Reggae Drum Pattern

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chizzbeats

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As some of you know the basic beat pattern for Reggaton is 3-3-2. Does anyone know what the basic pattern for reggae is? I have been experimenting with reggae and I can't seem to get an authentic reggae, dancehall track going. Does anyone have any tips that might help?
 
Thanks,

Looks like its the same drum pattern as reggaeton. Trying to figure what the main difference. I guess Reggaeton has a lot more intrumentation going on than reggae.
 
Do you mean Reggae as in Roots Rockers or Dancehall?

For Dancehall you can refer to the other thread. What makes it a bit easier with (later) Dancehall beats is that they're usually made with drum machine/sequencer.

Old skool reggae is a quite different thing. It's usually much slower, with a more relaxed and 'human' feel, less machine beat and best played with 'real' instruments. Just for starters, if you take a very simple 16 step pattern for reggae you would get something like this:

BPM 60-80

HhHhHhHOHhHhHhHh
K---K-------K---
----R-------R---
--C---C---C---C-

H = hihat with accent
h = hihat
O = open hihat
K = kick
R = rimshot or snare
C = chops

There's a lot of subtle variations going on in the hihats, especially in velocity and open/half open. You can also experiment with a slight shuffle on the beat. Or a faster straight 8th feel like in Bob Marley's 'could you be loved'.

Anyway THE thing in Reggae are the chops and a nice deep rolling bass line.

easy
B#
 
Actually interested in both but mainly Dancehall. I hear you on the chops, I dont play a guitar and it seems like a challenge to get those chops right in a midi environment. Well I appreciate the input, it was a great help. I am headed back to the drawing board.
 
chizzbeats said:
Actually interested in both but mainly Dancehall. I hear you on the chops, I dont play a guitar and it seems like a challenge to get those chops right in a midi environment.
Click to expand...


Chops can be easy in MIDI (quantize both on or off), it is all about the eighths

1e AND a2e AND a3e AND a4e AND a1e...

Rubba Dub Dub





Real Rock Riddims do not have to be the 2 and 4 upbeat riddims, they can simply roll.
 
bow down,

Stranjer just broke down what would have been a 13 page thread full of nonsene.

Lock it up, and sticky this **** for 2 weeks.

time to make some old school regaae scores.
 
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