Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcuts are ignored while you are typing in a name or number box, so you can call a pattern "Loop 1" without it doing anything odd. Moving the playhead with the arrows works while stopped, and sounds each step as you land on it when Preview on click is on.

The grid

• Click a cell to add or remove a hit.
• Drag across cells to paint several at once. On a phone or tablet, drag sideways.
• ⌘/Ctrl-drag a hit to move it to another step in the same track.
• ⌘/Ctrl-scroll over a hit to change its dynamic. Up is louder, down is softer.
• Right-click, or long press on touch, opens the full cell menu: dynamics, articulations, copy and paste cell, and remove hit.

Accents are played harder and ghost notes softer. They are marked A and G on the cell, and appear in the notation below. Preview on click decides whether you hear a hit as you place it.

Tracks

• Double-click the track name to rename it. Handy when you have two snares.
• The note icon loads your own samples for that instrument.
• S solo · M mute · C choke · X clear this bar · − delete the track.
• Choke makes each new hit cut off the one still ringing, so long samples stop stacking up. A closed hi-hat always cuts a ringing open one, whether choke is on or not.
• Each track has its own volume slider and percentage box.
• Drag the ⠿ handle to reorder tracks. On a phone or tablet it sits beside the track name, and the page scrolls along if you drag towards the top or bottom of the screen.
• + Add Track(s) opens a list of instruments, including cowbell, tambourine and shaker. Tick as many as you like, such as all three toms, and press Add. Double-click or double-tap an instrument to add just that one.

Transport & timing

• Space plays and stops.
• BPM runs from 40 to 250. The chevrons step by 10. Double-click the slider, or double-tap it on a phone or tablet, to reset the tempo to the one the pattern was loaded or last saved at, or 120 for a new pattern.
• Metronome has its own volume, and double-clicking or double-tapping that slider resets it. Some subdivisions grey out when the current division cannot play them, such as a 16th click on a 1/8 grid.
• Count-in plays one or two bars of clicks before playback starts, whenever you press Play from a stop or pause, so you have time to get to the kit. The Play button counts the beats, the pattern then starts from wherever the playhead is parked, and pressing Play during the count cancels it. The clicks play even with the metronome off, at the metronome volume.
• Tempo trainer, the gauge button in the BPM panel, raises (or lowers) the tempo step by step while you play. Set a start and target tempo, how much to change by and how often, and what happens at the target. It lights up while it is on, each run starts at the start tempo when you press Play, and pausing or Back to start ends the run, going back to the start and the pattern’s own tempo. Turn on Count-in at every tempo change to hear a count-in before each new tempo, using the Count-in length. While Count-in is Off, no count-in plays anywhere. Reset Settings fills in a typical setup: 20 BPM below the pattern’s tempo, up by 5 every 4 times through. Changing the tempo by hand ends that run. The trainer’s tempos are never saved with the pattern.
• Swing sets the feel. Light and Medium push every second note a little later, and Shuffle gives a full triplet feel. A pattern saved with an in-between amount keeps it and shows it as Custom.
• Time sets beats per bar, from 2 to 12, always over 4.
• Division sets the grid resolution, including triplets. Changing it warns you first if hits would be lost.

Undo & redo

• Undo and Redo step back and forward through up to 100 changes: hits, tracks, volumes, bars, names, tempo and settings. A quick run of changes, such as painting across cells or dragging a slider, counts as one step.
• Solo and mute are not undo steps, and undoing something else leaves them as they are.
• History survives a page refresh. It is cleared when you load, import or open a shared pattern, and by Reset All.
• Undo cannot bring back samples you loaded yourself onto a track that was removed, or a saved pattern you deleted.

Bars

• Use the ‹ › arrows beside the bar count to step through bars, or pick a numbered chip to go straight to one. Picking a chip also moves the playhead to the start of that bar.
• The chips show four bars at a time. When there are more than four, page through them with the small ‹ › arrows either side of the chips. On a phone or tablet you can also swipe the chips left for the next four or right for the previous four.
• While Loop is on and playing, picking another bar (a bar chip, the arrows or a number key) lets the looped bar finish, then loops the new bar from its first beat. Its chip shows a dashed outline while it waits. Pick the looping bar again to stay put.
• + Bar adds an empty bar, Duplicate copies the current one along with its name, − Bar removes it.
• Reset Bar, beside Reset All, erases every hit in the bar you are viewing, on every track. It is only available when the bar has something in it, asks first, keeps the bar and its name, and Undo can bring the hits back.
• Arrange, or the A key, opens a list of your bars. Drag a bar by its handle, or use its arrows, to move it. Type in a bar’s name box to give it a name of your own, such as Bridge Part 1. The name moves with the bar, shows above it on the sheet music, and is kept when you save, export or share. In the list the numbers on the left show where each bar will sit, moved bars are marked in green, a yellow dot means the bar has hits, and an unnamed bar keeps its old label, such as Bar 2, until you press Save. Press × on a bar to mark it for deletion, then tick the confirmation box to save. Undo can bring deleted bars back. Cancel leaves everything as it was. Arrange is available while playback is stopped or paused.
• Copy takes the tracks you tick from the bar you are viewing. Tracks with hits start ticked and empty ones unticked, and you can tick an empty track to wipe that track wherever you paste it.
• Paste drops the copy into the bar you are viewing. Paste to Bars… lists every bar, all ticked, so you can paste into as many bars as you like at once. Only the copied tracks are replaced, and other tracks are left alone.
• In either list, ⌘/Ctrl-click a row to pick just that one, and Select all ticks every row again.
• Pasting over bars that already have hits asks before overwriting.

Kits

• The Kit menu, just above the tracks, swaps every track to a different set of sounds at once.
• Loading your own sample on a track marks the kit as Custom, since it no longer matches the kit it came from.
• Switching kits asks whether to keep the samples you have loaded yourself or start clean.
• The kit is saved with the pattern, so loading a pattern brings its sounds back with it.

Saving & sharing

• Name your pattern at the top. That name is used for any files you download.
• Save to account stores a pattern against your login, so it follows you to any device you sign in on. Save local keeps it in this browser only.
• Every saved pattern is badged My account or This browser so you can see where it lives, and each has a Move to button to shift it between the two.
• Nothing moves on its own. A pattern saved in a browser stays there until you move it, which matters on a shared or school computer.
• You can keep up to 50 patterns on your account. Saving to this browser is unlimited.
• Once you have a few saved, use the search box above the list to find one by name, kit or track, and the All, My account and This browser filters to see just one place. The quick-open list beside the name has the same search and filters.
• Each saved pattern has these buttons:

• Click a saved pattern's name to rename it in place. Enter keeps the change, Escape abandons it.
• If you rename the pattern at the top and then press Update, the saved copy is renamed to match.
• A badge inside the name box shows where the open pattern is saved: My account or This browser. A pattern you have named but never saved shows Unsaved.
• Whenever you have saved patterns, the open button beside the name lists them, so you can load one without opening Save / Load. It asks before replacing the grid, just like Load Track.
• Once a saved pattern is open, the save icon beside the name is its Update button. It stays greyed out until you change something, then lights up. Pressing it saves your changes, a new name included, straight back to that same pattern, wherever it came from.
• The Export and Import buttons beside the name download and open a single pattern file.
• Copy share URL puts the whole pattern into a link. Very long patterns will not fit, and you are offered a file instead.
• Saving, exporting and sharing all carry the tempo, swing, time signature, division, kit and metronome setting along with the notes.
• Samples you loaded yourself stay in this browser only. They are not included in share links or exports.
• Reset All clears everything and returns the tempo, time signature and metronome to their defaults. It also clears undo history, so it cannot be undone. Saved patterns are not touched.

Your work is kept as you go, so closing the page and coming back will bring the last pattern with it. If you are not signed in, Save to account is unavailable and patterns can only be kept in this browser.

Sheet music

• The notation follows solo and mute, so soloing a track shows only that track.
• Hands are written with stems up and feet with stems down, as on a normal drum chart.
• Triplets are bracketed with a small 3, and a swung pattern is marked Swing above the stave.
• Bars you have named in Arrange show their name in small grey type above the start of the bar, and the name is included in exports.
• Export as PNG with a transparent background, JPG on white, or SVG for print and editing.

Phones, tablets and touch devices

• Tap a cell to add or remove a hit.
• Drag sideways across cells to paint several at once. Dragging up and down scrolls the page as normal, and never changes a cell, so you can scroll with your finger on the grid.
• Long press a cell for the full menu: dynamics, articulations, copy and paste cell, and remove hit.
• There is no right-click or scroll wheel, so moving a hit and changing its dynamic are done through that long-press menu rather than with a modifier key.
• Swipe the bar chips left or right to page through your bars four at a time.
• Long press a button to see what it does. The tip shows for a moment, and holding the button to read it does not also press it.
• Double-tap zoom is switched off so quick tapping stays accurate. Pinch to zoom still works.