# Talking Drums: Generating drum grooves with neural networks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.09558 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.09558/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 29 Jun 2017.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Conditional Drums Generation using Compound Word Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.04464/) (2022)
- [Can pre-trained Deep Learning models predict groove ratings?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.27237/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Presented is a method of generating a full drum kit part for a provided kick-drum sequence. A sequence to sequence neural network model used in natural language translation was adopted to encode multiple musical styles and an online survey was developed to test different techniques for sampling the output of the softmax function. The strongest results were found using a sampling technique that drew from the three most probable outputs at each subdivision of the drum pattern but the consistency of output was found to be heavily dependent on style.