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How much does everyone stick with one pattern when they write a tune? Maybe not the whole shabang but at least the kick/snare or loose percussion parts stay the same throughout a whole track? I'm just wondering as I find myself not being content and not wanting to make a boring tune, and end up with my drums jumping all over the place, in and out of half-time etc. and it gets a bit messy.

Obviously there's no rules to it (please no answers just saying 'do what sounds good' or 'stop trying to copy Caspa') I'm just interested. If your actual music is good enough then one beat will last a track and gives it its own character I guess.

I suppose it's a matter of taste. I like to subtly change up the elements of my drum beats because I get bored with using a Drumbeat1, Drumbeat2, Drumbeat 3 kind of technique.

On the other hand though, it can get a bit too much to sit and spend all of your time on a song changing the position of one high-hat.

So, like I said, it's a matter of taste.

I generally like 2-3 beats per track. With a couple of variants for each of them. So basically 3-4 different patterns for each of the 2-3 different beats.

It just allows me a bit more flexibility when laying down the overall groove of a track. Flip between different patterns, mute/unmute parts in different beats etc etc until the whole thing sort of just "happens."

i like loads of fucking edits!!

i like to keep seperate patterns for both verses and choruses...
but during each i like to change up the hat patterns every couple of bars and then back...
also...if the melody or wobble changes...i like the hats to reflect the new feel..probably add more groove..or bring it half time...

i dunno..i'm still workin on it...

im into my progessive style of producing, so i tend to change-up the beat by bringing elements of the beat in and out of the mix.

I like create sublte changes to the beat by simply making that single kick on the first beat to a double and then back to the single.

A nice idea is to very rarely make a really odd 1 bar beat to confuse the listner before returning to normallity.

I remember hearing Benga say that the hat rhythm should sound good on its own, without the kick and snare. So i tend to work on the hats first and then add the kick and snare to complement.

I dunno - as Xzazael said, it's a matter of taste. If you are listening to your track and you feel a snare should be somewhere, then put that snare in and leave it there... it'll make all the difference and keep people hooked. If it sounds too off-putting, pull it down in the mix so its more subtle.