Lo-fi Drum Pattern — Free MIDI & Breakdown

Lo-fi hip-hop slows boom bap down, swings it hard, and leaves the timing deliberately loose — a reaction against grid-perfect production, with the imperfection treated as the point. The pattern on this page is 4 voices on a 16-step grid at 82 BPM — swung 16ths — a 65:35 long-short split, close to triplet swing — and the tempo, length and humanisation are yours to change before you download it as General MIDI.

The lo-fi pattern, step by step

What each drum is doing

Tempo and feel

Lo-fi is normally played between 70 and 90 BPM. This pattern defaults to 82 BPM and the tool will write it anywhere from 60 to 200. The feel is swung 16ths — a 65:35 long-short split, close to triplet swing, meaning each pair of 16ths is split 65:35 rather than evenly.

How it works

Each genre comes with a curated groove — kick, snare or clap, hats, and percussion — programmed on a 16-step grid at the genre's natural tempo. The pattern is written using the General MIDI drum map on channel 10, so it triggers the right sounds in any GM-compatible drum plugin, sampler, or hardware module. Swung genres like hip-hop and lo-fi include their characteristic shuffle, and the humanize option adds subtle velocity variation so the groove breathes. Press play preview to hear two bars of the pattern before downloading. This page arrives preset to Lo-fi, whose groove defaults to 82 BPM — inside the 70–90 BPM pocket the genre lives in — though the slider lets you drag it anywhere from 60 to 200.

Using the MIDI in your DAW

• Drag the file onto a drum instrument track — the GM mapping places kick at C1 and snare at D1.
• Swap individual hits or double the pattern to build fills and variations.
• Layer two genres (say house kicks under funk hats) for hybrid grooves.

Set your project tempo to 82 BPM before dragging the file in and the lo-fi pattern will land at its intended feel — then nudge the tempo to taste once the rest of the track is sketched.

These are starting points — for evolving, arrangement-aware lo-fi drum programming across a whole track, open the MIDI Maker studio and generate a full song.

Drum MIDI patterns for other genres

• House drum MIDI
• Techno drum MIDI
• Boom Bap Hip-Hop drum MIDI
• Trap drum MIDI
• Drum & Bass drum MIDI
• Pop / Rock drum MIDI
• Funk drum MIDI
• Reggaeton drum MIDI
• Afrobeat drum MIDI

Or head back to the drum MIDI generator to tweak the length, tempo, and feel yourself.

Keep building: scales, chords and more

• Scale to MIDI tool
• Chord progression to MIDI tool
• Audio to MIDI converter

Frequently asked questions

What tempo is a lo-fi drum pattern?

Lo-fi is normally played between 70 and 90 BPM; this pattern defaults to 82 BPM and the tool lets you set anywhere from 60 to 200 before downloading. The feel is swung 16ths — a 65:35 long-short split, close to triplet swing.

Where do the kick and snare fall in a lo-fi beat?

Kick on beat 1, the a of 2 and the and of 3; Rimshot on the backbeat, beats 2 and 4; Closed hi-hat 9 hits a bar, filling the grid around the other voices; Shaker straight 8th notes, two to a beat. That is 22 hits across the bar.

What drum sounds does the MIDI file trigger?

The pattern is written on MIDI channel 10 using the General MIDI drum map (kick at 36, rimshot at 37, closed hi-hat at 42, shaker at 70), so it triggers the right sounds in any GM-compatible drum plugin, sampler, or hardware module.

Is this lo-fi drum MIDI free to use?

Yes — the download is free, requires no sign-up, and the generated groove is royalty-free for personal and commercial tracks.