I'm sitting on the couch, strumming my guitar when I come across a few nice chords. I start humming a melody. Some nice lyrics pop out of my mouth before I've given it much thought.

Suddenly I am inspired!

I run downstairs to my basement studio and tell Siri to "turn on The Practice Space." The lights turn on and my gear fires up. I open Ableton Live and I'm ready to get to work!

But first, I need to sequence a beat to play along with.

I spend a few minutes scrolling through my drum sounds before I realize my idea is starting to grow hazy. A basic 808 kit will do.

I program a simple beat I've sequenced thousands of times before.

It feels a bit mechanical, like a robot. It's the type of beat that inspired the "Drum machines have no soul" bumper sticker. I start playing with the velocities of different notes. Still stiff. I delete it.

Maybe I'll perform the beat on my MIDI drum pads...

Two or three takes later I have a decent beat I can play over.

I grab my guitar.

What were those chords again? How did that melody go?

It's gone.

Another song I'll never write. 😥

I decide this will never happen again.

I'm going to program a collection of Go-To Beats that I can use to start my tracks before my ideas slip through my fingers.

The beats will cover a bunch of different styles and genres, and have a human feel. Any time I need a beat to get a song started I can one into my project and get to work.

So although I lost this song, I did something that will save future songs.

Go-To Beats - Drum Grooves with Soul.

Now when inspiration strikes, there's one less thing that gets in the way.

Go-To Beats are MIDI Drum Grooves and Ableton Live Clips perfect for getting ideas started. They're practical and useful beats. They support your ideas. They were carefully designed and programmed. There's enough of them to give you plenty of options, but not too many that you get overwhelmed by choice.

Each beat has humanized timing and velocity so they feel natural and alive.

Many of the Ableton Live Clips are programmed with probability. This ensures that ghost notes, high hat patterns, and subtle fills play occasionally enough to keep things from feeling too repetitive.

There are two versions Go-To Beats:

Free Version: 16 Drum Beats in both MIDI and Ableton Live Clips.

Music Production Club Version: 65 Drum Beats in both MIDI and Ableton Live Clips, plus 44 Fab Four Ableton Live Groove Files. Included as part of your Music Production Club membership!

44 Fab Four Ableton Groove Files

I don’t know who my favorite Beatle is, but Ringo Starr is my favorite drummer. He always played his part to fit the song. His beats just feel so good. There’s a certain swing to his playing that can’t be matched!

I’ve extracted the grooves from 44 of my favorite Beatles songs. The Music Production Club version of Go-To Beats comes with these 44 Ableton Live Groove files.

Simply drop one of the 44 Fab Four Ableton Live Groove files onto any clip to give it the feel and timing of Ringo’s playing!

Pair the Fab Four Grooves with Go-To Beats and you will have a solid groove to build your idea on!

Download Go-To Beats Free Version Join the Music Production Club to get the Full Version of Go-To Beats

*Ableton Live Clips require Live 12 Intro or above

Learn more about Go-To Beats.

The next time you are making music, pay attention to the places where you lose time and inspiration. If these are repetitive tasks, try to find ways to simplify or eliminate them. I'm working on a video on this very topic. I will let you know when it is up on my YouTube Channel. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss it. It might mean the difference between finishing a song or letting another idea get away.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy Go-To Beats!

Brian Funk

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