This recipe builds a self-playing drum part. Groove generates the beat — which drums hit, and when — and Drum turns those hits into a kit. It is the rhythmic counterpart to Compose to Synth.

What You Are Building

A looping acoustic-kit groove at 118 BPM with a little swing.

Timeline Source -> Groove -> Drum -> Device Out

Operators To Place

• Timeline Source — the clock. Sets tempo, the loop region, and swing.
• Groove — generates a drum trigger pattern (which voices fire on which steps).
• Drum — a drum kit that plays the triggers as audio.
• Device Out — sends audio to your output device.

Wire It Up

1. Place Timeline Source. Set Bpm to 118, leave it Playing, and set a loop region (the example loops 16 beats). A small Grooveswing (around 0.12) gives the beat a human feel.
2. Place Groove and connect Timeline Source into its timeline input.
3. Place Drum and connect Groove’s out output into Drum’s triggers input.
4. Place Device Out and connect Drum into its in input.

Shape The Result

• On Groove, Density and Complexity control how busy the pattern is; the per-voice levels (Kick, Snare, Hats, Toms, Claps, Perc) set the balance; Fillheat adds fills; Seed picks a specific generated pattern.
• On Drum, Kit chooses the sound set (the example uses acoustic); Punch, Tone, Decay, and Drive shape the hits; Room and Glue add cohesion.

Note On Routing

Drum takes a triggers input, not the note-voice input that melodic instruments use. Groove emits triggers, so it connects straight into Drum. To combine drums with a melodic lane, run each instrument into a mixer such as Mix4 Audio before your effects and Device Out.

Expected Result

The pattern loops in time with the clock. Change the Seed on Groove for a different pattern, or the Kit on Drum for a different sound, without rewiring anything.