Liquid Drum and Bass drum pattern
A two-bar liquid drum and bass two-step at 174 BPM: the kick on 1 and the and of 3, a snare on 2 and 4, lifted offbeat hats and a quiet 16th shaker. Press Play to hear it with a sampled drum kit at 174 BPM, change the tempo or swing, and follow every hit on the grid.
How to count the Liquid Drum and Bass
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 straight 16th-note two-step).
The Liquid Drum and Bass 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- ---- |
| Snare | ---- X--- ---- X--- | ---- X--- ---- X--- |
| Closed hat | o-x- o-x- o-x- o-x- | o-x- o-x- o-x- o--- |
| Open hat | ---- ---- ---- ---- | ---- ---- ---- --x- |
| Shaker | oooo oooo oooo oooo | oooo oooo oooo oooo |
Tempo and feel
Smooth and rolling. Two kicks and two snares are the whole skeleton; the hats and the shaker keep it gliding at speed. The default tempo is 174 BPM. Slow it down until every hit is controlled, then raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
How to practise the Liquid Drum and Bass
Play the kick on 1 and the and of 3 against the snare on 2 and 4 at half tempo. Add the eighth hats with the offbeats slightly louder. Add the shaker quietly, open the last hat of bar two, then raise the tempo.
Variations to try next
Move the hats to the ride for a smoother top. Leave the shaker out for a drier two-step. Add a quiet ghost snare on the a of 4 in bar two as a pickup.
Where to hear this feel
Records in this family include Liquid drum and bass from the late 1990s on. A practice study of the two-step drum and bass beat as liquid producers program it at 174 BPM: the kick on 1 and the and of 3, a snare on 2 and 4, closed hats on the eighths with the offbeats lifted and a quiet 16th shaker running underneath. It is the programmed two-step skeleton rather than a chopped break, so it stays straight, on the grid and at fixed levels. The kit approximates the programmed voices: the snare stands in for the layered break snare and the shaker for the programmed shaker loop, and the sub bass, pads and reverb are left out. The shaker layer and the open hat at the end of bar two are informed choices. It is authored for practice, not transcribed.