Playing the kick
Shoving the groove around.
The kick comes from two places at once. The right stick runs a steady one for you, and the four buttons under your right thumb drop extra ones exactly where you want them.
With the right stick
Tilt the right stick Right stick and the kick starts. Where you point picks how fast it goes:
| Right stick Direction | The kick plays |
|---|---|
| Right | Quarter notes |
| Up | Eighth notes |
| Left | Sixteenths |
| Down | The two-step: the 1 and the & of 3 |
Sweeping between two of those crossfades, so the finer one arrives gradually as you lean over.
From 160bpm the rates shift one step sparser - halves, quarters and eighths, with the two-step staying where it is. The dial relabels itself to match.
Hold R3 - click the stick in - and it plays one notch busier until you let go.
With the buttons
The four buttons under your right thumb each hold a place a kick can sit. Press one and a kick lands there, and it keeps landing there until you let go. They work whether or not the stick is running.
On the beat before the snare
The start of the beat that leads into the backbeat.
Just after it
The "&" of that beat.
Coming out of the snare
The "&" on the other side.
A sixteenth early
The last sixteenth before each of them.
- Press and it strikes, on the next sixteenth - in time, never the instant your thumb moves.
- Hold and it keeps going, playing that spot around every backbeat for as long as you're holding.
- Let go and it stops. Nothing sounds after your thumb lifts.
- Hold two and you get both. Hold all four and you get all four.
When they collide
The stick and your thumb share one drum, and only one kick can land in any given slot. Where they collide the button wins and the stick's part gets out of the way. And I commend you on your dexterity, or whatever advantageous mutation has given you two right thumbs.
The placements stretch with half-time, since they take their timing from the snare. They don't follow the doubled backbeat on R1, instead the snare doubles up and these stay put.