How to make drum and bass and jungle on your phone

To make drum and bass or jungle on your phone you need a fast drum break, a deep bass and the right tempo, around 174 BPM (beats per minute). In PadLoop you download the Jungle & DnB kit, tap Amen 1 and the break keeps rolling on its own; the sub goes in with one more tap. No kit yet? Free bank A is enough for a first sketch.

Watch the video on its own page →

Transcript

1. 0:00 Make a drum & bass beat from scratch
2. 0:02 Pick track 1 and tap REC: a one-bar count-in starts
3. 0:04 Track 1: the two-step, kick and snare
4. 0:07 The loop starts again by itself: listen before adding more
5. 0:10 REC again on track 1: fast hi-hats
6. 0:13 Track 2: the bass
7. 0:16 Track 3: pads
8. 0:20 All the layers, in time. Now arrange it.
9. 0:22 LOOP tab: mute the drums in time for a break
10. 0:26 …then the bass: the tension builds
11. 0:28 Drop: everything comes back in
12. 0:31 Hold an effect while it plays: filter down, then echo
13. 0:37 Note repeat on the hi-hat: rolls in time
14. 0:40 The performance recording is ready to share or export

From the kit to your first drum and bass loop

1. In MORE → Plugins download the Jungle & DnB kit (31 sounds in 2 banks, about 9 MB).
2. In the PAD tab tap ⊞ (the menu for banks and Ready beats), pick Jungle Jam (marked Plugin) and say yes when PadLoop offers to set the project to 174 BPM.
3. Tap Amen 1 and the break keeps going on its own. On the first beat bring in Sub 1, then Pad 1 or Piano 1.
4. Tap ⊞ again, pick Jungle & DnB, the bank of single hits, and load it onto another bank.
5. Tap track 1 (the numbers at the top are tracks, the layers of your song), open the SEQ tab, bring in Kick and Amen snare with Add pad and, in the 1/16 view, switch on Kick at squares 1 and 11 and Amen snare at 5 and 13 of every bar: that's the two-step.
6. Back on the pads, press REC on the same track and add Hat with ⟳ (it repeats a hit in time) turned on.
7. On track 2 record the bass with the Keyboard on Reese, and finish the loop with Siren or Ragga 1.

By step 3 you already have a jungle jam playing. Steps 4 to 7 build a loop that's entirely yours, hit by hit. The kit is part of the full version, included in the 7-day trial.

Jungle or drum and bass: two ways to run

They're close relatives. Jungle took off in the UK in the early 1990s: lightning-fast drum breaks, chopped and rearranged, deep basslines with roots in reggae, ragga vocals and sound-system sirens. The most famous break is the Amen, a few seconds of drums from an old soul record. Drum and bass followed soon after and tidied things up: cleaner drums, usually on the two-step, and more sculpted basses.

The tempo usually sits between 160 and 180 BPM, most often around 170-175. The trick is that the snare lands on 2 and 4: the rhythm races, yet you can dance to it at half speed. Swing (every other hit arriving a touch late) stays off here, at 50% in MORE: the hits need to be tight. Prefer a kick on every beat at 120 to 128 BPM? That's house and techno beats.

The Jungle & DnB kit, sound by sound

It's one of the six sound kits in the plugins. It fills two banks (a bank is a page of 16 pads, the letters A–H at the top).

The one-shots work at any tempo. The Jungle Jam loops are played at 174 BPM and follow the project tempo without changing pitch.

Jamming with Jungle Jam: one tap on, one tap off

The Jungle Jam pads are set to Loop: they keep going until you tap them again. To jam, you just choose what's playing.

• The break. Amen 1 and Amen 2 for jungle, DnB 1 and DnB 2 for the cleaner side.
• The bass. Sub 1 or Sub 2 for a deep floor, Reese for a bass that growls.
• The mood. Piano and Pad for the soft, melodic side, Neuro for the dark one.
• The voice. Vocal 1 and Vocal 2 over the hook.

Drop the break and leave just pads and sub: that's your breakdown. Tap Amen 1 again on the first beat and that's the drop. Want it a little slower? Bring the BPM down to 170 and the loops follow. They sound natural close to their own tempo; at half speed they sound stretched.

The two-step: kick and snare chasing each other

The two-step is the heart of drum and bass: kick on 1, snare on 2, kick halfway between 3 and 4, snare on 4. In a bar (four counts: 1, 2, 3, 4) split into 16 squares, that's squares 1 and 11 for the kick and 5 and 13 for the snare.

In the SEQ tab each row is a sound and each column a moment in the loop. Prefer to play it in? Press REC and play: by default PadLoop snaps hits to the nearest sixteenth. A layer came out wrong? ↶ removes only the last one.

Then the details that make it run:

• Hat with ⟳ at 1/16 for the fast bed, Ride on top to open the sound up.
• Rim and Snare 2 in between, softly: these ghost notes are what make jungle roll. In SEQ, long-press a lit square to lower the strength of a hit.
• Kick break instead of Kick, to change the color of the kick.

Reese and sub: bass you feel in your chest

Turn on the Keyboard (the piano button) on the Reese pad: the bass spreads across all the pads, low at the bottom left, high at the top right. With the Minor scale nothing clashes. Play a few long notes that start with the first hit of the break.

A long bass gets muddy when two notes overlap. Tap the pencil (the button that edits pads), open the pad and set If you retap it to Restarts: each new note stops the previous one. For a nastier bass there's Neuro; for a low end that stays out of the way, the Sub 1 and Sub 2 loops. More ways to use the Keyboard are on the play in key page.

Ragga, sirens and risers: the jungle side

Jungle runs on signals. Siren announces the drop, Riser builds the tension in the two bars before it. Ragga 1 and Ragga 2 are ragga vocals to drop at the end of a phrase. Pad stab is a short chord to repeat on the offbeat.

For the breakdown, tap the drum track's colored square in the LOOP tab; with Mute in time on in MORE, the change lands in time even if you tap early. Then the bolt (the button for hold-down effects): Filter down closes the sound before the drop, Echo stretches out the last vocal. Let go and it's clean again.

A break of your own: sample a drum loop in the SAMPLE tab and tap Split on hits: each hit lands on its own pad, up to sixteen, and you rearrange them the jungle way. The sampler is part of the full version (open during the trial); the method is on the sample your voice and any sound page.

Drum and bass on the free banks

Everything in the video at the top of the page comes from bank A, which ships with PadLoop and is free forever. Kick and Snare for the two-step, Hat with ⟳ for the bed, Bass C and Bass G for the bass, Stab Cm and Stab Eb for the chords (C minor and E♭). The free version gives you 2 tracks: drums on the first, bass and chords layered on the second.

Amen breaks, Reese and sub bass from the Jungle & DnB kit, 16 tracks of room for a whole tune and an MP3 to share: these come with the full version. You can use them free for 7 days; after that it's one purchase. If pads and the sequencer are new to you, our guide to making beats on your phone starts from the very first hit.

Good to know

• Loop jams go on the record with Record performance. It captures everything you play live, effects included, for up to 30 minutes (full version, included in the trial). Loop pads play live but stay out of recorded loops and exports.
• Offline after the download. A connection is needed only to get the kit: then you play, record and export anywhere.

Questions about making drum and bass on a phone

What BPM is drum and bass?

Usually between 160 and 180 BPM, most often around 170-175. The loops in PadLoop's Jungle & DnB kit are played at 174 BPM; you set the project tempo yourself, anywhere from 40 to 220.

What's the difference between jungle and drum and bass?

Jungle is the wilder sibling: chopped and rearranged breaks, ragga vocals, sirens. Drum and bass came right after and is tighter, usually built on the two-step: kick and snare taking turns, with a deep bass underneath.

What is the Amen break?

A few seconds of drum solo from an old soul record, chopped up and rearranged in thousands of jungle tracks. The kit has two loops in that style, Amen 1 and Amen 2, plus a separate snare, Amen snare.

Can I make drum and bass on my phone for free?

Yes, for a sketch: the free bank A has Kick, Snare, Hat, two basses and two chords, and a two-step fits on 2 tracks: the from-scratch video on this page does it at 165 BPM. The Jungle & DnB kit and export are part of the full version, and the 7-day trial includes both.

What's in the Jungle & DnB kit?

31 sounds in 2 banks. The Jungle & DnB bank has 16 one-shots: two kicks, Amen snare and Snare 2, hi-hats, ride, rim, the Reese and Neuro basses, a chord stab, ragga vocals, riser and siren. The Jungle Jam bank has 15 loops at 174 BPM of drums, bass, piano, pads, synth and vocals, plus the siren.

How do you make a Reese bass?

Turn on the Keyboard on the Reese pad and pick the Minor scale: the bass spreads across all the pads, low at the bottom and high at the top, and you play a few long notes under the break. The Jungle Jam bank also has a ready-played Reese loop.

Can I export my drum and bass track as an MP3?

Yes, with Export in the LOOP tab, as MP3 or WAV: export is part of the full version and included in the trial. Loop pads stay out of exports, so Record performance is the way to keep a loop jam.

Is there a drum and bass Ready beat?

Yes: among the Ready beats there's Drum and bass at 172 BPM, with drums on track 1 and a bassline on track 2 already recorded. On the PAD tab tap ⊞, then Ready beats, load it and play over it on the pads, or add the sounds of the Jungle & DnB kit. Loading Ready beats is part of the full version, free to try for 7 days.

Do I need internet?

Only once, to download the kit. After that you play, record and export offline.

Last updated: 21 October 2026