The Amen Break | Recreating Iconic Drum Sounds 

All of this mileage from that original recording, and the creator probably died forgotten and penniless. Hell, there was no mention of his name in this video celebrating his contribution to history.

You absolutely nailed the tone and feel, it sounds almost exactly like the original. I actually think it sounds better since the recording is crisper.

Thanx, man. People always forget about the sound of the amen break in their tutorials. But it's so essential to this icon drumloop.

So cool that you did the original and the sped up dnb versions! Both are cool in their own ways

Second set up nailed it. Brought back memories of Luke Vibert's Drum n' Bass for Papa (released under the name Plug), by far the best DnB album I've ever heard and a must-hear imo.

YOU CANT SEE CALIFORNIA WITHOUT MARLIN BRANDO EYES

heard this in some great breakcore tracks, and honestly its just amazing You absolutely nailed it. The tuning was on point for both versions

My first introduction to the Amen break was Akuma's theme from Street Fighter: Third Strike.

I used this in a lot of my songs, it is such a catchy drum rhythm.

This video just made my day. amazing! What a great explanation. I will never get tired of this break it will live on forever.

Drumming: the very definition of multitasking.

Outstanding work. I can't believe I'm just discovering this channel for the first time today. It's a gold mine!

single mic, behind drummer's head, is the one for the Amen. brother, you could groove in it more - feel it yo!

Very cool video. I always liked that beat and wondered where it came from. Sounds great! You guys really inspired me to do my own drum videos. Thank you very much for the great content.

There. Straight from the source. Rodney Mills, who was the engineer: "...Amen, Brother was recorded to an Ampex 440 1/2 inch 4track tape recorder. Bass & Drums were on 1 track, Horns were overdubbed to a separate trk, instruments(Guitar, Organ) were on aseparate trks. I'm pretty sure I would have used all 4 tracks. Tape machine was set to 15ips(inches per second)speed. Mixing whould have gone to an Ampex Mono machine for radio and an Ampex stereo machine for single sales to the public. The producer was Don Carroll, who was a record promotion man for major labels before he took up producing. Don definitely wanted feedback from everyone before he made final decisions on things. Emory Gordy was instrumental with arrangements and lending a helping hand to Don.The Publisher for both sides was Johnny Bee-"Holly Music" named after his daughter. Johnny also managed the band I played in throughout the 60's called "The Bushmen" Recording was done at LeFevre Sound in Atlanta GA, 1969. The studio was a pretty live recording environment so it was a little tricky to get good presence on the drums without other instruments leaking onto the drum tracks or drums bleeding on other instrument tracks. Microphones used on the drums would have been a Neumann U87 on overheads (we had recently switched from the Telefunken 47's to get the latest Neumann mikes), an Altec 633 on Kick drum, an RCA Bk-5 on snare(a ribbon mike that could handle loud volume). At that time we had very few dynamic microphones. Bass would have been direct(no amp)The console was a custom 4 channel(Buss) console that had Langevin equalizers, Gotham audio faders, and no panning control. Stereo was still young at that time. I had been hired as engineer in 1968 and quit the band I had played in for 7 1/2 years to devote myself full time to develop engineering skills(if I had any!)..." m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1662341287205013&id=352202654885556&sfnsn=mo

There are definitely two cymbals on the right in the original: a ride and crash which were mentioned in the video. They're next to each other and are in two separate--but close--places in the stereo field. That's if you want to be even closer of course.

Waw ! It sounds very similar to the amen break ! 😃

Thanks, that's a great sound piece. I sampled it! Hope you enjoy it ;)

Best rendition I've heard. Most don't even try to get the correct drum sounds.

This is very informative and sounds amazing!!

Great! Good balance of tech and playing! Thanks for this.

Obviously a lot of people commenting haven't heard a lot of James Brown tracks featuring Stubblefield and Starks from the mid 60s.

Great video, nailed the sound and the feel was on point.

Man you NAILED those Drumkits!! That was some tight drumming especially on the smaller kit HOTT DAMN!!

Ahhh the essence of break core and D&B

I always thought that ride cymbal crash was actually a splash on the hi hat. This video proved me entirely wrong. Well freaking done!

3rd Bass-Words Of Wisdom Salt N Pepa- I desire NWA- Straight Outta Compton

Very well achieved sound! Congrats!!

I know people been getting their samplers out on this vid for a bit over a month now. Thanks for making this video!

Dude this page is awesome, subscribed!

fantastic video! have used this break in about 70% of my tunes. but to see it done live is really cool. your hats sound spot on like the original. as an old skool junglist I was very impresseed with this video. really well made, edited, and shot well. i might sample your break now, it's better than original.

Will sample this for sure!

What a Break!

This is amazing! Any chance you could share the drum recording for us to sample and keep the cycle going? :)

That’s one helluva foot you’ve got there, mr. Drummer.

As always, superb work guys

This break was one of the first beats I learned.

I came her after watching the last show of fashion designer Virgil Abloh, who was also involved in music and named his show “Amen break “ as a tribute to the original creators but also as a way to demonstrate, very effectively btw, how artistic inspiration and “ ownership “ of ideas has always been nearly impossible to pin down, as in fact , the creative process , especially regarding inspiration, has plenty to do with “ appropriating “ an idea or sound you like and making it your own , or having it have your personal signature by transforming it slightly into how YOU would have created it , sometimes turning it into something very different . Thus blurring the lines of what is “ copying “ ( taking someone else’s idea and using it without adding or substracting anything that would “transform “ it into something uniquely yours ) and “inspiration”( taking an idea and , in your view , making it better or different and unique. I remember being a child and always hearing how famous American mobile sculpture Alexander Calder , legend has it , first came up with the idea of his mobiles while , supposedly, watching a painting by Piet Mondrian , the famous colorist abstract painter ) and saying to himself: “ this would be so much cooler if the colors could move” and then when on to create floating panels of color that moved in his mobiles …. Very interesting video . Congrats !

awesome video great drummer and sound

This Pearl picollo 13x3 brass snare is dope even tuned low. Excellent recreation guys you nailed it. The analog distortion along the recording/pressing chain is missing and it shows how good it may have sounded in the room before deterioration. Amen!

Eyeless by Slipknot is the one that I can easily recognize

Great work. Love this video. I have been mixing since the early 90s and always loved the amen break. It doesn't sound like real drums. When I heard the original song, I was stunned. But this does sound like areal drums. Must be the recording of the original that gives it that sound.

This is fantastic. Do you have any high res audio files for this that I could download please?

Sending you great greetings from Singapore 🇸🇬🇸🇬🇸🇬!

Time to sample this amen break

You've missed out one of the most important aspects of the Amen break....the way it sounds. The break itself is a fairly typical funk pattern, but played at pace. The reason it was used so much isn't just the pattern, but the fact that the break is played tight as fuck and sounds great. The compression, E.Q. and miking (all recorded to analogue tape) are what makes the break so good - which is why your rendition is accurate in terms of the actual drum pattern, but doesn't 'sound' like the original. Cool video though! You should check out Jungle Drummer for some live Jungle / DnB drumming too!

first time I noticed this beat was on "The Mad Capsule Markets - Pulse"

Best I've heard yet!

Great drumming and tuning!!!

It’s worth noting that when the break was used in hip hop, the record was played at 33 1/3 instead of 45, which sounded much slower.

Unbelievable drumming and tuning. Really perfect sound!

Omg i love the kick sound so much

This beat is fucking magic! Nice video, bro, saludo from Russia 😊

100. Amazing work.

very cool remake 👍

I absolutely love your first ride cymbal, it’s similar in sound to my 21” Sabian Manhattan Jazz

Niice! I like the sound very much!

Great videos! Congrats

What you can't recreate unfortunately are the mic's from that time and most importantly - the amps for the mics and the tape where the whole thing was recorded on. And apparently these make the whole Amen sound complete. The Amen break is epic. It gave birth to multiple music genres which helped the mankind to go completely nuts and taught us all a lesson in keeping it simple, analogue and funky.

espectacular video, congratulation very tecnical thanks

Excellent

The Amen Break from Björk's Crystalline is so cool!

i think any drummer should check out breakcore! that genre of sampled drums is seriously fun to chew on. Frictional Nevada by Venetian Snares and o'er the flood by goreshit are amazing

You play that beautifully.

Sounds great🖤

God I miss playing drums. You nailed the sound

great effort, doesn't sound like the Amen at all though tbh

Amazing drum sound

Such a satisfying video! 👍🏼

Would really love a lossless download of your recordings here! Please share the love!

Very helpful video!

You should make a sample pack with all the individual hits, that would be next levels...

I remember this from The Prodigy’s “Firestarter.” Brilliant playing. Thank you.

Up next; Dominic Howard's uprising drum sound from Muse!

That snare sound sounds crispy and fresh

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON!!!

awesome!!

Nice!

Its always amazed me how much it sounds like a jazz drummer doing a half gogo beat tripping over, then catching it self. Is that what it is?

Anything on Deep Jungle records will give you your Amen fix

When the break is sampled in Jungle, or more latterly dnb, it's not 'sped up'. The sample audio is chopped into it's constituent hits, and then using the gaps between those, and MIDI sequencing, triggered at a higher tempo, also known as quantizing (ish). If the record you are listening to is also pitched up, it's because the producer did exactly that - pitched it up, which all samplers can also do. It's not just because the turntables are on +8 pitch.

haha that's awesome! Do you know of any electronic drum modules that will synthesize these (I'm particularly interested in the Jungle tuned kit)? I say synthesized because I don't want to use samples (in order to get that real, acoustic feel).

Awesome vid, great attention to detail. But one question regarding the pitch of the original - to me it sounds an octave or two lower? Perhaps down to the RPM of which the vinyl was pressed or tempo played back.., perhaps even the vinyl material used? I honestly have never heard a true 100% acoustic replication of the original break..

And now i will sample this video

Gregory S. "G.C." Coleman the drummer who played this never gets a mention!!!

Holy shit, fucking perfect.

I love drums and bass

That's pretty f*ing close!

Great !!!

Oooooo, what if this video were marked with a Creative Commons license so we could all sample it? Or if there were a link to buy a sample pack?

Drum n bass is THE best genre no one can tell me otherwise

And you are using the pedal of the dnb acoustic hero jojo mayer! 👍

Knew it was an Acrolite! Knew it!

Cool video, but wow, dat Lego figure haircut @ 2:37 🤣

Fun fact: you can play the amen break at the beginning of Heavy Dirty Soul by 21 pilots. But I hope you will cover it with the same kit and one Low Tom.

After the fast version I was expecting to get the slowed down version that you can hear in “Amy Winehouse - You know I’m no good”

the 19inch cymbal is amazing what a great choice. Do you know the weight?

Just listen to James Browns drummers and Zig from the Meters. There are hundreds of others, but that's a great place to start.

would it be ok if i sample the audio of the recreation of the amen break in this video? i will give credit if yes.

*n i c e*