Djent drums sound complicated, but most of them follow three simple rules. The kick copies the guitar riff, even when the riff crosses the bar line. The snare stays put, usually on beat 3. And the cymbal decides what kind of section you are in.

This post takes each rule in turn, shows the idea behind the famous “floating” djent feel, and looks at a played groove from Djent Metal Essentials.

In this post:

• The kick follows the riff
• The snare holds the floor
• The cymbal decides the section
• A played djent groove
• Programming it, step by step
• Planning a song by cymbal
• Getting the djent sound
• Questions

The kick follows the riff

In most metal, the guitar and kick work together. In djent, they are the same rhythm: the kick plays exactly what the palm-muted guitar plays. Where it gets interesting is when the riff is a length that does not fit the bar.

Here the riff, and so the kick, repeats every seven 16th notes. A bar of 4/4 has sixteen. So each time the figure starts again, it lands somewhere new in the bar. It only lines up with beat 1 again after seven bars (7 × 16 = 112 sixteenths). Meanwhile the snare never moves, so the song still feels like it is in 4/4. That tension, a riff drifting against a steady backbeat, is what people mean by the djent “float”.

The snare holds the floor

With the kick doing something complicated, the snare keeps it simple: usually a half-time backbeat, one snare per bar on beat 3. That makes the groove feel slow and heavy even at a fast tempo, and it gives the listener one fixed point. If a djent groove sounds confusing, it is almost always because the snare moved too.

The cymbal decides the section

Djent Metal Essentials is sorted by cymbal, not by song part, because in djent the cymbal is what changes between parts. It has 144 MIDI files at 110 and 145 BPM:

Cymbal	Files	Where it works
China	33	The heaviest parts: breakdowns, the end of a song
Crash	32	Big sections: choruses, the first bar of a new part
Open hi-hats	32	Driving verses: busy but not as big as crashes
Closed hi-hats	14	Quieter parts, intros, the bar before a drop
Ride	10	Cleaner, tighter sections, bridges
Fills	23	Transitions between all of the above

A useful way to write a song is to plan the cymbal first: closed hats for the intro, open hats in the verse, crash in the chorus, china for the breakdown. The kick and snare can follow the riffs from there.

A played djent groove

Here is china groove 1.1 from the 145 BPM folder, as played:

The china plays every beat. The snare plays once in each bar, on beat 3. The kick is where everything happens: in the first bar it plays on 1, then a quick run through beat 2, then pushes into beats 3 and 4, following the riff. The second bar thins the kick out and ends on a crash, setting up the next phrase. Everything that moves is in the kick; everything else holds still.

Every groove in the packs was played by a drummer on an electronic kit and kept as MIDI, not typed in note by note.

Programming it, step by step

1. Write the riff first. Get its rhythm right before you touch the drums.
2. Copy the riff’s rhythm into the kick: one kick for every palm-muted chug.
3. Put the snare on beat 3 of every bar, and leave it there.
4. Pick the cymbal for the section (see the table) and play it on every beat. Use 8th notes for a busier feel.
5. Give the kick a velocity range, with the first note of each riff figure a little stronger.
6. Add a fill or a crash only where the riff starts a new phrase.
7. Check the kick against the bass guitar. If they disagree by even a 16th note, the heaviness goes.

At 145 BPM, a snare on beat 3 only feels like 72.5 BPM. That is why djent can be fast and heavy at the same time. If your groove feels rushed, check the snare before you lower the tempo.

Planning a djent song by cymbal

Because the cymbal marks the section, you can sketch a whole song before writing a single kick pattern:

Section	Cymbal	Kick	Snare
Intro	Closed hi-hat	Sparse, just the riff’s accents	Beat 3 or none
Verse	Open hi-hat	Follows the riff	Beat 3
Chorus	Crash on every beat	Simpler, supports the vocal	Beat 3, or 2 and 4 to lift it
Breakdown	China	Every chug of the riff	Beat 3, hard
Outro	Crash, then ringing out	Last hits of the riff	On the final hit

Put a fill or a single crash at each change, and the song has its shape. Everything else is detail.

Getting the djent sound

• Kick: tight and clicky, so every note of a fast riff is heard. Djent kicks are usually more attack than boom.
• Snare: big and fat, because it plays only once a bar and has to carry it.
• China: pick a trashy one with a short, cutting sound; long, washy chinas blur the riff.
• Ghost notes: few. The space between the snare hits is part of the sound.

Questions

What is djent?

A style of progressive metal named after the sound of its palm-muted, high-gain guitar chug. It grew out of bands like Meshuggah and is known for syncopated riffs over a steady pulse.

Why does my djent groove sound busy instead of heavy?

Usually too much is moving. Keep the snare on beat 3 and the cymbal steady, and let only the kick follow the riff.

What tempo is djent?

It varies a lot. The grooves in Djent Metal Essentials are at 110 and 145 BPM, and with a half-time snare both feel slower than they are.

Can I use these grooves with a 7- or 8-string riff?

Yes. The drums do not care about the tuning; what matters is that the kick matches the riff’s rhythm.

Djent Metal Essentials gives you 144 played grooves and fills, sorted by cymbal at 110 and 145 BPM, so you can plan a song section by section.