patterns by era

chicago 4×4 909 floor under a moog acid-bass riff in A minor. tape on for warmth, delay off — keep the 303 dry like the original.

the foundation — chicago 4×4 909 only, no bass, no chords. learn to sit the kick at 122 first. plate on for the room.

909 4×4 at 130 with a moog string-stab figure walking i-VI-III-VII in C minor. juan atkins / model 500 / underground resistance dna. plate on for the warehouse.

half-time pocket at 140 (feels like 70). kick on 1+3, snare on 3 only, hi-hat 16ths with a triplet roll. moog 808-sub slides root → 5. tape on for cohesion. this is the atlanta template.

140bpm 16th-note pentatonic lead through the C64 SID chip. fast, repetitive, in-your-face — Rob Hubbard / Martin Galway video-game-soundtrack DNA. no FX by default — the SID's own character is the texture.

80bpm electric piano arpeggio walking i-VI-III-VII in C minor + a bell stab on the top of every bar. Whitney / Quincy Jones / patch-11 territory — the sound of every TV theme from 1984 to 1991. tape on for warmth, plate on for the room.

100bpm 8th-note hypnotic sequence through the modular pulse-pad program in C minor. Klaus Schulze / Tangerine Dream / late-70s Berlin school DNA. delay + plate on by default — the FX are half the genre.

909 only at 160bpm. kick stutter (1, 1.25, 2, 3.75) IS the song. claps half-time on the and-of-3/4. no bass — footwork needs the floor empty so the dancers can move. drive on for the punch.

Afrika Bambaataa's 1982 template — syncopated 808 kick (1, 1.75, 2.5, 3.5), clap on 2/4, cowbell on every 16th-note offbeat, closed hat on 8ths. The track that invented electro by stacking Kraftwerk over a TR-808. Drive on for punch.

the foundational hip-hop pocket through the SP-1200's bit-crusher. kick laid back, snare on 2/4. tape on for the grit.

Run-DMC 1983 template — Oberheim DMX drums alone at 96bpm. Kick on 1 and 3 (laid back), snare on 2 and 4 (cracking with 8-bit aliasing), closed hat on every 8th, NOTHING ELSE. The first hip-hop record made without a live drummer. Drive on for the punch — Run-DMC records were tracked dry but mixed bright.

Cabaret Voltaire 1983 template — TR-606 drums alone at 130bpm. Driving kicks on EVERY beat (mechanical four-on-the-floor, no swing), tight snares on 2/4, metallic hat on 8ths, cymbal washes on the 1 of every 2 bars. Drive + delay on for the proto-industrial Sheffield warehouse sound.

112bpm 16th-note arpeggio in A minor over a 909 four-on-the-floor. The arp walks A → C → E → G → A → E → G → C across the bar. tape on for cohesion. swap moog→hookeclav or hookelead via the override panel to hear the actual grandmother play it.

76bpm. sparse 909 (kick 1, snare 3) + sustained moog sub on 1 of each bar. delay carries the song — that's the whole lesson. delay + plate on by default. drive optional for that ratty bbd character.

78bpm dub pocket with the moog grandmother on sub-bass duty. 909 kick on 1 + snare on 3, hat lift on the and-of-4. delay + plate on so the snare blooms into the next bar. swap moog→hookesub via the override panel to hear nick's actual analog grandmother on the bass.

Prince 1984 template — Linn LM-1 drums alone at 109bpm. Kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, single hi-hat on every 8th, NOTHING ELSE. The original record famously had NO BASS — just drums + synth. The lesson is what you leave OUT. Plate on for the warehouse room sound; never delay (Prince records were dry, not dub).

moog-only bass pattern walking root-5-b7-root in Bb minor — bernie worrell's expressive monosynth phrasing. add drive to taste.

Marvin Gaye 1982 template — soft 808 kicks on 1 and 3, claps on 2/4, cymbal swell on the 1 of every bar, sparse offbeat hat. The 808 R&B ballad blueprint — every quiet storm record from 1983 onward learned from this beat. Plate on for the room.

A Guy Called Gerald 1988 UK acid house template — TR-707 4-on-the-floor at 122bpm + Moog acid bass in A minor. Brighter pop-machine kick + cowbell ping on every offbeat + claps on 2/4. Tape on for warmth, plate on for the rave room.