Techno drum pattern

Techno drums are straight, with no swing. Here they are at 130 BPM: a long, deep kick and closed hats on every sixteenth.

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TECHNO130 BPM · SWING 0%
Kick 21
Closed HH 11
Open HH 03
Clap 12
Perc 03

You hear the kick and clap from the grid with a loop from RAW POWER, Top Loop 4, 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 techno beat

Strip the pattern down to kick, clap and closed hat and you have the basic techno beat: the part that makes it 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 21
A long, deep kick on every beat. In techno the kick is often the loudest and lowest thing in the track.
Closed HH 11
Closed hats on all sixteen steps. Keep them quiet and short; they are texture, not a lead.
Open HH 03
Open hat on the offbeat for drive.
Clap 12
Clap on 2 and 4, lower in level than in house, so the kick stays in front.
Perc 03
A perc on the last sixteenth before beats 3 and 4, pulling the bar forward.

Make it your own

  • Take the clap out entirely for a darker, more hypnotic groove.
  • Push the tempo to 135 BPM for a harder, peak-time feel.
  • Close the filter slowly over 16 bars and open it again for the drop.

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 techno?

Most techno is between 125 and 140 BPM. Melodic techno often sits at 122 to 126, peak-time and hard techno at 135 and up.

Does techno use swing?

Mostly not. Techno drums are usually straight, and the groove comes from the sound and the levels of the hats and percussion. Some minimal and dub techno uses a little.

What kick works for techno?

A kick with a long, low tail that fills the space between beats, often with some distortion. Shorter, punchier kicks suit house and tech house better.

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