Drums From Scratch

Here's a secret: the drum machines that built house, techno and hip-hop (the Roland TR-808 and TR-909) were synthesizers. No recordings, every kick, snare and hat was built from oscillators, noise and envelopes. And with what you now know, all three recipes are two sentences each:

  • Kick = a sine wave whose pitch falls fast (high → low in ~100 ms) with a snappy amp envelope. The pitch dive is the "boom".
  • Snare = band-passed noise (the rattling wires) layered with a quick tonal thump (the drum shell).
  • Hat = high-passed noise with a very short envelope. Short decay = closed hat, long = open.
Drum Lab · kick / snare / hat
48 Hz
Pitch
80 %
Sweep
450 ms
Decay
50 %
Body
220 ms
Decay
7.5 kHz
Bright
60 ms
Decay

Play with Z (kick), X (snare), C (hat). Long hat decay = open hi-hat. Kick with full sweep and long decay = 808-style boom.

Try this: Kick with Sweep and Decay maxed = the 808 boom that runs modern hip-hop. Snare with Body at 0 = a clap-like burst; Body at 100% = a punchy rock snare. Tap Z-X-C in a kick–hat–snare–hat loop and you're a drum machine.
Checkpoint
Play both kicks. Which one has the bigger pitch sweep?
Checkpoint
Play both. Which one is the open hi-hat?
Challenge · Match the kick

One hidden kick drum. How far does the pitch dive, and how long does the boom last?

50 %
Sweep
400 ms
Decay
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