Creating a House Beat in orDrumbox-v2

Step 1: Tempo & Drumkit Selection

1. Set the Tempo: Click the BPM control in the top toolbar. Adjust the slider to a value between 124 and 128 BPM, the usual tempo range for House music.
2. Select a Drumkit: Click the Kit dropdown selector in the toolbar. Choose an electronic kit; House music traditionally uses 909-style drum sounds.

Step 2: Programming the Core House Groove

The groove is programmed on the step sequencer grid of the Pattern Panel. Step numbers below count from 1, with 4 steps per beat (16 steps = one bar).

• The Kick Drum: Click empty cells on steps 1, 5, 9, and 13 to get the "four-on-the-floor" kick pattern typical of House.
• The Clap: Place notes on steps 5 and 13, on top of the kicks, to mark the backbeat.
• The Open Hi-Hat: Place notes on the off-beats: steps 3, 7, 11, and 15. This places the hi-hat between the kicks.
• Add Swing: Click the track name of your hi-hat to open the Track Editor. Find the Loop / Pattern sub-panel and slide the Swing parameter up to roughly 0.20 or 0.30. This delays odd-numbered steps slightly, so the groove sounds less mechanical.

Step 3: Designing the Synth Bass & Setting Loop Points

Instead of a sample, the bass uses a sound from the built-in synthesizer, and its track gets its own loop length.

1. Sound Source

Click on an empty track name to open its Track Editor. Scroll to the Sound sub-panel and change the Instr dropdown type from a sample assignment to a synth-generated sound.

2. Synthesis Setup

Click the Edit button to bring up the full-screen Synth Editor overlay:

• VCO1 (Oscillator 1): Set the wave to sawtooth or square (waveforms with many harmonics). Drop the octave setting down to -1 or -2.
• VCO2 (Oscillator 2): Add a small amount of gain, select a sine wave, and adjust the detune slider between +5 and +15 cents to thicken the sound.
• Filter: Set the type to lowpass. Move the cutoff frequency (freq) down toward 400 Hz to remove the high frequencies.
• Envelope (ADSR): For short notes, set attack to 0, decay to 0.12 s, and sustain to a low level so notes decay rapidly instead of droning. Click OK to save.

3. Setting Track Loop Points

Back in the Track Editor, go to the Loop / Pattern sub-panel. The drum tracks span one bar (16 steps); change this track's Loop Point to 8, then write an 8-step bass line on the grid. The bass track loops back to step 1 after step 8, so the half-bar bass line plays twice for each drum bar.

Step 4: Adding Variations Using Triggers

To make the beat change from one loop to the next, trigger conditions can be set on individual notes in the Note Editor.

1. Ghost Kick (Probability)

Place an extra kick drum note on step 16 right before the loop turnaround. Click this cell to open the Note Editor. Under the Triggers category, lower the Prob (probability) setting from 1.0 to 0.40. This kick now has a 40% chance of playing on each loop.

2. Every N Loops (Every & Pos)

Add a clap on step 11. Open its Note Editor, and find the Triggers panel. Set Every to 2 and Pos to 1.

The note plays when:

With loops counted from 0, this clap is skipped on the first loop, plays on the second, is skipped on the third, plays on the fourth, and so on.

Step 5: LFO Modulation for Stereo Movement

• Auto-Pan for Hi-Hats: Open the hi-hat's Track Editor. Click the Pan row to expand the LFO Sub-Panel and activate the green LED. Set the LFO Freq to 2. The LFO rate is expressed in cycles per 4 beats, so the sine wave moves the hi-hats from one side of the stereo field to the other and back twice per bar.
• Filter Sweeps for Bass: Open the Bass Track Editor and click the filter Freq row. Turn on the LFO and assign low Min and high Max target thresholds. The bass filter cutoff then moves between these two values.

Step 6: Mixing & Final Export

1. Click the Output button on the toolbar to check the master volume, the low-cut filter (35 Hz by default, removes low-frequency rumble) and the master compressor.
2. Click the Tools button in the toolbar.
3. Set Loops to 4 or 8, then click Export WAV to render the pattern as a WAV file.