A drum machine app on your phone: play on pads, program in steps

PadLoop works as a drum machine app in two ways: you program the beat square by square in the SEQ step sequencer, or finger-drum it on the pads while the looper records it in time. In five minutes you have kick, clap and hi-hats looping, with accents and swing, on Android or iPhone, offline too. And the sequencer is already in the free version, on the first 2 tracks.

The video above shows how fast it is: one square at a time, and the beat plays while you build it.

Program your first pattern

1. Set the tempo: tap the BPM in the top bar (the tempo in beats per minute, 40 to 220) or tap the beat on TAP; at the top of the LOOP tab choose 1, 2, 4 or 8 bars (a bar is four beats).
2. Bring sounds into the grid: select track 1 (tracks are the layers of your song), open the SEQ tab and use Add a pad to pick a kick, a snare and a hi-hat.
3. Switch hits on: tap squares and press ► in the SEQ tab to hear the pattern while you build it.
4. Add groove: long-press a lit square and lower the Hit strength for accents and ghost notes (very soft hits between the main ones); in MORE, with the grid on 16ths, set the swing between 54 and 58%.
5. Export: in the LOOP tab, tap Export and save the beat as MP3 or WAV.

For a variation, program the fill on track 2 and use mute to bring it in and out.

Play first, fix later

The SEQ grid and the pad recording are the same track seen two ways. Press REC, play kick and snare on the pads and the loop closes by itself. Then open SEQ: your hits are lit squares. Switch off the one that's out of place, add the one that's missing.

By default played hits snap to the nearest 16th, so a beat played "almost" in time lands cleanly in the grid. Want to keep your own timing? Turn off the timing correction (quantization) in MORE. On the pads your finger sets the strength: low on the pad is a full hit, higher up is soft. The drum pad page covers everything you can do while playing.

Accents and ghost notes: a beat with feel

Hits that are all the same sound robotic. In SEQ, long-press a lit square and Hit strength opens: a slider from 5 to 100%. Softer squares turn dimmer, so the accents are visible at a glance.

Transcript

1. 0:00 Accents in the step sequencer
2. 0:01 Kick, clap and eight hi-hats, all at full strength: it sounds like a machine
3. 0:06 Hold a cell: Hit strength. The off-beat hi-hats go down to 35%
4. 0:13 Softer cells look dimmer, and now the groove breathes

The hi-hat trick: keep the hits on the beat at 100% and pull the ones in between down to around 50-60%. The pattern starts to groove without changing a single note.

How much swing do you need?

In MORE you choose how fine the quantize grid is (8ths, 16ths, triplets, 1/32, or off) and, just below, the swing, which makes every other note land a touch late so the beat sways:

• 50%: straight, for techno and house
• 54-58%: the human groove of hip hop, soul and lo-fi
• 66%: full triplet feel

Transcript

1. 0:00 Swing: make the groove bounce
2. 0:02 A House beat is playing, straight
3. 0:05 In MORE, under the grid, there is Swing
4. 0:08 More swing: the off-beat 16ths land later and the groove bounces
5. 0:15 All the way left: straight again, tight
6. 0:23 Change it whenever you like, even while it plays

Swing only moves the offbeat 16ths, so it works with the grid on 16ths. And since every hit remembers how it was really played, you can change grid and swing after the loop is finished.

Which drum sounds are included?

The two free banks are already complete kits. Bank A is a synthesized kit with kick, snare, clap, closed and open hi-hat, toms, crash, two basses and two chord stabs. Bank B is a trap kit with cowbell and 808s tuned to several notes. In both, the closed hi-hat cuts the open one, like on a real kit.

The ⊞ button (the banks menu) opens the Ready banks, part of the full version: 29 banks of 16 pads, including Groove Box, Funk Machine, Dark Techno, House 95, Trap & Drill, Breakbeat and World Percussion. Preview one with ►, then pick which bank to load it onto.

The Drum Machines plugin: three machines, 48 sounds

In MORE → Plugins you can download the Drum Machines kit, about 3.8 MB (plugins are part of the full version and included in the trial). The sounds were made from scratch for PadLoop in the style of classic drum machines: deep kicks, dry snares, metallic hi-hats.

• Machine 80: the round sound of '80s machines, with congas, cowbell, clave and an 808 bass
• Machine 90: drier and harder, with a hard kick, ride, crash and shaker
• Lo-fi Machine: Machine 80 run through tape and reduced bits, dirty in the right way

Transcript

1. 0:00 A classic 80s drum machine on your phone
2. 0:01 Tap ⊞: the Drum Machines plugin adds three kits
3. 0:07 ► next to Machine 80: hear a taste
4. 0:11 Tap the name and load it onto a free bank: F
5. 0:16 Kick, clap, hats, cowbell, congas, toms and 808 bass: play it with your fingers
6. 0:24 Or program it square by square in the SEQ tab

Transcript

1. 0:00 A 90s beat with the Machine 90 kit
2. 0:01 Tap ⊞: the plugins add their kits to the list
3. 0:07 ► next to Machine 90: hear a taste
4. 0:11 Tap the name and load it onto a free bank: F
5. 0:16 Punchy kick and snare, hats, ride and sub bass: a 90s groove at 92 BPM
6. 0:26 Program it in the SEQ tab or record it as a loop

After the download they show up in Ready banks marked Plugin.

Little sequencer tricks

The grid only shows pads you've already used on that track, so it stays readable on a phone screen.

• Want to remove a whole sound? Tap its name on the left. Starting over? The broom clears the grid.
• Made a mistake? The two arrows next to the zoom undo and redo, hit strength and removed rows included.
• Is the beat in triplets? View it on 1/16T: the squares line up with the hits. The 1/8, 1/16, 1/16T and 1/32 buttons only change the view.
• More tracks? The numbers at the top switch between them, and ► and ■ start and stop the loop.

Prefer physical pads? Plug in a MIDI controller. For a full track with bass and chords, read how to make beats on your phone.

From pattern to file

Export turns the loops into an MP3 or WAV file, with 1, 2 or 4 repeats. Separate tracks gives you one WAV per track in a zip, ready to mix on a computer. To capture mutes and effects live, use Record performance, up to 30 minutes. Both belong to the full version and work during the 7-day trial: that's how your beat becomes a file to post, send or finish on a computer.

Good to know

• Free forever: the sequencer on tracks 1 and 2, with banks A and B. The full version adds Ready banks, plugins, export and the other tracks, for whole songs instead of single patterns; the 7-day trial includes all of them: see price and FAQ.
• A wide square can hold several hits: switching it off removes them all. If a hit disappears, look at a finer grid.
• The grid doesn't take microphone tracks, which are audio, or Loop-mode pads (the ones that play on their own).

Drum machine questions

Can I use my phone as a drum machine?

Yes. In PadLoop you finger-drum on the pads and the looper records in time, or you program the pattern in the step sequencer without playing at all. Everything runs on the phone, offline too.

Is there a free drum machine app for Android?

PadLoop is free to download on Android and iPhone. The step sequencer works free forever on the 2 free tracks with banks A and B; the full version adds Ready banks, plugins and export, and you can try all of them free for 7 days.

Can I use it as a drum machine for guitar practice?

Yes: program a pattern or load one of the 24 Ready beats (a full-version feature, included in the trial), set the BPM and the loop repeats as long as you like. You can change the tempo while it plays, with the slider or by tapping TAP.

What is a step sequencer?

A grid where every row is a sound and every column is a moment in the loop. Switch a square on and the hit plays there. In PadLoop it's the SEQ tab, and with the zoom on 1/16 one bar is 16 steps.

Can I program accents and ghost notes?

Yes. Long-press a lit square and set the Hit strength from 5 to 100%. Softer hits look dimmer in the grid, so you can see where the accents are at a glance.

What is the Drum Machines plugin?

A kit of 48 sounds in three 16-pad banks: Machine 80, Machine 90 and Lo-fi Machine. They were synthesized from scratch for PadLoop in the style of classic electronic drum machines, and the download is about 3.8 MB.

Is it an online drum machine?

PadLoop puts one on your phone: it opens and plays offline too. The full version adds MP3 and WAV export, so you can send the beat to anyone; it's included in the 7-day trial.

Can I play it with a MIDI controller?

Yes, over USB or Bluetooth. Note 36 plays the first pad of bank A, and how hard you hit the controller becomes the velocity of the sound.

Last updated: 21 October 2026