Beat Maker (Online Drum Machine)

A simple online drum machine: write a pattern for each drum as a row of steps (x for a hit, . for a rest), set the tempo, swing and number of bars, and pick an 808, acoustic or electro kit. The beat is rendered in your browser as a WAV or MP3 that loops seamlessly, ready for a music app, a video or practice. Presets for hip-hop, house, trap, rock, reggaeton, funk and disco give you a starting point.

How to use this tool

1. Pick a preset, or keep "Use the rows below" and type your own rows (16 characters = one bar of sixteenth notes).
2. Set the tempo in BPM, the swing and how many bars to make.
3. Choose a kit and the file format, then press Calculate.
4. Play the loop here, check the grid, and download it.

Formula

Bar length = 4 × 60 ÷ BPM · step = bar ÷ steps · swing delay = (swing − 50%) × 2 × step on every second step

Each row is one drum; every character is one step of the bar, so 16 characters give sixteenth notes, 8 eighth notes and 12 eighth-note triplets. X is an accent, x a normal hit and o a soft (ghost) hit. All sounds are synthesized: the kick is a sine wave whose pitch falls from about 150 to 50 Hz, the snare a 185 Hz tone with band-passed noise, the hi-hats high-passed noise or six square waves like the 808, the clap a few quick noise bursts. A closed hi-hat cuts off a ringing open one, as on a real kit. The mix is set to peak at −1 dBFS.

Example

At 120 BPM one bar lasts 4 × 60 ÷ 120 = 2.0 s, so a 16-step pattern moves every 0.125 s. Four bars of the 90 BPM hip-hop preset last 4 × 4 × 60 ÷ 90 = 10.67 s. With 66% swing each second sixteenth arrives (0.66 − 0.5) × 2 × 0.125 s ≈ 40 ms late, giving a shuffle.