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A kit piece’s line holds a steps value: one character per step, and a step is a sixteenth note. A bar of 4 over 4 is 16 steps. One bar of a rock beat on a drum staff: hi-hat eighth notes, snare on 2 and 4 with accents, kick on 1, 3 and the and of 3. Below it, the hat, snare and kick lines in code, with each character under the note it plays.

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Characters

Spaces are ignored, so steps can be grouped by beat. A steps value is as long as its characters: x--x--- is seven steps. A value written as the same figure more than once is an error, because a pattern repeats it: in a pattern, hat: x-x- x-x- is hat: x-. To play a figure once for a length, put the length in front: hat: 1 bars x-.

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Beats

A line can list beats instead, counted 1 e & a. A character in front gives the hit: ^4, ~3a, d3. A list of beats is one bar long, and it can’t share a line with steps.

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Rests and lengths

Commas split a line into parts. A length in front of a part fills that much time: 2 beats rest is silence, and 2 beats x- repeats x- for two beats. The length ... is what is left of the block the line is in, so a last part ...rest is silence to the end, and ...x- repeats x- to the end. The line then has no length of its own: the other lines decide how long the block is, and what comes before the ... plays once each time through. This is Circle of Manias by Porcupine Tree. The hats are 4 steps long, the kick 18 and the snare 9, so the pattern is 36 steps, and the ghost notes come back at the top of each pass.

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Hits spread over steps

3 in 8 is three hits spread as evenly as eight steps allow: x--x--x-, the tresillo. It is a part of its own, with a comma between it and anything else on the line, and a steps name can hold it.

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Layers

A block after a kit piece’s colon holds layers, one per line, and evaluates to one steps value. Each layer repeats until they all end together. Where two layers hit the same step the lower one wins, and a - never overrides a hit. The block is the whole value, so nothing goes beside it: hat: x--- { ... } is an error. To put steps in a row with a block, name it: steps fig = { ... } and hat: x--- fig. This evaluates to --x---x---x-ddd-.