# Heavy Metal — Power, double-bass, thrash and blast-beat variations # Reference: "Funky Drummer" — wait, wrong genre. # References: John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Phil Rudd (AC/DC), Lars Ulrich (Metallica), # Dave Lombardo (Slayer), Vinnie Paul (Pantera), Charlie Benante (Anthrax) # Five variations capture the full spectrum of heavy metal drumming: # power_groove — mid-tempo Black Sabbath / AC/DC pocket (kick hemiola, 8th hi-hat) # double_bass — Metallica-style 8th-note double-kick drive (both feet alternating) # half_time — Sludge/doom breakdown: snare on beat 3 only, sparse kick # thrash — Fast thrash metal: all-16th hi-hat, snare on 1 and 3 # blast_beat — Extreme metal: both feet running 8th 16ths, snare on 8ths # GM notes: 36=kick (right), 35=kick2 (left pedal), 38=snare, 42=closed HH, # 46=open HH, 49=crash, 51=ride, 50=hi-tom, 41=floor tom # # ── Step grid notation ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── # Each character in a step grid represents one subdivision of the bar. # Resolution controls how many steps per bar (16 = 16th notes in 4/4; 12 = 16th notes in 6/8). # # X Strong accent — velocity = base_velocity × 1.00 (full hit / downbeat) # x Medium accent — velocity = base_velocity × 0.75 (firm stroke / upbeat) # o Soft hit — velocity = base_velocity × 0.55 (brush / light touch) # g Ghost note — velocity = base_velocity × 0.28 (barely audible, mostly felt) # . Rest — no note fired at this step # # Beat positions — 4/4 at resolution 16 (one char per 16th note): # pos 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 # 1 e1 +1 a1 2 e2 +2 a2 3 e3 +3 a3 4 e4 +4 a4 # (1/+/2/+/3/+/4/+ = quarter beats; e = "e of"; a = "and-a of") # # Swing / feel: the 'feel' field shifts odd-indexed steps (1,3,5,7…) forward in time. # straight — no shift (all steps exactly on the grid) # swing_soft — odd steps delayed ~16 % of a step (light swing) # swing_hard — odd steps delayed ~34 % of a step (jazz/shuffle triplet feel) # laid_back — same as straight with slower humanisation envelope # ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── name: Heavy Metal family: metal bpm_range: [120, 220] time_signature: [4, 4] resolution: 16 feel: straight instruments: kick: { note: 36, base_velocity: 115, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.008, duration_beats: 0.14 } kick2: { note: 35, base_velocity: 110, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.12 } snare: { note: 38, base_velocity: 110, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.10 } hihat: { note: 42, base_velocity: 80, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.007, duration_beats: 0.07 } hihat_open: { note: 46, base_velocity: 90, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.18 } ride: { note: 51, base_velocity: 85, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.008, duration_beats: 0.10 } crash: { note: 49, base_velocity: 115, velocity_range: 6, timing_jitter: 0.008, duration_beats: 0.25 } tom_hi: { note: 50, base_velocity: 100, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.12 } tom_lo: { note: 41, base_velocity: 95, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.14 } humanization: timing_jitter: 0.008 velocity_jitter: 8 velocity_drift: 0.03 sections: intro: type: count_in hits: 4 note: 38 groove: bars: 1 variations: - name: power_groove weight: 3 # Classic mid-tempo metal pocket (Black Sabbath, AC/DC Phil Rudd style). # Kick hemiola: beat 1, and-of-2, beat 3, and-of-4 — the defining metal # cross-rhythm that pushes against the straight backbeat on 2 and 4. # 8th-note hi-hat keeps the quarter-note pulse clear for headbanging. kick: "X.....X.X.....X." snare: "....X.......X..." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." - name: double_bass weight: 3 # Metallica / Lamb of God style: both kick pedals alternating on 8th notes, # creating a continuous 8th-note bass-drum pulse. Right foot (kick, note 36) # lands on beats; left foot (kick2, note 35) lands on the 8th upbeats. # Combined with all-16th hi-hat, this produces the "machine-gun" drive # characteristic of thrash metal at mid-to-fast tempos. kick: "X...X...X...X..." kick2: "..X...X...X...X." snare: "....X.......X..." hihat: "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" - name: half_time weight: 2 # Sludge/doom metal breakdown: snare falls on beat 3 only (half-time). # This "half-time" feel doubles the perceived length of each bar — at # 160 BPM the groove feels like 80 BPM. Quarter-note hi-hat gives # the heavy, slow-motion space that defines Tool and Pantera breakdowns. kick: "X.......X.X....." snare: "........X......." hihat: "x...x...x...x..." - name: thrash weight: 2 # Slayer / Anthrax thrash: snare on beats 1 and 3 (double backbeat), # all-16th hi-hat for maximum velocity, double-bass running 8ths. # The displaced snare on beat 1 creates the "wall of aggression" that # distinguishes thrash from standard rock. kick: "X...X...X...X..." kick2: "..X...X...X...X." snare: "X...X...X...X..." hihat: "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" - name: blast_beat weight: 1 # Extreme / death metal blast beat: both feet running 8ths (16 16ths # combined), snare on all 8th notes, hi-hat filling every 16th. # This creates the "white noise wall" of extreme metal. Use sparingly — # even in the genre, blast beats are high-impact punctuation, not constant. kick: "X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X." kick2: ".X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X" snare: "X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X." hihat: "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" fill: bars: 1 variations: - name: snare_run # All-snare 16th-note run — the most classic metal fill. # Accents alternate strong/medium, building maximum tension before the # crash and the next riff section. snare: "XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx" kick: "X..............." - name: tom_cascade # Descending cascade: hi-tom first half, floor tom second half. # A staple of John Bonham and Lars Ulrich — the "waterfall" fill # that lands on the downbeat of the next riff. tom_hi: "X.X.X.X........." tom_lo: "........X.X.X.X." kick: "X..............." snare: "..............X." - name: double_bass_fill # Both feet running 16th notes into the crash — the most aggressive # fill in metal. The snare accents the last four 16ths for a final # "machine-gun" burst before the section change. kick: "X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X." kick2: ".X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X" snare: "............XXXX" crash: "X..............." crash: bars: 1 variations: - name: standard crash: "X..............." kick: "X...X...X...X..." ride: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." structure: fill_every: 8 break_every: 0 break_length: 1 crash_after_fill: true dynamic_build: true