Slowed Heavy Half-Time
Genre: Techno, Downtempo · Tempo: 118 BPM · Time signature: 4/4 · Length: 16 steps · Style: a slow, heavy half-time sound that blends dub, techno and dark minimal, built by pushing hardware effects to their limits and pulling the result back into something usable, with heavy bitcrushing and compression over a slowed, old-tape ambience
Open this pattern in the interactive Patchpad (with playback)
The pattern
| Instrument | Steps (1 = start of the bar) | Velocity | Timing and chance |
|---|
| kick | 1, 11 | 55-100 | step 11: early by about 12% of a step, plays 50% of the time |
| sub | 1 | 95 | on the grid, always plays |
| hat-closed | 5, 13 | 28-30 | step 5: early by about 17% of a step, plays 60% of the time; step 13: early by about 17% of a step, plays 55% of the time |
| snare | 9 | 85 | step 9: late by about 8% of a step |
| fx | 9, 15 | 40-45 | step 9: plays 80% of the time; step 15: plays 65% of the time |
Digitakt II
Tracks
- T1: kick
- T2: sub
- T3: snare
- T4: hat-closed
- T5: fx (noise or tape texture sample)
Digitone II
Tracks
- T1: kick (FM DRUM, long folded body)
- T2: sub (FM DRUM, long sine body)
- T3: snare (FM DRUM, noise-heavy)
- T4: hat-closed (FM DRUM, high noise)
- T5: fx (FM DRUM, long noise)
Syntakt
Tracks
- T9: kick (BD PLASTIC)
- T11: sub (SY RAW)
- T10: snare (SD HARD)
- T12: hat-closed (CH CLASSIC)
- T1: fx (SY BITS)
Tonverk
Tracks
- ST1: sub
- ST2: hat-closed
- T2: kick
- T3: snare
- T4: fx (noise or tape texture sample)
Notes
A slow, heavy half-time skeleton: kick on beat 1 and the main hit on beat 3 rather than a normal backbeat. Every element is pushed through distortion and bitcrushing toward its limit, then pulled back to something usable, with long dub-style delay and reverb for a slowed, old-tape ambience. An original pattern in that style, not a transcription of any specific track.
Patchpad is a free reference of drum patterns, synth patches and reminders, written for a selection of real hardware.