Dub Echo Pocket drum pattern
A two-bar dub pocket: kick and cross-stick on 3 with dotted-eighth echo repeats, offbeat hats with open barks, and a second bar with the hats dropped out of the mix. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 70 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Dub Echo Pocket
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 16th-note dub pocket with rim echoes).
The Dub Echo Pocket 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--- ---- |
| Cross-stick | -o-- ---- x--o --o- | -o-- ---- x--o --o- |
| Closed hat | --x- ---- --x- ---- | ---- ---- ---- ---- |
| Open hat | ---- --x- ---- --x- | ---- ---- ---- --x- |
| Pedal hat | o--- ---- o--- ---- | ---- ---- ---- ---- |
Tempo and feel
Wide and spacious. The echoes are the engineer, not you; play the drop on 3 and let the space around it ring. The default tempo is 70 BPM. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Dub Echo Pocket
Play kick and cross-stick together on beat 3 only. Add the bar-one hats: closed on the and of 1 and 3, open on the and of 2 and 4. Play bar two with only the drop and one open bark, and hear the echoes fill the gap.
Variations to try next
Mute the echo repeats and play them yourself on the rim. Drop the kick in bar two for a full rhythm drop-out. Add a kick on beat 1 for a heavier rockers mix.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include King Tubby one-drop dub mixes of the mid-70s. A practice study of 70s Kingston dub, where the engineer strips a one-drop rhythm to its bones and feeds it through tape delay: kick and cross-stick on beat 3, open-hat barks, and a second bar with the hats pulled out of the mix. The dotted-eighth tape echo on the cross-stick is written as quieter cross-stick repeats that no limb plays; the spring reverb and the rest of the desk moves are not reproduced. It is authored for practice, not transcribed.