Daptone-Style Retro Soul drum pattern
A two-bar retro soul groove played dry and tight: plain eighth hats, a crisp and slightly late backbeat, a kick that answers on the and of 3 and one ghost pickup into the top. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 108 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Daptone-Style Retro Soul
Count it as: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a · two bars. The pattern is a 2-bar phrase in 4/4 (two-bar dry 16th-note retro soul pocket).
The Daptone-Style Retro Soul pattern, hit by hit
Each character is one step of the grid and each group is one beat. X is an accented hit, x a normal hit, o a quiet or ghost note and - a rest.
| Voice | Bar 1 | Bar 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Kick | X--- ---- X-x- ---- | X--- --x- X-x- ---- |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---- X--- | ---- X--- ---- X--- |
| Ghost snare | ---- ---- ---- ---- | ---- ---- ---- ---o |
| Closed hat | x-o- x-o- x-o- x-o- | x-o- x-o- x-o- x-o- |
Tempo and feel
Dry, tight and a little raw. Every note is short, as if the drums were stuffed with towels, and the backbeat snaps rather than booms. The default tempo is 108 BPM. It plays with 51% swing by default; move the Swing control toward 50% to hear it straight. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Daptone-Style Retro Soul
Play hats and kick very short, letting nothing ring. Add the backbeat as a crisp rimshot just behind the beat. Add the bar-two ghost pickup at whisper volume.
Variations to try next
Add a tambourine part on 2 and 4 if you have one. Play the snare on every beat for a Motown-style chorus. Drop the and-of-3 kick for a plainer verse.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights, Amy Winehouse - Rehab and Charles Bradley - The World (Is Going Up in Flames). A style study of the 2000s retro soul sound associated with the Daptone Records house band: a dry, tightly damped kit played with 60s simplicity. The tape-era sound itself is not modelled; this is a practice study, not a transcription.