Lo-fi drum pattern

Lo-fi drums are slow, swung and soft at the edges. This pattern at 85 BPM and 35% swing leaves room for chords and a sample, and every part sits a little behind the beat.

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LO-FI85 BPM · SWING 35%
Kick 07
Snare 05
Closed HH 12
Shaker 02
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 lo-fi beat

Strip the pattern down to kick, snare and closed hat and you have the basic lo-fi beat: the part that makes it lo-fi 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 07
A soft, round kick on beat 1 and two hits around beat 3. Few kicks keep it relaxed.
Snare 05
Snare on 2 and 4. In a mix it often sits low and a little dull.
Closed HH 12
Hats on the eighths. The heavy swing makes them lope.
Shaker 02
A shaker on the offbeats, quiet, for texture.

Make it your own

  • Push the swing to 45% for an even lazier feel.
  • Roll the filter down to around 4 kHz in the drum machine for the muffled lo-fi sound.
  • Add a little room to put the drums in a space.

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 BPM is lo-fi hip hop?

Usually 70 to 90 BPM.

Why do lo-fi drums sound swung?

The off-beat sixteenths are played late, a feel that comes from samplers like the MPC and from drummers playing behind the beat. 30% to 45% swing gets you there.

How do you make drums sound lo-fi?

Slow tempo, heavy swing, and less top end: a low-pass filter, a bit of saturation or tape noise, and softer hits.

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