Work with a drum machine during a break from work – what the drumbit app has to offer
We continue to talk about services that allow you to record your own track – whether for a home project or to distract from work tasks.
What is a drumbeat
It’s a simple HTML5 based drum machine that only needs a browser to run. Its author is a programmer from Lisbon, Juan Santos, who develops several projects for beginner musicians at once. For example, in his portfolio there is a service to test your musical ear And web tuner to tune your guitar.
Drumbit was originally unpretentious music service with minimal functionality. There you could work with eight samples, adjust the volume and BPM. But over time, the project acquired new opportunities, and a professional community formed around it. Enthusiasts use this drum machine to write tracks and share them on video hosting sites. Some even release thematic tutorialswhere they talk about the features of the tool.
What does it look like
The application interface is standard and resembles most drum machines. There is a working area for creating a rhythm, where colored squares determine the sequence of samples. For each of them, you can adjust the volume and pitch of the sound – the sliders on the right side of the window are responsible for this.
By default, drumbit loads a standard set of percussion instruments – a snare drum, a kick drum, a couple of hi-hats, crash, floor tom and others – however, if desired, the drum kit can be changed. There are more than twenty presets – some are tailored for a specific genre (for example, hip-hop or beatbox), while others imitate the sound of electronic synthesizers.
If desired, you can change the stereo position for each individual sample, adjust the high and low pass filters, and apply compression. These operations are available in the menu panning And Filters.
You can read more about these and other features on the website – the author provided instructions describing functions and hotkeys.
It is worth noting that there is a paid version of the application – drumbit Plus. It allows you to connect custom drum kits, change the number of steps for a drum rhythm, and increase the number of patterns available for creating. But for some reason, it is impossible to purchase an improved version of the application now – the author does not comment on this.
The drumbit file can be saved as JSON so that you can work on it later. To download a ready-made track to your computer, you must first record it – the circle in the upper right part of the window is responsible for this. The fragment will be saved in WAV format. It can be used in any way.
One option is to upload the work to drumbit.club. This is a thematic community where enthusiasts exchange fresh tracks and evaluate each other’s work. For convenience, the compositions created by the participants can be sorted by musical style, rating, upload date or number of downloads.
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