How to make drill beats on your phone, dark and broken-up

A drill beat gives itself away with its broken rhythm: nothing lands where you expect. In PadLoop you load the Drill beat at 142 BPM (beats per minute), with drums, Sub bass and dark piano already recorded, and rap over it straight away. Then you redo the drums with triplets, and the beat becomes yours.

Hear what comes out of PadLoopRecorded inside the app with PadLoop's sounds, exactly as it comes out: no mixing on a computer.

UK drill

From the Ready beat to your own crooked drums

Six steps: the first two get the beat playing (loading a Ready beat is part of the full version, included in the 7-day trial), the rest bend it your way.

1. In the PAD tab tap ⊞ (the menu for banks and Ready beats), open Ready beats and tap Drill: the bank and the 142 BPM tempo load by themselves.
2. Press ► at the top: drums, Sub and dark piano are already rolling, and you can rap over them.
3. In the LOOP tab tap the square for track 1 (tracks are the layers of your song, the numbers at the top): the drums go quiet and the music stays.
4. Tap 3 in the top bar, press REC and play Kick and Snare: a hard snare on beat three, the kick where nobody expects it.
5. Press REC again, turn on ⟳ (it repeats a hit in time) at 1/8T or 1/16T and hold Hat: out come the triplets.
6. Close the loop with a China or Pop hit, then tidy the hits in the SEQ tab viewed at 1/16T.

A layer doesn't work? The ↶ arrow removes only the last one.

Watch the video on its own page →

Transcript

1. 0:00 Make a drill beat from scratch
2. 0:02 Pick track 1 and tap REC: a one-bar count-in starts
3. 0:04 Kick, with the clap on beat 3: the drill bounce
4. 0:08 The loop starts again by itself: listen before adding more
5. 0:11 REC again on track 1: hi-hats in 3-3-2 groups, with rolls
6. 0:15 Track 2: the 808 bass
7. 0:19 Track 3: dark chords
8. 0:22 All the layers, in time. Now arrange it.
9. 0:25 LOOP tab: mute the drums in time for a break
10. 0:29 …then the bass: the tension builds
11. 0:32 Drop: everything comes back in
12. 0:35 Hold an effect while it plays: filter down, then echo
13. 0:42 Note repeat on the hi-hat: rolls in time
14. 0:46 The performance recording is ready to share or export

Why does drill sound "crooked"?

Because nothing lands where you expect it. The hard snare stays on beat three, as in trap, but around it there are soft snares that push ahead or drag behind. The kick skips beats. The hi-hats don't lay down a carpet: they run in triplets, stop and start again. Underneath, a deep sub; on top, a dark piano and a China cymbal that cuts through. The tempo sits between 140 and 145 BPM: fast on paper, heavy to the ear.

Finger-played triplets landing in the wrong place? It's the grid straightening them to the nearest 16th. In MORE set it to Triplets, or turn it off. With ⟳ you don't need to: its triplets already land in the right spot.

The Drill beat, pad by pad

Once loaded, the beat puts the Trap & Drill bank on the first free bank (banks are pages of 16 pads, lettered A–H) and records a loop of two bars, that is two groups of four beats:

• track 1, drums: snare on beat three plus a soft one pushed late in the loop, a skipping kick, hi-hats that tighten up mid-bar and a Pop (a mouth pop)
• track 2, bass and chords: the Sub plays the bassline, the Dark piano the melody and the Dark chord opens each bar

The musical pads are tuned to the note the beat plays most, so whatever you play on top fits. For a bassline of your own, turn on the Keyboard (the piano button) on Sub and pick the Minor scale: every pad becomes a right note. The Keyboard page explains it all, and the other 23 styles are on the Ready beats page, including UK drill at 142 BPM: a complete 4-bar beat with cello, drums, 808 and violin on separate tracks, using the Strings plugin.

Triplets: the limping step

In drill, ⟳ becomes your hi-hat player. At 1/8T the triplets are wide and give the genre its lurching walk. At 1/16T they tighten into short bursts. 1/32 is for the sharp little roll just before the snare.

The trick is switching rate halfway through the loop: the rhythm cuts out and starts again, which is exactly what you want. Then in SEQ hold a lit step and turn it down: between full hits and whispered ones, the accents come alive.

Darker still: reversed cymbals and effects

• The bolt (effects that work while you hold them down). Hold Filter down to smother the loop before the verse comes in, or Reverb on a China hit.
• Reversed. Tap the pencil (it edits pads), open a pad and set the direction to Reversed: a backwards cymbal becomes a swell into the bar.
• More dark sounds in the full version. The Chords Ready bank has Dark 1, Dark 2, Dark 3 and Dark 4; the Sound library in SAMPLE has more drill drum loops under Grooves.

Same ideas with less gloom and more 808? Check out trap beats: same bank, at 140 BPM. Want a cowbell melody over a heavy 808? Try phonk beats.

What can you do without paying?

The free version gives you bank B (Trap: kick, snares, hi-hats and four 808s) and 2 tracks: enough for hand-played drill drums, ⟳ triplets included. The ready-made Drill beat and the Trap & Drill bank, a full drill groove in one tap, belong to the full version: you can use them freely for 7 days, then they're one purchase away. To lay out verse, hook and breaks, read how to make beats on your phone.

Good to know

• Long verses. Record a full verse in pieces: each 🎤 take lasts up to 8 bars, about 13.5 seconds at 142 BPM. To rap without recording, let the Drill beat loop: it's one of the freestyle rap beats in the app.
• Effects in the file. To capture the hold-down effects, use Record performance (full version, open during the trial): they're played live, so a normal export leaves them out.

Questions about making drill beats on a phone

Can you make drill beats on your phone?

Yes. PadLoop has a ready-made Drill beat at 142 BPM and a Trap & Drill bank with kick, snare, hi-hats, Sub, dark piano and a China cymbal. You record in layers on the looper and fix hits in the step sequencer.

What BPM is drill?

Usually 140 to 145 BPM, with the hard snare on beat three giving it a half-time feel. PadLoop's Drill beat runs at 142 BPM, and you can change the tempo from the BPM in the top bar.

Is there a free drill beat maker app?

PadLoop is free to download and you get everything free for 7 days, Drill beat included. After that, bank B (Trap), 2 tracks and one project stay free forever; the one-time purchase adds the Drill beat and the Trap & Drill bank, a ready drill groove and its sounds.

Can I make drill beats online or with AI?

With PadLoop you make them on your phone, even offline, and you play every hit yourself. The only AI in the app is the optional plugin that splits a song into vocals, drums, bass and the rest.

What's the difference between drill and trap?

Drill breaks the rhythm up: around the hard snare there are ghost hits that land early or late, the kick skips beats and the hi-hats often move in triplets. The color is darker too, with gloomy piano and a China cymbal. In PadLoop Drill and Trap share a bank, so you hear the difference with the same sounds.

How do you make triplet hi-hats?

Turn on the ⟳ button, pick 1/8T or 1/16T and hold the hi-hat pad: the repeated hits are recorded exactly in time. If you play triplets with your finger, set the grid to Triplets in MORE first.

Can I rap over the Drill beat?

Yes. The 🎤 on an empty track (track 3 or higher: full version, included in the trial) records your voice in time with the loop, up to 8 bars per take: split a long verse across several tracks.

Can I change the tempo of the Drill beat?

Yes: tap the BPM and the hits stay in time. The tempo only locks if another track holds audio recorded from the microphone.

Last updated: 21 October 2026