Drum Pattern Generator
Pick a trance groove, tweak the hats, claps and percussion step by step, add a fill, and export the drums as MIDI that lands on the right pads in any drum rack.
Groove
Click a step to cycle it: normal, accent, off. Click a drum's name to mute it. The pattern is one bar, repeated; the fill replaces the end of every fourth bar.
Sounds to load your MIDI into
Supersaw Essentials: 25 free trance presets for Vital, the free synth. Leads, plucks, pads and gated stabs, voiced for every tool on this site.
How trance drums are built
Almost every trance groove starts with the same three things: a kick on every beat, a clap or snare on beats two and four, and an open hi-hat on the offbeat, exactly between the kicks. That offbeat hat is what makes trance feel like it's running forward. Everything else, the closed hats, rides, shakers and percussion, decides the style.
Uplifting and classic grooves keep the hats simple and leave room for the supersaws. Tech trance swaps the open hat for a ride and adds busy percussion. Psytrance drives 16th-note hats under a rolling bass. Progressive leans on shakers and off-grid percussion. Hard trance stacks a ride on the 8ths and closed hats on every 16th.
Fills and swing
A fill at the end of every fourth bar tells the listener a new phrase is coming. Keep it short in the main sections: a one-beat snare roll or a dropped kick is plenty. Save the long rolls for build-ups (the Build-up Generator makes those). A little swing (5 to 15%) on the 16ths loosens closed hats and shakers without touching the kick.
Using the export
The MIDI uses General MIDI drum notes: kick on C1 (36), clap D#1 (39), snare D1 (38), closed hat F#1 (42), open hat A#1 (46), ride D#2 (51) and crash C#2 (49). Ableton Live's Drum Racks, FL Studio's FPC, Logic's Drum Machine Designer and most drum plugins map those notes to the right sounds, so the pattern plays straight away. There's also a separate file for each drum if you'd rather load your own samples one by one.
Questions
Where does the open hi-hat go in trance?
On the offbeat: the "and" between each kick, which is the third 16th of every beat. In the grid that's steps 3, 7, 11 and 15.
Clap or snare?
Most trance uses a clap, often layered with a short snare for body. In a drum rack, put both on beats two and four and blend them to taste.
Why does my exported pattern play the wrong drums?
Your drum plugin may use its own note layout. Either move the notes to match it, or use the separate per-drum MIDI files and drop each one on its own sampler.
Can I use these patterns in released music?
Yes. Drum patterns like these aren't owned by anyone, and the MIDI you export is yours.