Drum pads online: sixteen of them, and they hear how hard you hit
A virtual beat pad is usually sixteen squares that make the same noise however you touch them. These do not. Every pad reads velocity, so the harder you press a key - or strike a pad on a MIDI controller - the louder and brighter the sound, and four banks of sixteen give you sixty-four sounds without leaving the page.
How to play the pads
The bottom row is Z X C V, then A S D F, Q W E R and 1 2 3 4 going up - the same shape as the grid on screen, so your hand learns one layout and keeps it. Space starts the loop, Enter arms recording. Hold a pad with REPEAT on and it rolls in time, which is how hi-hat runs and 808 stutters get played rather than drawn.
An 808 kit is loaded, and it is not the only one
This page opens on the 808 kit - the long booming bass drum, the thin snap of a snare, the cowbell - because that is the sound most people mean by a beat pad. GROOVES swaps in any of two dozen other kits, from boom bap to techno, and the pads keep their layout while the sounds underneath change completely. Every pad is editable: tune, filter, decay, pan, reverb and delay per pad.
Then stop tapping and start building
Pads are the fast way in; the pattern grid underneath is where a loop becomes a track. Draw hits, nudge them off the grid, set velocity per step, chain six patterns into an arrangement, and export the result as a WAV or a MIDI file.
Pick a style to start from
- Boom Bap drum machine88-94 BPM
- Trap drum machine130-150 BPM (half-time feel)
- Lo-Fi Hip Hop drum machine70-85 BPM
- House drum machine120-126 BPM
- Techno drum machine130-140 BPM
- Drum and Bass drum machine172-176 BPM
- Afro House drum machine120-124 BPM
- UK Garage drum machine130-135 BPM
- Funk drum machine100-110 BPM
- 808 drum machine100-130 BPM
Or a rhythm to take apart
- The Jungle Break: Syncopated Snares at 172172 BPM
- Boom Bap at 90 BPM: the dusty backbeat90 BPM
- Dilla-style drunk swing87 BPM
- Four on the Floor124 BPM
- The hip hop skeleton: kick on 1, snare on 2 and 4, ghosts in the gaps90 BPM
- The Full House Groove: Four on the Floor, Offbeat Hats and a Rolling Shaker124 BPM
- The Dembow Riddim96 BPM
- Trap Hi-Hats: 8ths, 32nd Bursts and a Triplet Turnaround140 BPM
BAP Studio is inspired by classic 16-pad sampler and drum-machine workflows. It is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Akai Professional, Roland, or any other manufacturer.
Made by Max Berggren.