Freestyle beats: pick a groove, set the tempo, start rapping

Freestyle rap beats are built into PadLoop: tap ⊞ (the menu for banks and Ready beats), pick Hip hop at 90 BPM (beats per minute), Soul, Trap or Drill, press ► and the instrumental loops for as long as you want. Slow it down or speed it up without stopping it. When a verse is good, record it in time with the 🎤: each vocal recording lasts up to 8 bars (groups of four beats), about 21 seconds at 90 BPM.

Transcript

1. 0:00 Change the tempo while the beat plays
2. 0:02 A House beat is playing
3. 0:05 Tap the tempo at the top: the slider opens
4. 0:07 Drag left: slower, and the beat follows right away
5. 0:13 To the right: faster
6. 0:17 TAP: beat the tempo with your finger and the beat takes it
7. 0:24 Your recorded pad loops follow the new tempo

From beat to recorded verse

1. In the PAD tab tap ⊞, open Ready beats, preview Hip hop, Soul, Trap and Drill with ► and tap the one you like.
2. Press ► at the top: the beat loops until you press ■.
3. Too fast? Tap the BPM in the top bar and drag the slider, or tap the beat with your finger on TAP.
4. Rap freely. For a break, in the LOOP tab tap the square with number 1 (the drum track): the drums drop out until you tap it again.
5. Verse landed? Pick 8 bars at the top of the LOOP tab, tap the 🎤 on an empty track, choose With the beat in the background and rap after the count-in.

Loading Ready beats, the extra tracks and export belong to the full version: 24 beats to rap over and your verse as a file to share. You get all of it free for 7 days, so you can rap over every beat before you decide.

Which beat should you freestyle on?

Out of the 24 Ready beats, these suit rap best. The classic ones have 2 bars of drums on track 1 and bass and chords on track 2 (tracks are the layers of the song, the numbers at the top). Trap soul and UK drill are complete ones: 4 bars, a track per instrument and plugin sounds. Each brings its own banks (a bank is a page of 16 pads). The swing column tells you how much the rhythm sways: every other hit lands a touch late, and 50% means straight.

Boom bap at 90 BPM leaves room between words: classic freestyle territory. Trap and Drill run at 140 and up, but people usually rap over them in half time: count one beat for every two hi-hat hits and the flow stays comfortable.

Sounds and tricks for each genre are on the hip hop beats, trap beats and drill beats pages.

Flow doesn't fit? Change the tempo

Every beat comes with its own tempo, but you don't have to keep it. Tap the BPM in the top bar: drag left to slow down, right to speed up, from 40 to 220 BPM. With TAP you tap the tempo with your finger and the beat picks it up, without stopping.

Dropping 5 or 10 BPM is the simplest way to practice a fast flow. Then bring it back up bit by bit, until the words sit inside the loop instead of chasing it.

How to keep the session alive

For pure freestyle you don't need to record anything: press ► and rap. Three tricks still change everything:

• The break. In the LOOP tab tap the drum track's square (number 1 in the classic beats, 2 in Trap soul and UK drill): the drums drop out, the bass stays, and you finish the bar a cappella. Tap again and they're back. In MORE, set Mute in time to 1 bar or End of loop and the drop always lands in time.
• The bolt (the button for hold-down effects). Hold Filter down and the beat closes up like it's coming from the next room; lift your finger and it opens again. There's also Echo, Reverb, Pitch down and Robot.
• The shouts. With the Trap or Drill beat loaded, the bank has Yo and Hey pads: one tap between bars.

Want a beat of your own? Build it on the pads

Pick track 1, press REC and after the count-in play Kick and Snare; press REC again to add Hat on top. Hits snap into time on their own. Bank A, free forever like bank B, already has Kick, Snare, Clap, Hat, Open Hat, the bass notes Bass C and Bass G and the chords Stab Cm and Stab Eb (C minor and E♭). Bank B has tuned 808s.

For that head-nodding boom bap groove, set swing between 54 and 58% in MORE. Track 1 is your beat and track 2 stays free for vocals, even in the free version.

How to record your verse over the beat

After a classic Ready beat the loop is 2 bars (4 with a complete one). Pick 8 bars before tapping the 🎤: the beat loops four times under your voice (twice if it's a complete one), always in time. That's about 21 seconds at 90 BPM and 14 at 140, right for a hook or your best bars. A longer verse goes down in 8-bar pieces on different tracks: tracks play together, so you bring them in one after another by muting and unmuting them in the LOOP tab. With a classic Ready beat, tracks 1 and 2 are taken and your vocal goes on track 3 or higher (tracks from 3 up come with the full version); with a complete one it goes on the first free track after its instruments.

• Wired headphones and With the beat in the background: you hear the beat while you rap and only your voice gets recorded. On the speaker the beat would end up in the take.
• Doubles and ad-libs. Tap the red mic on the same track, or record on another one.
• Bad take? The ↶ arrow throws away the recording in progress; earlier layers stay.

Everything from headphones to backing vocals is in the guide to recording vocals over a beat.

How to send the track to your friends

With each track's volume slider you raise your vocal above the beat. Then in the LOOP tab, Export makes an MP3 or WAV with 1, 2 or 4 repeats of the loop; Separate tracks gives you one WAV per track to mix on a computer. Record performance captures up to 30 minutes of what comes out of the app, effects included, but not the mic: your vocal is in only if it's already on a track. Export and Record performance are full-version features, open during the trial.

Transcript

1. 0:00 Export your track
2. 0:02 Your track is ready (here a Funk Ready beat)
3. 0:04 LOOP tab: your tracks, then Export
4. 0:10 Pick the format: MP3, WAV or separate tracks
5. 0:11 How many times to repeat the loop: 1, 2 or 4
6. 0:13 Done: share the file or save it wherever you like

Good to know

• Set the tempo before recording vocals. As soon as a track holds mic audio, the BPM locks (a padlock appears). To change it, clear the vocal tracks.
• Vocal arriving slightly late? It happens on some phones. The first time you record on the speaker, PadLoop offers to measure the delay with clicks: about ten seconds. With headphones you fix it by hand in MORE → Latency tweak, headphones plugged in.
• Rapping in headphones? Use wired ones: Bluetooth adds 100-300 ms of delay that can't be removed.

Freestyle beats: questions

Where can I find freestyle beats on my phone?

In PadLoop, among the 24 Ready beats: Hip hop, Soul, Beatbox, Lo-fi, Trap, Drill, Trap soul and UK drill suit rap best. Each one loops until you stop it, and you can also build your own beat on the pads.

What BPM is good for freestyle rap?

Classic boom bap sits around 90 BPM: the Hip hop Ready beat is at 90 and Soul at 92. Trap and Drill run at 140 and 142 and are usually rapped in half time. The tempo slider goes from 40 to 220 BPM.

Can I slow down or speed up a beat?

Yes: tap the BPM in the top bar and drag the slider, or tap the tempo on TAP. The beat follows the new tempo straight away. Set it before recording vocals: after that the tempo stays locked.

Can I record my freestyle over the beat?

Yes, with the 🎤 button on a track: your vocal drops into the loop in time. Each recording lasts up to 8 bars, about 21 seconds at 90 BPM: right for a hook or your best bars. A longer verse goes down in 8-bar pieces on different tracks, which you bring in one after another live.

Are there trap freestyle beats?

Yes. The Trap Ready beat runs at 140 BPM with the Trap & Drill bank: kick, Sub for the 808, hi-hats and Dark piano. The same bank has Yo and Hey pads for shouts.

Are the freestyle beats free?

Previewing Ready beats is always free. Loading them is part of the full version, a single purchase, and it's included in the 7-day trial: a fresh beat to rap over in one tap. Free forever, you can build a beat with banks A and B and record vocals on the 2 free tracks.

Do I need internet to rap over the beats?

Everything works offline: the 18 classic Ready beats are built into the app; the complete ones need their plugins, downloaded once. You can play, record and export on the train or in a rehearsal room.

Last updated: 21 October 2026