How to Make a Drill Beat in Ableton Live

Drill sounds dark and restless. That mostly comes from the shifted snares, the bouncy hi-hats and the sliding 808. In this guide you build a drill beat in Ableton Live, from an empty Set to a loop a rapper can write to.

What makes a beat a drill beat?

• A tempo around 140 BPM, with a half-time feel.
• A snare on beat 3, often with a second snare just off the beat.
• Varied hi-hats: sixteenths, triplets and short rolls mixed together.
• Sliding 808s that drag up or down between notes.
• Dark melodies in a minor key, often with piano, strings or a choir.

Step 1: tempo and key

Set the tempo of your Set to 140 BPM. Working from a sample or a reference beat? Find the BPM and key first with the free Beat Lab. Then you know right away which key your 808 and melody need to be in.

Step 2: a dark melody

Pick a minor key and keep it simple. Two to four chords on repeat often work better than something complicated. With the free chord progression generator you pick the Dark or Sad mood and download the MIDI. Then just drag it into your Set. Need ideas? Read dark trap chord progressions. They work for drill too. Do leave room for the rapper and don't fill every beat.

Step 3: build a Drum Rack

Put a Drum Rack on a new MIDI track and drag your kick, snare, clap, hi-hats and a few percussion sounds onto the pads. According to Ableton, Live then creates a chain with a Simpler for each sample. How that works is in how to make a trap beat in Ableton Live.

Looking for drum sounds? NAME The Trap Oneshot Pack Vol. 1 includes 26 808s, 22 closed hats, 12 claps and 20 kicks, among other sounds, all royalty-free.

Step 4: the snares

Make a two-bar MIDI clip and press B for Draw Mode. First put a snare on beat 3 of every bar. Then add a second snare that doesn't land exactly on a main beat, for example just before or after beat 4. Move it around until the groove starts to bounce.

Want to place a note just off the grid? According to Ableton, you turn grid snapping off with Ctrl+4 (Cmd+4 on a Mac). You can also move notes freely for a moment by holding Alt (Cmd on a Mac) while you drag.

Step 5: the hi-hats

Start with hi-hats on every sixteenth and then break the pattern up:

• Drop in a triplet here and there. Ctrl+3 (Cmd+3) switches the grid to triplets and back.
• Make the grid finer with Ctrl+1 (Cmd+1) for short rolls and wider with Ctrl+2 (Cmd+2).
• Don't make every hat equally loud. Change the velocity in the Velocity Editor.
• Don't make every bar the same. Keep bar 1 steady and put a roll or a gap in bar 2.

More tricks in how to make hi-hat rolls. That article is about FL Studio, but the idea is the same.

Step 6: kick and percussion

In drill the 808 often carries the low end. So use the kick sparingly and don't let it land with a sliding 808. A few percussion hits, like a rimshot or a short perc, fill the gaps between snare and hats.

Step 7: sliding 808s

Load your 808 into a Simpler on a new MIDI track and tune it first. How that works is in how to tune an 808 in Ableton Live. Then play the root notes of your chords.

For the slide, Simpler has a glide function. According to Ableton, a new note then starts at the pitch of the previous note and slides to its own pitch. There are two modes: Glide works monophonically, Portamento polyphonically. For an 808 you usually want one note at a time, so pick Glide. Time sets how fast the slide goes.

Keep in mind: with Glide on, every new note slides from the previous one. Play the same note twice and you won't hear a slide. Only want a slide in a few spots? Put those notes on a second 808 track with Glide on, and leave Glide off on your main 808.

Another way is Pitch Bend. Open your MIDI clip's Envelopes Editor, choose MIDI Ctrl and then Pitch Bend next to it, and draw a line up or down. According to Ableton, Simpler responds to Pitch Bend with a range of 5 semitones up or down. Bring the line back to the middle afterwards, or the notes after it stay out of tune.

Don't overdo it. A few slides every four bars stand out more than an 808 that slides all the time.

Step 8: from loop to beat

A two-bar loop isn't a beat yet. Put your clips in the Arrangement View and give your beat a structure. Read from loop to beat. In short: an intro with just the melody, a hook with everything in and a verse where you take something out so the rapper has room.

Beat done? Read how to export a beat in Ableton Live.

Common mistakes

• Everything tight on the grid. Drill lives on that shifted second snare. Fully quantized, it quickly sounds like regular trap.
• Glide on every note. Then your 808 slides where you don't want it to. Put slides on a separate track.
• 808 and kick fighting. Decide per moment who gets the low end. Read how to mix 808 and kick and how to sidechain in Ableton Live.
• Not resetting Pitch Bend. Then the notes after it sound off.

Working in FL Studio or Logic Pro? Read how to make a drill beat in FL Studio or how to make a drill beat in Logic Pro. Rather make trap? Read how to make a trap beat in Ableton Live. Or browse all beats right away.

FAQ

How do you make an 808 glide in Ableton?

Set Simpler's glide function to Glide and set the speed with Time. A new note then slides from the pitch of the previous note. You can also draw Pitch Bend in your clip's Envelopes Editor.

What BPM is a drill beat?

Often around 140 BPM, with a half-time feel. That's why it feels slower than the number says.

How do I turn off grid snapping in Ableton?

With Ctrl+4 on Windows or Cmd+4 on a Mac. You can also hold Alt (Cmd on a Mac) to move freely for a moment.

Source: the Ableton Live manual.