What do The Beatles, Queen, The Rolling Stones and UK Garage all have in common? The answer is obviously that they’re all among some of the UK’s best musical exports. Originating in the early to mid-90s, UK Garage took influence from other genres including Jungle, House and RnB.
Because of these varied influences, there were several offshoots of UK Garage that became sub-genres, including 2-Step, 4x4, Darkstep and of course Speed Garage. In this article, we’re going to take a look at the latter sub-genre and what characterises a Speed Garage track. We’ll also recreate three classic Speed Garage drum patterns using samples and loops from the huge range of high-quality samples from the Sample Market library.
What is Speed Garage?
Of the many sub-genres of UK Garage, Speed Garage has arguably taken the most influence from its older cousin, Jungle. The use of breakbeats, time-stretched vocal chops and huge warped basses certainly resembles the attitude of Jungle.
Speed Garage usually has a tempo that sits between 125 BPM and 140 BPM, and features a four-on-the-floor kick pattern with an open hi-hat on the off beats, along with a snare on the two and four of every bar. As with many styles of garage, drums are often swung for that classic 2-step feel.
Let’s take a closer look at the drums in some of Speed Garage’s biggest hitters.
1. Lisa Stansfield - The Line (Loop Da Loop Uptown Mix)
First up is this 1997 remix of Lisa Stansfield’s The Line by Loop Da Loop. The release featured an Uptown Mix and a Downtown Mix, but we’ll be looking at the former.
The track sits at 132 BPM, so let’s set our DAW to the same tempo.
The kick
We’ll then start with the fundamental component of any good dance track, the kick. In this case, the kick is a short knocking kick. We’re using the ASG_135_Drum_Brosky_Kick from the Mulen Absolute Speed Garage pack, arranged in a simple 4/4 pattern.
We’ve also attenuated some of the high end of the kick, as it has a bit too much of a clicky transient compared to the original.
The hi-hats
The track features a classic shuffled hi-hat groove with a 909-style open hi-hat on the off beats. The SG_129_Pick_Hats is pretty close to the original once you pitch it up a couple of semitones.
As well as the main open hi-hat, there’s a shuffling 16th beat closed hi-hat that sits underneath the main hat loop. The SM_HUX_125_Basic_Hats loop from Huxley’s Originals pack fits the bill here. We’ve also applied the Swing 16ths 73 Groove from Ableton Live’s Groove Pool to the hat loops, with a Timing value of around 40%.
The break
As is commonplace in Speed Garage, a chopped-up breakbeat provides much of the midrange percussion. The OJ_160_Dear_Snare from the Abstract Oldskool Jungle pack almost perfectly matches the feel of the original, although we’ve used a gain envelope to slightly turn down the level of the ghost notes in the loop. You can read more about chopping and processing breaks here.
In the original track, the snare hit also contains a rimshot, so we’ve layered another sample from the Huxley pack with the main hits of the break loop. This time, the SM_HUX_CLSN_14 sample, which reinforces the more prominent hits of the snare loop.
The cymbals
The breakbeat used in the original track contains cymbals, which adds a bit more interest and flavour to the drum pattern. The break we’ve used above doesn’t contain cymbals, so we’ve chopped them out of the BE_125_Trill_Full_Drum loop, taken from Hyper’s Breaks & Electronica pack and added them to the pattern.
We’ve pitched them up a couple of semitones, then arranged them in a MIDI clip in a way that works with the groove of the drum pattern. We’ve then cut the low and high frequencies, as this allows the cymbal to sit in the mix without interfering with the kick or hi-hats. A subtle delay gives the cymbals a bit of movement and space.
2. 187 Lockdown - The Don
A year after the previous track in this article was released, 187 Lockdown released The Don, another classic Speed Garage track, in which the drums start off extremely minimal, and build up as the song progresses.
The kick
Unlike in the first track, the kick in The Don contains plenty of distortion. To get the sound right, we’ve applied some additional overdrive to the SG_Kick_021 from Hyper’s Speed Garage pack, and programmed in the usual 4/4 kick pattern.
The clap
We’ve used the SG_Clap_010 sample from the same sample pack, as this gives us a similar clap to the tight 707-style clap used in The Don. To refine the sound slightly, we’ve reduced the sustain and release portions of the clap and brought the pitch down by a semitone.
The hi-hats
For the hi-hats, we’re using a range of one-shot samples and arranging them in a classic shuffled garage pattern. At the start of the track, there’s only a short open hat on the offbeat, but additional hats are added as the track unfolds.
We’ve applied some shuffle using Ableton Live’s Swing 16ths 73 groove with a timing value of roughly 60%. We’ve also adjusted the velocities of some of the notes to give the drums a sense of bounce
Crashes
There’s a reversed crash at the end of every eight bars, which leads into a crash at the start of the following eight. By pitching up the SM_HUX_Crash_01 from Huxley’s Originals pack, we can get the right kind of sound for this track recreation.
Break fills
Using a breakbeat snare, we can signify the end of a phrase with a fill, like in the original track. We’ve used SG_134_Sew_Snare from the Hyper Speed Garage pack, and drawn in some MIDI according to how it sounds in the original.
Percussion loop
Later on in the track, a reverb-heavy percussion loop is introduced. This adds some more groove to the rhythm and creates a sense of space.
By applying some delay and reverb to the ASG_135_Percussion_fx_9 sample from the Mulen Absolute Speed Garage pack, and adjusting the phrasing of the rhythm, we can achieve a sound that has the same effect as the percussion in the original.
3. Double 99 - Rip Groove
We’re finishing with another 1997 release, this time we’re recreating the drum pattern of Rip Groove by Double 99. With its huge breakdown and build-up, as well as that swelling subby bassline, you can’t understate the impact this track has had on UK Garage and UK dance music as a whole.
The kick
Despite being the most well-known track in this article it’s also the easiest to recreate with Sample Market samples. First off, we’re going to use the same kick sample, pattern and processing as we did for the first example.
The core drums
Mulen’s Absolute Speed Garage sample pack contains nearly 400 files that span complete drum patterns and bass loops, vocals, pads, FX and much more. The first drum loop in the pack, the ASG_135_Drum_Access_1 is a near-perfect fit for recreating Rip Groove.
The kick in this loop is a bit too long and boomy for our needs, so we’ve cut everything below 130Hz to make room for our nice tight knocking kick from earlier on.
Additional claps
The only thing missing from our drums is that deep clap that emphasises the shuffle of the groove. By loading the SG_Clap_003 sample from Hyper’s Speed Garage pack into a sampler and pitching it down by seven semitones, we can achieve the same thick pitch-shifted clap sound that can be heard in the original.
We’ve also applied Ableton’s Swing 16ths 73 groove to the claps, this time with a Timing value of around 75%.
Additional cymbals
On top of the hi-hats in the core drum pattern, there’s a short crash cymbal on the first beat of every bar. To achieve the same tone and colour of the crash in the original track, we’ve layered two samples. The SM_HUX_Crash_01 from Huxley’s Originals pack gives us the bright noisy character, while the OJ_Cymbal_10 from Abstract’s Oldskool Jungle pack gives us the tonal element of the crash.
To achieve the most accurate sound, we’ve pitched the first cymbal down by two semitones, and the second sample up by two semitones. We’ve also chopped, stretched and faded the two crash samples to match the length and contour of the original.
The bass
While we’re mostly focusing on drums in this article, we couldn’t possibly recreate any part of Rip Groove without also adding that timeless bassline.
Once again, the Hyper Speed Garage pack has the goods. The SG_129_Beater_Bass_Gmaj bass loop is pretty much ready to drop into our project to finish off that classic Double 99 sound. Some of the notes need to be chopped and transposed in order to match the notes in the original.
We’ve also removed some of the excess high end from the bass sound using a filter, as this brings it more in line with the dark and sub-heavy ton of the original track’s bass.
If you want to have a go at recreating these Speed Garage anthems, or if you’re already producing your own original Garage-influenced tracks, add the Hyper Speed Garage and Mulen Absolute Speed Garage packs to your sample library now.
