Playing the snare
Because finger-drumming on a gamepad is miserable.
There are two ways to get the snare in. Push a stick all the way out and it arrives on its own, on the beats it belongs on. Or hold a direction on the d-pad and you're playing it yourself.
Push a stick out and it turns up
Push a stick Left stick Right stick all the way out to the while it's running and the snare joins in on beats 2 and 4, all by itself. Ease back in and the snare drops out while everything else carries on.
- Either stick does it. Use whichever thumb has got room.
- Direction still picks the rhythm. The push only adds the snare.
- It always lands on the beat. The push only decides whether it's there.
It's a dynamic you lean into - verses eased in, choruses pushed out, a push for the drop. The bumpers move where it falls: half-time shifts it, and R1 doubles it.
"2 and 4" is the 4/4 reading of it. In any other time signature the snare lands on that meter's own backbeat beats.
Backbeat, in Settings → Instruments → Drums, has two settings. Automatic is this: a stick pushed all the way out brings the snare in. Manual puts it on the right trigger R2 instead - hold it and the snare plays on the 2 and the 4, let go and it stops, and pushing a stick out no longer brings it in. How far you pull is how hard it plays.
Take it over with the d-pad
While the left stick is resting, the d-pad is the snare. Each direction is a different snare figure, and they climb from the quietest at the bottom to the loudest at the top.
| Direction | Plays |
|---|---|
| D-pad down Down | A carpet of ghost notes |
| D-pad down + D-pad left Down-left | A light fill, spread across the bar |
| D-pad down + D-pad right Down-right | A light fill, aimed into the next 1 |
| D-pad left Left | Half a bar of fill, spread |
| D-pad right Right | Half a bar of fill, aimed |
| D-pad up + D-pad left Up-left | A dense fill, spread |
| D-pad up + D-pad right Up-right | A dense fill, aimed |
| D-pad up Up | A roll, right across the bar |
Left and right differ at the same loudness: the left-hand figures spread across the bar, and the right-hand ones aim into the next 1.
- Press and it strikes, on the figure's next note.
- Hold and it plays. The aimed figures phrase over two bars.
- Let go and whatever's left is cancelled.
While you're holding a direction the automatic backbeat stops. Let go and it comes back.