Guide

The pads

There are sixteen pads in a row. When the last one plays, it starts again at the first.

Each row is one drum. Tap a pad to light it. Tap it again for a harder hit. Tap once more for a soft hit. Tap again to turn it off. You can also drag across a row.

On a phone, drag sideways to paint. Drag up or down to scroll.

The rows

Kick is the boom. Snare is the clap. Hat is the closed tick. Open is the longer splash. A hat or a crash cuts the one that was still ringing.

Rack and floor are the toms. They are not the same drum.

Click is the extra tap.

Ride and crash already play. Load recording, under those rows, replaces that sound with a file from this phone. The file is not saved with the beat.

Each row has Hit. While the machine is playing, tap Hit and that drum sounds, and the pad under the moving line lights up. Tap the row name to mute it. S plays only that row.

The controls

Play starts it. Stop ends it. The space bar does the same.

Tempo is the speed. Tap, next to Tempo, sets the speed by how fast you tap.

Swing leans the hits so they are not perfectly even.

Wobble moves each hit a tiny bit early or late, so the loop does not sound locked to a clock. Leave it at zero if you want it strict.

Dry, Room, and Broken are three kits. Dry is tight. Room puts air around the drums. Broken is rougher and less even. Grit dirties whichever kit you are on. A soft pad is a shorter, duller hit. A hard pad is brighter and longer. The same pad does not sound identical every time.

Level is how loud it is. Mute silences everything.

A, B, C, and D are four patterns. Each one already has a beat in it. Pick one and it waits until the current pass finishes. Copy sends the pattern you are on into the next letter.

Chain plays them as a song: A, then B, then A, then C, then it starts again. The letter in front is the one you are hearing.

Fill plays D, the one with the toms at the end, for one pass, then carries on. If Chain is on, it carries on to the next letter. If Chain is off, it comes back to the pattern you were on. F does the same as the Fill button.

Randomise fills the pattern you are on with a new beat. R does the same.

16, 32, and 48 set how many pads are in one pass. On a row, Loop all means that drum uses every pad. Loop and a number means that drum repeats sooner, so it can fall out of step with the others.

The slider on a row is how loud that drum is. The button on that row says Loop all, or Loop and a number. Echo is a repeat locked to the tempo. Sweep opens and closes a filter on the whole mix.

MIDI file, under Take it, is the pattern as notes another program can open. The sound file is still the WAV.

If you already know the words: Loop is an independent length, Echo is a tempo-synced delay, Sweep is a slow filter, and the MIDI file is General MIDI drums.

Beats to start from

Fast and rough, and Start here, are ready-made beats. Tap a name and it loads, then plays. Change one pad and it is yours.

Will's List, with a subscription, is ninety-nine more. If you are new, tap one and let it play. Watch the pads. Stop it. The pattern stays. That is your copy. Change one pad, then try the next beat.

The phone remembers the machine. An account keeps a named copy. One beat is free. A subscription keeps more, and unlocks the files. It is £4.99 a month. Cancel any time.

Copy link, under Take it, copies an address. Send it. The person who opens it gets this beat on their machine, without an account. The files you download are separate, and those stay with the subscription.