Big Beat Breaks
Genre: Breakbeat / Jungle · Tempo: 135 BPM · Time signature: 4/4 · Length: 16 steps · Style: chunky, sample-driven big beat breakbeat production
Open this pattern in the interactive Patchpad (with playback)
The pattern
| Instrument | Steps (1 = start of the bar) | Velocity | Timing and chance |
|---|
| kick | 1, 10 | 100-120 | step 10: early by about 8% of a step, plays 75% of the time |
| crash | 1 | 90 | step 1: plays 40% of the time |
| hat-closed | 3, 7, 11, 15 | 50 | step 3: plays 80% of the time; step 7: plays 80% of the time; step 11: plays 80% of the time; step 15: plays 80% of the time |
| snare | 5, 13 | 115-118 | on the grid, always plays |
| perc1 | 16 | 60 | step 16: late by about 4% of a step, plays 55% of the time |
Digitakt II
Tracks
- T1: kick
- T2: crash
- T3: hat-closed
- T4: snare
- T5: perc1
Settings
- Step 1 (crash, T2): TRIG PARAMETERS PROB locked to 40% for an occasional, dramatic downbeat hit — classic big-beat theatricality without triggering on literally every bar
- Kick (T1) and snare (T4): FX page OVER locked high (~90-100) for a pushed, slightly overdriven, in-your-face transient — big beat is defined by chunky, loud drum sounds, not subtlety
- Step 10 (kick, T1): TRIG PARAMETERS VEL locked to 100 with TIME locked to -2 for the syncopated pre-beat-3 kick hit
Digitone II
Tracks
- T1: kick (ALGO 8, FM click-into-boom, driven)
- T2: crash (high-FDBK FM noise, long ring)
- T3: hat-closed (high-FDBK FM noise)
- T4: snare (high-FDBK FM noise, pushed)
- T5: perc1 (bright pitched FM stab)
Settings
- Step 1 (crash, T2): TRIG page 1 COND locked to 40% for an occasional, dramatic downbeat hit — classic big-beat theatricality without triggering on literally every bar; SYN page 1 FDBK 110 with FLTR page 1 TYPE toward HP (~110) and AMP page REL 100 for a long, bright ring
- Kick (T1) and snare (T4): SYN page 1 ALGO 8, RATIO C 0.30 on the kick with SYN page 2 Operator A ATK 0, DEC 10, LEV 120 for a hard transient; FX page OVER locked high (~100, near the top of its range) on both tracks for a pushed, loud, in-your-face low end and a bright, cutting crack on the snare (SYN page 1 FDBK 120) — big beat is defined by chunky, overdriven drum sounds, not subtlety
- Step 10 (kick, T1): AMP page DEC nudged to 45 (down from the base 50) with FX page OVER held at 100 — a slightly tighter, still-driven kick on this syncopated pre-beat-3 hit; its early placement comes from the step's own -2 microTiming value, which Digitone II's TRIG page has no separate on-device field to duplicate
- Step 16 (perc1, T5): SYN page 1 RATIO A 4.20, FDBK 30 for a bright, pitched, slightly inharmonic stab; FLTR page 1 TYPE HP (~100); TRIG page 1 COND locked to 55% — suggesting a vinyl-scratch/vocal-stab accent, characteristic of the genre's sample-collage approach
Syntakt
Tracks
- T9: kick (BD Sharp)
- T10: snare (SD Hard)
- T12: hat-closed (CH Classic)
- T1: perc1 (SY Raw)
- crash: NOT ASSIGNABLE — see parameterLocks; Syntakt has only one Analog Cymbal voice (T12) and it's already used by hat-closed
Settings
- Hat-closed and crash share Syntakt's single Analog Cymbal voice (T12) — hat-closed (T12, CH Classic) is assigned the track since it carries the steady groove pulse across the bar (steps 3, 7, 11, 15); the occasional downbeat crash (step 1, probability 40%) can't be voiced on the same unit — run it from a second Syntakt, a sampled layer, or accept the pattern without it
- Kick (T9, BD Sharp): SYN page OVER locked high (~95) for the chunky, driven, sample-chopped character big beat kicks are known for
- Step 10 (kick, T9): TRIG PARAMETERS VEL locked to 100 with TIME locked to -2 for the syncopated pre-beat-3 hit
- Snare (T10, SD Hard): FX page OVER locked high (~90) for a hard-hitting, cutting crack
- Step 16 (perc1, T1, SY Raw): SYN page TUNE p-locked high (~100) with TRIG PARAMETERS PROB locked to 55%, for a bright, pitched stab suggesting a vinyl-scratch/vocal-stab accent — characteristic of the genre's sample-collage approach
Notes
A loud, chunky big-beat pattern in the Chemical Brothers/Fatboy Slim mold: a syncopated kick, hard-hitting snare, and an occasional dramatic crash on the downbeat, built for big, sample-driven productions rather than subtlety. An original pattern, not a transcription.
Patchpad is a free reference of drum patterns and synth patches written for real hardware: Digitakt II, Digitone II, Syntakt, Novation Summit, Arturia MiniFreak, Dreadbox Typhon and ASM Hydrasynth Desktop.