Linear drumming

Linear drumming involves only hitting one instrument (drum, cymbal, etc) at a time. In synthesiser terms, it's essentially monophonic, monotimbral drumming.

When using a sampler or tracker with limited polyphony or timbrality, linear drumming is often a necessity, with each subsequent drum hit sample abruptly cutting off the last one, in much the same way that playing an open acoustic hi-hat then closing it abruptly cuts off its tail.