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Whether or not you know his name, you’ve certainly heard his drums.
DECAP is the producer and sound designer behind Drums That Knock, the influential sample pack series that has quietly powered the biggest hits of the past decade, along with the KNOCK plugin that helps producers shape their own drums.
His sounds have been used by Beyoncé, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Bad Bunny, Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, and many others, becoming a go-to for producers across pop, hip hop, R&B, and electronic music.
In celebration of the release of Drums That Knock 11 and the launch of his new label, DECAP – Knock Audio, we’re highlighting eight of the countless tracks that the music producer community has identified DECAP’s drums on—and had the unique opportunity to hear from DECAP himself on his insights and anecdotes behind the sounds.
1. “Que Malo” (Bad Bunny, Ñengo Flow)
“Que Malo” is a track from Bad Bunny and Ñengo Flow off of YHLQMDLG, one of the most celebrated Latin albums of the decade. Two minutes into the track, it features a hi-hat loop from Drums That Knock Vol. 4:
“Just hats with a little swing to them, a bit off in a way that feels good,” DECAP comments. “They have a real janky, glitchy vibe to them. Wasn’t made for reggaeton or anything. They used it in the bridge, and it sounds tight.”
2. “LORD FORGIVE ME” (Tobe Nwigwe, Fat Nwigwe, Pharrell Williams, EARTHGANG)
A Pharrell-produced single from Tobe Nwigwe’s moMINTs album, “LORD FORGIVE ME” brings together Fat Nwigwe, Pharrell Williams, and EARTHGANG for a reflective but powerful track. The track makes use of several of DECAP’s one-shots:
“Those drum sounds—the hats, kick, and snare, are all Drums That Knock,” DECAP says. “I processed those sounds on an SSL 9000 board. I make them to already sound mixed, so you can drop them in and they sound good together. Really love how Pharrell used the sounds on this track. I grew up listening to The Neptunes, so it felt good to hear him in his Drums That Knock bag.”
See the samples programmed to recreate this beat below:
3. “Doggystylin” (Snoop Dogg)
Off of BODR, Snoop Dogg’s “Doggystylin” is a track that nods to his 1993 debut album, Doggystyle. It features a percussion loop from Drums That Knock Vol. 5:
“Soopafly used a percussion loop from Vol. 5 on this one,” DECAP tells us. “Classic West Coast vibes on this—slaps hard!”
4. “Move Me” (Charli XCX)
DECAP’s drums aren’t only beloved across hip hop—they’re also heard in Charli XCX’s melancholic dance hit, “Move Me.”
“A drum loop from Vol. 9 on this one,” DECAP shares. “140 BPM, bouncy, and built around a rimshot. Ian Kirkpatrick produced that one. I watched a video of how he made the track on YouTube and that man is a wizard. I’m a fan of his work, so it was cool to see a loop of mine end up on the record.”
5. “Persuasive” (Doechii, SZA)
The long-anticipated collaboration between Doechii and SZA, “Persuasive” is an uptempo dance single that blends house and hip hop influences. It tastefully incorporates a shaker loop from Drums That Knock Vol. 3:
“They used the first half of the percussion loop, and it just gives the track that bounce,” DECAP observes. “This is a cool record—can’t help but move to it.”
See how the loop was possibly arranged below:
6. “Nice 2 Know U 1.5.3 [2020 Export Wav]” (Flume)
Flume’s “Nice 2 Know U 1.5.3 [2020 Export Wav]” is a mesmerizing electronic track off of Things Don’t Always Go The Way You Plan. You can hear DECAP’s kick and snare from Drums That Knock Vol. 8 on it:
“I call the snare ‘clappah,'” DECAP says. “Flume does a lot of his own sound design, so that was a fun one to hear.”
7. “Culpables” (Karol G, Anuel AA)
While DECAP is known primarily for his drums, he also includes melodic elements in his sample collections—and these make an appearance in Karol G and Anuel AA’s Billboard-charting single, “Culpables”:
“This one’s got a lot of Drums That Knock in it,” DECAP comments. “The melodic loop is an electric piano and synth from Vol. 3. The hi-hats are chopped up, and the ‘woh’ shout—that’s my voice, used as-is. It did really well. It’s kind of funny to hear that much of a pack end up on one record.”
8. “Slow Down” (VanJess, Lucky Daye)
Last but not least, “Slow Down” is VanJess’ smooth 2021 R&B single featuring Lucky Daye. It features a reworked drum loop from Drums That Knock Vol. 5:
“This is a drum loop from Vol. 5, chopped up a bit,” DECAP says. “Jonah Christian was one of the producers on it, and we go back. I make the loops easy to flip on purpose. Chop it, freak it, make it your own.”
See how the loop was possibly chopped below:
An inside look into DECAP’s creative process
We also had a chance to hear DECAP discuss his go-to tools, perspective on creative effects processing, and more.
“I came up on a Dell computer with Windows XP, Cool Edit Pro, all that, so I’ve touched just about everything,” he tells us. “These days, I’m in Ableton. Operator is where I learned it all—how to make a kick, a snare, a hat, synth patches. Most of what you pick up on one synth carries to the next.
“I’ll run sounds through different hardware and gear until they sit right. A lot of layering, time-stretching, and distorting. Just messing with it until it does something I haven’t heard before.”
On the topic of distortion, DECAP spoke on how clipping and saturation are key parts of his sonic identity, as opposed to elements that need to be avoided. “Clipping used to be what you’d get told to fix,” he says. “Clean it up, turn it down, don’t let it distort. But, to me, a little clipping is what makes a drum hit hard. So, I just created what sounded good to me.
“Then, it stopped being looked at as negative. The SoundCloud era had a lot to do with it; a whole generation came up not caring about that stuff. Now, you hear that saturated, pushed sound everywhere—pop, hip hop, everything. It’s just how drums sound now. I was into it early, but it took on a life of its own.”
Incorporate DECAP’s sounds into your own productions
While DECAP’s samples have been used by some of the biggest producers and artists in music, anyone can incorporate them into their own productions via Splice Sounds.
“I’m a producer first, and a pack starts the same way a beat does—I create the sounds I want to use for myself,” he tells us. “Hard-hitting drums that you feel—the kind that hit you in the chest. I make what I want to hear, and I figure if it works for me, it’ll probably work for someone else.
“The only real difference with making a pack is consistency. On a record, it’s one kick in one mix, done. I like to have a cohesive feel across my pack. You pull a kick from here, a snare from there, and they fit together like a puzzle.
“With the first Drums That Knock, back in 2016, I just put out some of the drums I was using. There wasn’t much planning behind it. It caught on, so I kept going. Over these years doing it, I’ve developed a lot more nuance in creating the sound, but I’ve always had the same approach; I know it’s right when it’s in the sweet spot.”
Drums That Knock 11 and his new label mark a new chapter for DECAP that he’s excited to share with music creators everywhere. “With this new pack, I got to experiment a lot,” he says. “Different genres, and some stuff I hadn’t tried before.
“Over the last three years I’ve been quiet, building behind the scenes, and figuring out the next direction. Knock Audio is the start of that. There are no limits to what I can make anymore. Drums That Knock used to drop maybe once a year. Now, I can put out more packs, more genres, and sounds I’ve never tried.
“Knock Audio is for producers. I make sounds I like and release them. I know when I’m working on a record, it feels good to have a starting point to drop in that sounds good off the bat. I want producers to use these sounds, get inspired by them, and make dope records.”
Incorporate DECAP’s hard-hitting sounds into your own productions:
June 8, 2026
