Breakbeat drum pattern

A breakbeat drops the four-on-the-floor kick for a broken one, so the groove comes from where the kick lands between the snares. Here is a clean version at 130 BPM, ready to edit.

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BREAKBEAT130 BPM · SWING 10%
Kick 13
Snare 12
Closed HH 01
Open HH 05
Edit it in the drum machine →

These are real sounds from RAW POWER, 179 royalty-free house and tech house drums and loops. Hear them all ·

The basic breakbeat beat

Strip the pattern down to kick, snare and closed hat and you have the basic breakbeat beat: the part that makes it breakbeat before anything else is added. Start there, get the kick and bass sitting together, then bring in the rest. Press Basic beat above to hear it and download it as MIDI.

How the pattern is built

Kick 13
Kick on beat 1, then two hits around beat 3. Without a kick on 2 and 4, the beat breaks.
Snare 12
Snare on 2 and 4, plus a hit on the last sixteenth that tumbles into the next bar.
Closed HH 01
Hats on the eighths, holding the tempo together while the kick moves.
Open HH 05
Open hat on the "and" of 2 and 4, a breath before the snare.

Make it your own

  • Move the second kick from step 11 to step 10 for a heavier swing into beat 3.
  • Try 120 BPM for a nu-skool breaks feel, or 140 for something faster.
  • Add a tom on step 14 of every fourth bar as a fill.

Tempos for every genre: BPM by genre. Or let the beat generator write variations. All 20 patterns as MIDI in one zip: free drum MIDI patterns.

More drum patterns

Every sound in this pattern is from RAW POWER →179 royalty-free house and tech house drums: 25 kicks, 21 snares, 20 claps, 43 hi-hats, percussion and 16 loops. $29, instant download.

Or start with the free pack: 24 sounds from all three packs, and a 25% code for the full packs a few days later.

Questions

What is a breakbeat?

Originally the drum break of a funk or soul record, sampled and looped. Now it means any beat where the kick is broken up instead of landing on every beat.

What BPM is breakbeat?

Usually 120 to 140 BPM, often around 130.

How is breakbeat different from house drums?

House keeps the kick on every beat. A breakbeat moves the kick around the snares, which makes it feel more like a drummer playing a groove.

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