Hardstyle's bass note placed on the offbeat so it alternates with the kick: kick, bass, kick, bass. On the grid the 808 row plays the offbeats; in a DAW the bass sound is shaped to swell into the next kick.

How do I build into a drop?

Snare eighths for a bar, sixteenths for the next, open hats rising, then a bar of only kick and clap when the drop lands, so the bass has nothing in its way. The last two patterns on this page are that pair.

More free tools

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Metronome

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