Nu disco drum pattern

Disco gave dance music the four-on-the-floor kick and the offbeat open hat. Nu disco keeps both and adds a snare on 2 and 4 and a little swing, here at 118 BPM.

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NU DISCO118 BPM · SWING 12%
Kick 10
Snare 04
Open HH 03
Closed HH 02
Shaker 01

You hear the kick and snare from the grid with a loop from RAW POWER, Live hats, 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 nu disco beat

Strip the pattern down to kick, snare and closed hat and you have the basic nu disco beat: the part that makes it nu disco 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
Four on the floor, the beat disco made famous.
Snare 04
A snare on 2 and 4 instead of a clap, closer to a live drummer.
Open HH 03
The disco offbeat open hat, between every kick.
Closed HH 02
Closed hats on the sixteenths in between. With swing, they give the bounce.
Shaker 01
A shaker on the eighths, quiet, for a played feel.

Make it your own

  • Use the fill bar for a tom fill, like a drummer would.
  • Raise the swing to 20% for a funkier groove.
  • Turn the room up a little for a warmer, more live sound.

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 nu disco?

Usually 110 to 124 BPM, with many tracks around 115 to 120.

Did disco invent four on the floor?

Disco is where the steady kick on every beat became the standard of dance music, together with the offbeat open hat. House took both straight from disco records.

Snare or clap in nu disco?

Both, but a snare on 2 and 4 sounds closer to the live drums of the original disco records.

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