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Contents
Hip Hop Drum Patterns: Introduction 3
What’s Inside? 4
Install: Standalone MPC & Akai Force 6
Loading Patterns (Standalone MPC/Force) 10
Install: MPC Software/MPC Beats App 18
Pattern Mappings 27
Adapting Third Party Kits 41
Creating Your Own Custom Kits 45
Tips & Tricks 47
Further Resources 56
Copyright & License 57
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Hip Hop Drum Patterns: Introduction
• Hip Hop Drum Patterns contains over 330 hip hop grooves in MPC MIDI
pattern format created from real drummer performances and packed with
natural feel and groove.
• Patterns each come with up to 4 additional variations and cover a range of
different feels including straight, swung, straight/swung mix, laidback, ahead &
behind the beat and ‘drunken’ styles for all types of hip hop.
• Multiple mappings ensure compatibility with all common MPC Drum kits ‘out
of the box’ including Akai factory kits, the internal DrumSynth & our own
range of ‘Pad Pimps’ kits such as MPC Drummer and Dirty Drummer. Universal
mappings ensure all patterns can support any other custom kit.
• This expansion is compatible with all modern MPCs, the Akai Force, the MPC
Software and the MPC Beats App.
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What’s Inside?
This expansion contains 332 MIDI drum patterns in MPC pattern format. There’s
100 core grooves provided and each groove comes with between 2-4 additional
variations so you can easily add some subtle spice and variety to the drums in your
compositions.
Each pattern is a 2 bar long drum performance, perfectly captured as MIDI events
which can loaded to an MPC track (or to a clip in the Force) and then paired with
any drum kit, giving you huge advantages over working with audio loops:
• change tempo and groove with no degradation in sound and no limits
• overdub extra drums
• easily edit and manipulate using grid or list edit, pad mutes, automation etc.
• experiment with different drum kits in real time until you find the exact sound
and feel required for your beat
The patterns are provided in a number of different ‘mappings’ to make them
suitable for all common drum kit layouts, with versions specifically optimised for our
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own Dirty Drummer and MPC Drummer series, mappings for the internal
DrumSynth plugin, universal mappings which are compatible with our Underground
Crates expansion, most Akai factory kits, commercial Akai expansions and even a
‘GM’ mapping version suitable for any external drum machine that adheres to
‘general midi’ standards.
Please see the ‘Mappings’ section later in this guide for more details on selecting
the most suitable mappings for your needs.
All patterns have an audio preview ‘baked in’ so you can listen to the grooves before
loading into your project. Simply select grooves in the MPC expansion browser,
listen to the preview and load to a ‘drum’ track in your project.
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Install: Standalone MPC & Akai Force
Note: You can view the most up-to-date expansion installation instructions here:
https://mpc-samples.com/article/standalone-mpc-force-expansion-installation
After downloading the expansion, extract the zip file contents to your computer.
Enter the ‘Standalone MPC-Akai Force’ folder and inside you’ll see a sub folder ‘Hip
Hop Drum Patterns’ – this is the folder we’re going to transfer to your MPC/Force.
Expansions must be installed to either an SD card, a USB drive or, if you have one,
an internal SATA disk.
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The first step is to mount this ‘MPC disk’ on your computer. If you use an SD card or
USB disk, you can just eject the disk from your MPC/Force and physically insert it
into your computer’s SD card reader or USB port.
Alternatively, connect your MPC or Force via USB to your computer and go to MENU
and hit the ‘MPC chip’ icon at the top of the screen (this is the 'Laptop' icon in the
Force).
Now select CONTROLLER MODE ('COMPUTER MODE' in the Force).
Whichever connection method you choose, your MPC disk should now appear as a
removable drive in your computer’s file manager (e.g. Finder or File Explorer). Click
on the drive to open its file system:
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If it doesn’t already exist, create a folder called ‘Expansions’ in the root of your disk.
Now copy the ‘Hip Hop Drum Patterns’ standalone expansion folder inside this
‘Expansions’ folder.
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All done! If you had physically transferred the MPC disk to your computer you
should now eject the disk from your computer and put the disk back in your MPC.
Alternatively, if you used USB transfer then go back to MENU and select the
computer icon to return to standalone mode - don’t forget to eject/unmount the
MPC from your computer first, this avoids any potential data loss.
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Loading Patterns (Standalone MPC/Force)
Go to ‘MENU > BROWSER > Expansions’ and tap on the ‘Hip Hop Drum Patterns’
thumbnail. On the right side, select the MIDI filter:
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Decide which pattern mapping is best for the intended drum kit (for guidance, see
the ‘Pattern Mappings’ chapter later) and double tap the corresponding mapping
folder to enter it:
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Single tap a pattern to hear a preview (requires ‘AUDITION >AUTO’). Please note
that all pattern audio previews are pre-recorded and not ‘live’ previews of the kit
you may have currently selected in your project.
Patterns are named by groove number (001 to 100) and by variation (Main, Var 01,
Var 02 etc). If you wish to quickly view only the ‘main’ grooves, simply enter the
phrase ‘main’ in the ‘Search Directory’ filter:
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You can now use the data wheel to move down the list and automatically preview
each groove. To load a selected pattern, press LOAD (or on most MPCs, press down
on the data wheel). The pattern will be loaded to the first ‘unused’ track in your
current sequence (it does not matter which track is selected – if there’s an unused
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track before it, the MIDI is loaded to that other track instead). You can view the
loaded MIDI events in GRID VIEW:
Please note that there is no on-screen indication that a pattern has been loaded –
continually pressing load will simply load that same pattern to multiple tracks!
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Go to MAIN and make sure the track containing the loaded pattern is set to the
correct track type for your kit. For sampled kits, this is normally a DRUM type track.
Now assign any drum kit to this track and hit PLAY START to hear it.
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If assigning a DrumSynth Multi patch, set the track type to PLUGIN and configure it
to use DrumSynth Multi and select a suitable preset:
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You can now edit the drum pattern to your exact needs using standard MPC/Force
sequences techniques, such as overdubbing more events in real time using
OVERDUB & PLAY START, or editing events via GRID EDIT, LIST VIEW or the STEP
SEQUENCER. Please refer to the ‘Tweaking’ chapter for some handy tips and tricks,
but for a more complete guide to sequencing in the MPC, check out my MPC Bible:
https://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php/268/mpc-bible/
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Install: MPC Software/MPC Beats App
Note: View the most up-to-date MPC Software expansion install instructions here:
https://mpc-samples.com/article/install-mpc-software-expansions-guide
Locate the ‘Hip Hop Drum Patterns Installer.XPN’ file and drag & drop it directly
into the MPC Software/MPC Beats UI from your computer’s File Explorer/Finder:
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Please note that an XPN file cannot be installed by double clicking from your
computer’s file explorer.
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After dragging the XPN into the software UI you will see the following:
Select ‘Import’ and once installed, open the Expansion Browser (‘X’ on your
keyboard) and click on the ‘Hip Hop Drum Patterns’ thumbnail to view:
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Expand the ‘Patterns’ group to reveal the available mapping groups:
Choose the mapping most suitable for the drum kit you wish to use with your
patterns and expand that mapping group (see the ‘Pattern Mappings’ chapter for
full guidance):
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Each core groove is labelled ‘Main’, while the variations are labelled ‘Var 0x’.
Single click any pattern to hear an audio preview of the groove - this requires
‘Autoplay’ enabled:
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Please note: the pattern’s audio preview is pre-recorded and is not a real time
preview of the kit currently loaded to your current sequencer track.
Double click or drag a pattern into the grid to load it into your project. The MPC will
load it to the first ‘unused’ track in your current sequence.
For pairing with a sample-based drum kit, make sure the track is a ‘DRUM’ type
track and assign your drum kit to the track:
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If assigning a DrumSynth Multi patch, set the track type to PLUGIN and configure it
to use DrumSynth Multi:
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Pattern Mappings
When making MIDI patterns for MPC drum kits it’s important that the MIDI events
within the patterns trigger the correct drum sample in the assigned drum kit. For
example, a kick drum MIDI event in the pattern must trigger the kick drum pad in
the assigned kit.
To achieve this we need to know which MIDI notes are assigned to each drum sound
in your MPC drum kit. Unfortunately MPC Kits do not use ‘standardised’ MIDI note
assignments, so the kick in one kit might be triggered by MIDI note 36, but in
another it might be triggered by MIDI note 40. It just depends on how the kit was
originally built.
To ensure a wide range of compatibility with most common MPC kits, all the
patterns in this expansion have been provided with a number of different
‘mappings’. Each pattern mapping is tailored to a specific ‘known’ kit layout,
including ones made for ranges of kits from our own site (e.g. Dirty Drummer, MPC
Drummer), right through to the most common third party kit layouts (e.g. Akai
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factory kits and Drumsynth), as well as mappings to use when working with your
own custom drum kits.
Please be aware that while our third party mappings do work well with the stated
third party kits we cannot guarantee full ‘out of the box’ compatibility with any
kits other than our own as there are too many variables to allow for.
‘Dirty Drummer’ Mapping
These mappings are optimised specifically for our Dirty Drummer series of kits:
https://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php/309/dirty-drummer-complete/
They take advantage of the finger drumming layout and unique articulations found
in these kits, including snare rolls, ghost notes, closed hat variations, cross sticks and
cymbals. They assume the standard Dirty Drummer layout of the following
articulations:
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These patterns will work ‘out of the box’ with any Dirty Drummer kit – for the best
results make sure you are running the latest versions of these kits (simply re-
download from the links in your file bank).
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‘MPC Drummer’ Mapping
These mappings have been optimised specifically for our ‘MPC Drummer’ range of
multisampled acoustic drum kits (e.g. The Downbeat Kit, Pro Studio Kit etc):
https://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php/296/mpc-drummer-acoustic-drum-
kit-bundle/
They assume the following articulations, as used in all MPC Drummer kits
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These will work with both the ‘cycle’ and ‘velocity switching’ versions of the kits,
experiment to see which type sounds best for your needs.
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‘DrumSynth’ Mapping
These mappings have been tested with the free DrumSynth Multi factory presets
(ideally the 2.11 updated presets that now support mute groups, but they will also
work with Drumsynth on older MPC versions).
They will also work with any user/third party Drumsynth preset as long as the kick,
snare, closed hat and open hat are assigned on pad A01 to A04 respectively. We
sometimes also utilise the cymbal on pad A08, and the clap on A05.
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‘Chromatic C1’ (Universal Mapping)
These mappings work well with most modern Akai Factory kits (the ones found pre-
loaded in more recent MPC hardware releases, i.e. MPC One or newer) and the Akai
Force factory kits. These also suitable for our other ‘Pad Pimps’ kits such as 808
Evolution and Underground Crates:
https://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php/315/the-underground-crates/
All these kits use an underlying ‘chromatic C1’ midi note mapping, and require that
the kit itself has a kick, snare, closed hat and open hat assigned to pads A01 to A04
respectively:
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In our testing the majority of modern Akai factory kits (and most of the kits in their
commercial releases) work well with these mappings ‘out of the box’, while a small
minority may need minor tweaking (see later in this guide).
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Chromatic C1 mappings are usually the best mappings to use with your own custom
drum kits and later in this guide we’ll show you how to quickly make your own
‘Chromatic C1’ kits.
‘Classic MPC’ Mapping
Older Akai factory kits (e.g. the Vault and Vault 2 from the MPC X, MPC Live, MPC
Renaissance etc) , legacy MPC kits, and custom kits made in the MPC before MPC
2.11 will typically use a ‘classic mpc’ underlying midi note map, and in these
instances you should try using the classic mpc patterns.
These mappings assume a kick, snare, closed hat and open hat on pads A01 to A04
respectively, but remember these use different underlying MIDI note assignments
compared to Chromatic C1.
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‘General MIDI’ Mapping
The patterns here assume a kit that has been set up to use General MIDI drum
mapping, which may often be found on hardware drum machines.
These patterns assume the kick, snare, closed hat and open hat are assigned to MIDI
notes 36, 38, 42, 46 respectively.
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Pattern Mapping Summary
Kit Recommended Mapping
Dirty Drummer Dirty Drummer
60s Funk Kit MPC Drummer
Raw 70s Kit MPC Drummer
Downbeat Kit MPC Drummer
Pro Studio Kit MPC Drummer
Underground Crates Chromatic C1
808 Evolution Chromatic C1
DrumSynth Multi DrumSynth
Modern MPC Factory Kits Chromatic C1
Akai Force Factory Chromatic C1
The Vault/Vault 2 Factory Kits Classic MPC
Legacy MPC Kits Classic MPC
Other/Custom Chromatic C1 or Classic MPC
GM hardware General MIDI
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Adapting Third Party Kits
It’s very easy to adapt any kit that doesn’t initially work ‘out of the box’. First make
sure your drums are arranged as follows:
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For advice on re-arranging the pads in an existing kit, check out my tutorial here:
https://mpc-tutor.com/mpc-workflow-rearrange-pads-finger-drumming-kits/
Now pick a suitable pattern mapping. Modern MPC kits and any custom kit
originally created in MPC 2.11+ are likely to be using the ‘Chromatic C1’ underlying
MIDI note mapping, but if you find the Chromatic C1 patterns are not playing the
correct drums with your kit, try the ‘Classic MPC’ versions instead.
Alternatively, you can quickly ‘remap’ any kit into the more modern ‘Chromatic C1’
mapping. With the kit assigned to the current track in MAIN, hit the pencil icon on
the PROGRAM row and select ‘EDIT PAD NOTE MAP’:
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Just hit the CHROMATIC C1 button and the kit is instantly converted to Chromatic
C1 MIDI mapping. Now with kick, snare, closed hat and open hat on A01-A04
respectively, this kit will work great with the patterns in the ‘Chromatic C1’ folder.
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Save the new ‘Chromatic C1’ version of your kit as part of your project, or re-save it
separately, via ‘MENU > SAVE > Drum Program’
Is Your Third Party Kit Missing Drum Articulations?
A common problem with third party kits is that simply don’t have all the required
drum articulations – i.e. kick, snare, closed hat and open hat.
If your kit doesn’t have an open hat, you could assign a second closed hat to pad
A04 (the pattern will still work fine). This could be a second closed hat variation (if
you have one) or just duplicate the hat used on A03 (maybe with a slightly different
tuning).
Also remember that you can of course use completely different sounds, for example
a clap instead of the snare, shakers or tambourines instead of hi hats and so on.
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Creating Your Own Custom Kits
Inside the ‘Chromatic C1’ folder you’ll find a program file called ‘Chromatic C1 Kit
Template. XPM’ – select the ‘program’ filter to see this more easily.
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This is a blank drum program that can be used to build your own custom kits from
scratch and this will work perfectly with the patterns that use the ‘Chromatic C1’
mappings. Please note that this template contains no actual samples.
After loading the blank kit, simply assign your own preferred kick sample to A01,
snare to A02, closed hat to A03 and open hat (or second closed hat) to A04. All hat
mutings are pre-configured, and pads are coloured for quick identification of drum
type (red = kick, blue=snare, green = hats).
Configure your kit parameters and FX, give it a new name and save it, either as part
of your current project, or separately via ‘MENU > SAVE > Drum Program’
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Tips & Tricks
Tweaking the Mix
Every kit is a little different and has its own unique characteristics and foibles, so
after matching a pattern with a kit remember you will probably still need to tweak
the ‘mix’ to suit your exact requirements. You can do this is PROGRAM EDIT or the
PAD MIXER. It might just be a case of small adjustments to pad levels and panning,
changes to individual pad FX, EQ, or even changing the FX inserted across the entire
kit itself.
Exploding Drum Tracks
MIDI Drum patterns contain all drum articulations on the same track. If you prefer
to have each drum instrument on its own unique track, you can ‘explode’ the drum
track into its individual components (e.g. kick track, snare track, etc)
In the touchscreen, this is achieved via ‘MAIN > Track row pencil > EXPLODE’.
In the MPC Software/MPC Beats, this is found in ‘Edit > Track > Explode’.
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Copying Pattern Data To Other Tracks/Sequences
Remember that the MPC will always load MIDI patterns to the first available
‘unused’ track in the currently selected sequence. So if you have the unused track 3
selected, but track 1 is also unused, the pattern is going to be loaded to track 1, not
track 3.
If you wish to move a pattern to a different location any time after loading it, you
can use two different methods:
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‘MAIN > track pencil > COPY TRACK’ – use this to copy the entire track over any
other track in the current sequence (it will copy everything, including the track
name, ‘type’ and all other configuration data). For example, the following will copy
track 2 to track 3:
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Remember this method will leave the ‘source’ track untouched - to delete the
source track make sure it’s selected, then go to ‘MAIN > track pencil > CLEAR
TRACK’.
Another method for moving the events of a track is to use ‘MAIN > sequence pencil
> COPY > EVENTS’.
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This can be used to copy either a selection, or all the events in a track to any
destination track within any sequence in your current project. In the above example
we’re copying all the events of track 2, sequence 1 (‘Intro’) to track 1, sequence 2
(‘Chorus’).
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This method only copies events; track configuration itself is not copied over so make
sure your destination track is configured with the correct track type and kit.
Changing Groove/Feel
You can change the entire groove and feel of your pattern a number of ways. To
apply a more rigid quantize template, use the ‘Timing Correct’ screen – tap on ‘TC’
at the top of the screen in MAIN:
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Make sure ‘GLOBAL TIMING CORRECT’ is ‘ON’ and set the preferred TIME DIVISION
(e.g. 1/16, 1/8 etc).
Use the ‘EVENTS’ option to determine which events will be affected. The default is
‘all’ events, but you can target only selected events, or a range of events.
You can use the SWING parameter to change the overall swing of the beat (i.e. set
to anything greater than 50, the higher the value, the more swing will be added).
Hit DO IT to apply. Use the ‘UNDO’ button if you don’t like the results.
You can also use ‘Humanize’ to change groove. From MAIN, hit the ‘track’ pencil
icon and select HUMANIZE:
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‘Humanize Time’ can be used with low ‘AMOUNT’ and ‘EAGERNESS’ values and to
make the beat a bit more ‘sloppy’, but can also be used to create more radical
changes to the feel – for example, apply negative ‘eagerness’ to the snare to create
an ‘ahead of the beat’ feel (to target specific events, select them in grid edit first,
then check the ‘Input Filter’ to ‘Only apply to selected events’).
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Hit APPLY to apply the humanize settings (this leaves the humanize window in place
so you can continue tweaking). Or hit DO IT to apply and return to MAIN.
Additionally, you can of course manually edit the events in a track in GRID EDIT to
adapt any of the patterns to the exact groove you need, such as moving events (via
NUDGE and TRANSPOSE), adding new events, deleting events and changing velocity
values.
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Further Resources
If you need help learning how to use your MPC, check out MPC-Tutor’s range of
MPC tutorial books and courses at:
https://www.mpc-samples.com/section.php/8/0/mpc-tutorials-courses/
‘Hip Hop Drum Patterns’ is part of our growing range of MPC and Force expansions
– check out our entire range here, with loads of acoustic keys, pianos, drum kits,
bass, synths & much, much more:
https://www.mpc-samples.com/section.php/78/0/mpc-expansions/
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Copyright & License
‘Hip Hop Drum Patterns’, published by MPC-Samples.com, 2022.
All recordings, MPC program files, MIDI patterns & audio previews by Pad Pimps. Copyright ©
2022. All rights reserved. User guide by MPC-Samples.com. Copyright © 2022. All rights
reserved.
License
MPC-Samples.com (‘The Publisher’) grants You a royalty free, non-exclusive, non-transferable,
non-sublicenseable, worldwide License to use Hip Hop Drum Patterns (‘The Product’) to create
Musical Compositions for You and for third party projects, such as songs, albums, soundtracks,
video and computer games as well as for use in public performances and media presentations.
All other rights in and to The Product, including, without limitation, all copyright and other
intellectual property rights relating to The Product are fully retained by the Publisher. Under
no circumstances can The Product, or modified versions of The Product, be re-distributed, re-
sold, sub-licensed, or used to form any part of a commercial sample library. THE SOUNDS ARE
PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT REPRESENTATION, WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND,
EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED
REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE PUBLISHER DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE
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SOUNDS WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY,
PERFORMANCE AND USE OF THE SOUNDS IS WITH YOU.
This License may be terminated without notice by The Publisher if at any time You fail to
comply with any of its terms. Upon termination, You must immediately cease using The Sounds,
delete all copies and archives of The Sounds and if requested, confirm to the Publisher in
writing that You have complied with these requirements.
If You are unsure if this License covers Your intended use, please contact the Publisher for
clarification; [email protected].
MPC-Samples.com is a trading name of Beat Box Digital LTD, a company registered in England &
Wales, no. 06810062
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