A virtual drum kit and beat maker in your browser
This virtual drum kit puts ten drums under your fingers: kick, snare, closed and open hi-hat, clap, three toms, crash and ride. Tap the pads on a phone or tablet (several at once), click them with a mouse, or play them from your computer keyboard. Every hit lights up the pad, so you can see your rhythm as well as hear it.
Below the pads is a 16-step sequencer — a small drum machine. Switch steps on, add accents, set the tempo and swing, and the beat loops while you practise or play along. Start from a preset groove (rock, boom-bap hip-hop, house, funk, reggaeton or a half-time shuffle), save your own patterns, and export four bars as a WAV file.
All the drum sounds are synthesised on the fly with the Web Audio API, so there are no samples to download and nothing leaves your device.
How to use the Virtual Drum Kit
- Tap a pad, or press A (kick), S (snare), D (hi-hat), F (open hat), G (clap), H J K (toms), L (crash) or ; (ride). Space also plays the kick.
- In the sequencer, choose a Preset groove or click steps in the grid: once for a hit, twice for an accent, three times to clear.
- Set the Tempo (60–200 BPM) and the Swing, then press Play. The highlighted column shows where the loop is.
- Type a Pattern name and press Save pattern to keep it in this browser; choose it later under Saved patterns and press Load.
- Press Export WAV (4 bars) to download the loop as audio for a video, a practice track or another music app.
Virtual Drum Kit features
Ten synthesised drums
An 808-style pitch-dropping kick, a snare built from a tuned body plus filtered noise, metallic hi-hats and cymbals from six detuned square waves, and three pitched toms.
Realistic hi-hat choke
A closed hi-hat cuts off a ringing open hat, as the pedal does on a real kit — essential for disco and house grooves.
Accents and swing
Each step can be off, normal or accented, and swing pushes every second sixteenth late, from straight time through a triplet shuffle.
Sample-accurate timing
Steps are scheduled ahead on the audio clock rather than with page timers, so the loop stays tight even when the page is busy.
Saved patterns
Keep up to 50 named patterns, with their tempo and swing, in your browser’s local storage — no account needed.
WAV export
Four bars are rendered offline (faster than real time) into a 16-bit, 44.1 kHz stereo WAV file.
Reading the step grid
The grid shows one bar of 4/4 time split into sixteen sixteenth notes. Columns 1, 5, 9 and 13 are the four beats you would count “one, two, three, four”; the shaded groups help you find them. A basic rock beat is kick on 1 and 9, snare on 5 and 13 (beats two and four), and hi-hat on every odd step (eighth notes). House music moves the kick to every beat — “four on the floor” — with an open hat on the off-beats.
| Preset | Tempo | What defines it |
|---|---|---|
| Rock | 104 BPM | Kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, straight eighth-note hats |
| Hip-hop (boom bap) | 90 BPM | Syncopated kick, heavy back-beat, swung hats |
| House | 124 BPM | Kick on every beat, clap on 2 and 4, open hat off-beats |
| Funk | 100 BPM | Sixteenth-note hats, ghost notes on the snare |
| Reggaeton (dembow) | 95 BPM | Four-on-the-floor kick against the “boom-ch-boom-chick” snare |
| Half-time shuffle | 80 BPM | Snare only on beat 3, triplet-swung hats |
What swing does
With swing at 0% all sixteenths are evenly spaced. As you raise it, every second sixteenth is played later: at about 67% it falls on the last third of the beat, the triplet “shuffle” feel of blues and boom-bap, and at 100% it becomes a dotted rhythm. Drum machines often express the same idea as a 50–75% setting; this slider covers exactly that range. Small amounts (15–30%) make a straight groove feel more human.
Tips for practising drums
- Find the tempo of a song with the BPM tapper, enter it here and play the pads along with the loop.
- Use the kit as a practice partner: program a simple groove, mute nothing, and practise fills on the toms over it.
- For a plain click to practise a real kit, the metronome has accents and subdivisions; add melody with the online piano or play Indian rhythms on the virtual tabla.
- Touch screens respond fastest with the built-in speaker or wired headphones; Bluetooth adds a noticeable delay.
Virtual Drum Kit FAQ
Is the virtual drum kit free?
Yes — free with no sign-up, no download and no time limit. It runs entirely in your browser.
How do I play the virtual drum kit with my keyboard?
Use the home row: A kick, S snare, D hi-hat, F open hat, G clap, H, J and K the toms, L crash and the semicolon key for ride. The space bar is a second kick key.
Can I play several drums at once on a phone?
Yes. Each finger is a separate touch, so you can hit the kick and the hi-hat together. Turn off silent mode on an iPhone, or web audio stays muted.
Where are my saved patterns kept?
In your browser’s local storage on this device. They are not uploaded, so they will not appear on another phone or computer, and clearing site data removes them.
Can I use the exported WAV in my own music or videos?
Yes. The sounds are generated by your browser from code, not from sampled recordings, so the file is yours to use.
Why is there a delay when I tap?
Audio latency depends on the device. Wired headphones or the built-in speakers usually respond fastest; Bluetooth headphones add roughly 100–300 ms.