The “Amen Break” is a 6 second drum beat which was originally played by Gregory Sylvester Coleman in the song “Amen Brother” by “The Winstons” in 1969. It is probably the most popular drumbeat in the world because it is used (and some would say “over-used”) in many forms of Hip-hop, Jungle, Rock, Drum and Bass and Breakcore music. The history behind this beat is quite extensive and interesting and is well summarised on Wikipedia at the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen_break

For your interest, this is the original sampled beat: AmenBreakOriginal.mp3 (110 KB) - I’m sure it sounds familiar, even if you’re not into that sort of music.

Since this is such an interesting and useful beat, I decided to make a Hydrogen song/beat template out of it. This can be useful for DJs, drummers or people who just want to have fun with Hydrogen. This is can be downloaded from the links below:

Amen Break Hydrogen song: AmenBreakHydrogen.h2song (100 KB)

Note: These songs require the GMkit which comes standard with Hydrogen, otherwise available for free download from here.

Demo of the Hydrogen song: AmenBreakHydrogen.mp3 (167 KB)

Note: This mp3 demo is recorded straight from Hydrogen it’s sound can obviously be improved with the use of effects and EQ. But I’ll leave that up to you guys, ’cause that’s where you can have some real fun.

Enjoy!