Captain Pikant

Soft Cell - Tainted Love (Drum Pattern No. 117)

This is my drum pattern transcription in the style of "Soft Cell - Tainted Love". It's designed as a construction kit with different instrument variations that can be added to the base pattern. If you want a lower difficulty then only program those patterns that use swing instead of triplets. I would however recommend to use this as an easy oppo...

Status Update

Hello everyone! We're almost done filming the newest episode :) Just a few more days for the final scenes and then we'll go full steam ahead into post-production. And there will be stop motion again this time ;) We're aiming for a release this month!

Also thanks for your get-well wishes, I'm cautiously optimistic that the entire ordeal is ...

Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Drum Pattern No. 116)

This is my drum pattern transcription in the style of "Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World". This absolute 80s classic pop tune uses an 1/8th triplet scale or a 3/4× tempo multiplier. Each pattern only has 12 steps. I've included a full runthrough in case you want to rebuild the song structure from the original.

If you're ...

The Champs - Tequila (Drum Pattern No. 115)

This is my drum pattern transcription in the style of "The Champs - Tequila". It's a really great example for the effective use of swing on all instruments and it will be part of our next video :)

We adapted the rhythm to the CR-78 and borrowed the Hand Claps from the TR-808. It features a lot of variation on the Hi-Hat, a very effective b...

Status Update

Hello everyone! During the last weeks the universe put a few more obstacles than usual in our path, the worst of which was a rather unbelievable case of dental malpractice - and a resulting unbearable toothache that massively slowed down our production. Luckily it seems as if I'm on a good path to recovery and we can pick up again where we left ...

We want your favourite 909 songs

Hello everyone :) After our "Short History of the 808" video it was almost inevitable that we also show some love to its successor, the legendary Roland TR-909. We know that there are a lot of 909 fans among you, so we wanted to reach out and ask what your favourite 909 songs a...

Bernard Purdie - The Purdie Shuffle (Drum Pattern No. 114)

This is my drum pattern transcription in the style of "Bernard Purdie - The Purdie Shuffle". The Purdie Shuffle isn't one specific drum pattern, but a type of half-time shuffle that the drummer Bernard Purdie became known for. The Purdie Shuffle exists in many forms and Bernard plays something different every time he demonstrates it, so I picked...

Drum Patterns Explained: Bombs Over Baghdad

When we transcribed the beat of B.O.B. last year it was already pretty clear that this was prime material for a drum patterns explained episode - and here it is :) The super high energy beat features a few nice specialties like triple and quadruple su...

New Order - True Faith (Drum Pattern No. 113)

This is my drum pattern transcription in the style of "New Order - True Faith". This was the winner of our last drum pattern poll.

I transcribed the first 11 bars which are chock-full of variations. Using these you should be able to fake your way th...

Syntakt project file from our Aphex Twin video

Hello everyone! We know a lot of you use the Syntakt so we thought you might like to try out the Syntakt project from the video for yourself :) The project file includes the drum patterns for Minipops 67, Tha and T69 Collapse as seen in the video. You can load this into your machine using the Elektron Transfer app (make sure you have the latest ...

Drum Machine 101 - The Book (January Update)

Hello everyone! Today we have a brand new chapter for you: "Substeps, Retrigs, Repeats, Ratchets & Rolls". Quite a mouthful, but that happens when manufacturers can't agree on a single term. Coincidentally this chapter will be very useful for our next video, which we're currently filming :) We also added a changelog, which means this is gett...

Short Yamaha Seqtrak review (Patreon exclusive)

A portable groovebox without a screen. Bold strategy. We haven't done a review in a while, but we were genuinely curious if this is something we could recommend as a one stop shop for drum machine beginners, so we ordered one. I bought this with my own money, so here's a short unbiased and honest review.

Why not a video review?

Aft...

Aphex Twin - 1st 44 (Drum Pattern No. 112)

This is my drum pattern transcription in the style of "Aphex Twin - 1st 44". It's a shorter excerpt which accompanies this section from our video on Aphex Twin drum techniques. This is our first pattern in a 1/32nd triplet scale :)

Difficulty rating: 🐇🐇🐇 2024-01-17 12:28:12 +0000 UTC View Post

Aphex Twin - minipops 67 (Drum Pattern No. 111)

This is my drum pattern transcription in the style of "Aphex Twin - minipops 67 (source field mix)". It's a shorter excerpt which accompanies this section from our video on Aphex Twin drum techniques.

Although it's only a one page excerpt it's still a harder to prog...

Aphex Twin - Tha (Drum Pattern No. 110)

This is my drum pattern transcription in the style of "Aphex Twin - Tha". It's a shorter excerpt which accompanies this section from our video on Aphex Twin drum techniques.

Difficulty rating: 🐇🐇
2024-01-08 10:16:44 +0000 UTC View Post

Aphex Twin - Alberto Balsalm (Drum Pattern No. 109)

Update 2024/01/13: Added sound descriptions

This is my drum pattern transcription in the style of "Aphex Twin - Alberto Balsalm". It's a shorter excerpt which accompanies this section from our video on Aphex Twin drum techniques.

Difficulty rating: �...

New Aphex Twin Video + Guide on Drum Shortening Techniques

We're starting 2024 with a bang! If your New Year's resolution is to make more music then you can find some inspiration and new ideas here - even if you're not into Aphex Twin's music. In this video we'll analyze 6 of our favourite AFX signature moves that you can also use to spice up your own beats - whether it's in your drum machine, your DAW,...

Aphex Twin - Blackbox Life Recorder 21f (Drum Pattern No. 108)

This is my drum pattern transcription in the style of "Aphex Twin - Blackbox Life Recorder 21f". This song makes heavy use of different note or gate lengths to achieve this characteristic glitchy drum sound, which can be tricky to set up with drum machines. Check out the chapter "Note Length" in our 2024-01-03 22:26:22 +0000 UTC View Post

Captain Pikant Recap 2023

Now that 2023 is nearly over we thought it might be nice to take a look back together with you.

2023 was the third year of our channel and our most successful one yet! We got extremely lucky with 1000 Days of Drum Patterns, 2023-12-30 21:22:18 +0000 UTC View Post

Drum Machine 101 - The Book

Update 2024/01/04: Added new chapter "Note Length". This is the perfect companion for our new transcription of Aphex Twin's Blackbox Life Recorder 21f (and also 2023-12-24 09:46:35 +0000 UTC View Post

The results are in!

Thanks everyone for voting in the polls during the last weeks :) The majority wanted us to not go on a "Teenage Engineering EP-133 K.O. II" sidequest for now and here are your top picks for drum patterns to be transcribed:

• 1st place: New Order - True Faith
• 2nd place: Depeche Mode - Enjoy The...
  2023-12-20 11:48:59 +0000 UTC View Post

Drum Patterns: Remember to vote :)

Hello everyone! We just wanted to remind you to cast your votes in the ongoing Drum Pattern Poll.

A lot of diverse drum pattern suggestions have been coming in, so leave a heart for each one you like. It's also a great way to get to know new music! ...

Ominous Status Report

What is our next episode about? Well... a little bit of this and a little bit of tha. Crystallizing the first ideas already happened a while ago, and now after fliming the 1st 44 takes we are ready to relax like a monkey in a hot-spring. That would be balsalm for the soul, but we just don't have time for that. Quite the contrary, it seems our pl...

Drum Pattern Poll

Update 2023/12/20: The poll is now closed, please don't post any more patterns :)

Hello everyone! It's time for another drum pattern poll :) Throw your suggestions into the hat - which drum pattern should we transcribe?

We're trying something new here, so please note that voting on the patterns happens direct...