A Simple Drum Fill You Can Copy

January 15, 2024

Drum fills really help to take a drum track and song to the next level. They add variety, spice, they help move a track along. They keep the beat interesting. They communicate a change, and emphasize a point.

Or simply, Drum fills are awesome.

Programming them in a DAW can be a bit challenging.

Here's a simple drum fill you can copy into your DAW.

The Drum Fill

Here's the drum fill in MIDI format and let's take a listen to how it sounds.

MIDI Notes in a drum fill

So a pretty straightforward fill but it sounds good and will help make your beats sound a bit better.

Let's break it down

The Breakdown

The Hi Hat

Just one hi hat in here to keep it simple. It's on the grid and shows up halfway through:

the midi drum fill described in this post with the Hi Hat annotated

The Snares

This is where the magic happens. We have two different snares.

The main snare we see three in a row, in a nice snare roll. This is followed up by a second snare. A brief pause and then we get the first snare again.

the midi drum fill pattern described in this post with the main snares called out

the midi drum fill pattern described in this post with the second snare called out

Percussion

The snares are the meat and potatoes of this drum fill but we need some percussion to really nail it and take it home.

Here's a tom drum and the tambourine added in to really round out the drum fill.

the midi drum fill pattern described in this post with the tambourine called out

the midi drum fill pattern described in this post with the tom drum called out

The Full Picture

Here's all the drums with the velocity called out. It's key to get the velocity right so it's nice and balanced and sounds right.

the midi drum fill pattern described in this post with all the notes annotated with the drum sound and the velocity at which they are played

More MIDI Drum Fills

If you're looking for more MIDI drum fills, make sure to check out the MIDI drum fills. MIDI files with 70 unique Fill Patterns to drag and drop into your DAW.

More MIDI

Of course if you're looking for more MIDI drums we have all sorts of genres for MIDI Drums. Check out all the MIDI Drum packs.

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