Drum Machine

The Drum Machine is a classic step sequencer: each row is a drum voice, each column is a sixteenth-note step, and you build a beat by lighting up cells. It plays bundled 808 and analog drum samples, and each voice carries its own colour so a busy pattern stays readable at a glance.

The step grid

Steps are laid out in groups of four, so the downbeats line up visually and you can see where beat two and beat four fall without counting. Click a cell to turn that voice on at that step; click again to remove it. A playhead column sweeps the grid in time with the transport, so you can always see where you are in the loop.

Voices

The bundled kit covers the usual ground — kick, snare and clap sounds, hats, and percussion including 808 claves and claps. Each voice gets its own row and its own hue in the grid.

Building a beat

A conventional starting point:

1. Put a kick on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 — the four downbeats.
2. Put a clap or snare on steps 5 and 13 — the backbeat.
3. Fill in hats on the off-beats to create movement.

From there, removing a kick is usually more interesting than adding one.

Loop length

Like every instrument, the Drum Machine has its own beats-per-loop setting. A 4-beat drum loop under a 16-beat melodic part is a cheap way to get a pattern that feels like it develops.

Notes are the source of truth

Drum steps are stored as notes on the instrument's pattern, exactly like the notes you draw in the piano-roll grid. That means drum patterns take part in clip launching, scenes and collaboration on the same terms as everything else — there is no separate drum-only data path.

Where to go next

• Drum Sequencing — working with the drum grid in the context of the sequencer.
• Clips & Scenes — holding several beat variations and launching between them.