Minimal techno drum pattern

Minimal techno does a lot with very little: a few short, dry sounds, placed so that small changes are easy to hear. 128 BPM, light swing.

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MINIMAL TECHNO128 BPM · SWING 10%
Kick 10
Clap 02
Closed HH 02
Perc 03
Shaker 01

You hear the kick and clap from the grid with a loop from RAW POWER, Top Loop 2, which carries the hats. The faded rows are there to program yourself.

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 ·

Most of the sounds in this pattern are in our free tech house drum kit.

The basic minimal techno beat

Strip the pattern down to kick, clap and closed hat and you have the basic minimal techno beat: the part that makes it minimal techno 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 10
A short, punchy kick on every beat.
Clap 02
Clap on 2 and 4. A rimshot or a snap works as well.
Closed HH 02
A closed hat on the offbeat instead of an open one, to keep it tight and dry.
Perc 03
Small clicks around the beat. These are where minimal techno gets its detail.
Shaker 01
A quiet shaker on the sixteenths between the hats.

Make it your own

  • Move one perc hit a step every eight bars. In minimal, small changes are the arrangement.
  • Mute the clap for 16 bars, then bring it back.
  • Raise the swing to 20% for a looser, more rolling feel.

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 minimal techno?

Usually 124 to 130 BPM.

What makes minimal techno minimal?

Few sounds, mostly short and dry, and changes that happen slowly over a long time. The groove comes from where the small percussion sits, not from many layers.

Which sounds work for minimal techno?

Short kicks, rimshots, clicks, small percussion and closed hats. Long reverbs and big claps are used sparingly.

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