Every beat is uniquely generated — up to 9 instruments (drums, bass, keys, pad, lead, organ, horns, vibes, clav), fills, chord progressions, and a full song arrangement assembled from scratch. The beat is the harmonic foundation — you bring the melody. Your rap, your sample, your guitar, your scratch. What's your role?
Every time you hit New Beat, a unique arrangement is generated from scratch — not selected from presets, not pulled from a library. The drums, bass line, up to 7 melodic instruments, fills, transitions, chord progressions, and song structure are all assembled in real time from hundreds of musical rules and thousands of possible combinations. Each style gets its own drum kit and bass sound automatically — TR-808 for G-Funk and Memphis, Brush Kit for Nujabes, Synth Bass for dark styles, Slap Bass for bounce. No two beats are ever the same.
No AI subscription required. No cloud. No account. The musical knowledge of 40 years of hip hop production is encoded directly into the code — it runs entirely in your browser, works offline, and everything you create is yours. The goal isn't just the beat — it's the song, the session, the set, the freestyle, the record that comes after. This is the spark.
Every beat here is a harmonic foundation — drums, bass, chords, and arrangement locked together in the right key, tempo, and feel. But the melody is yours. Your rap is the melody. Your sample chop is the melody. Your guitar lick, your scratch pattern, your vocal hook — that's the missing piece, and it's supposed to be missing. That's how hip hop has always worked. The producer builds the musical bed, and the artist brings it to life. These beats are designed to leave room for you.
This isn't just a drum machine. Every beat generates a complete drums and bass production — two instruments that lock together the way they do in a real session. The bass follows the kick pattern, uses style-correct chord progressions, plays passing tones and ghost notes between hits, slides between pitches for G-Funk, drops to sub octaves for 808 styles, and breathes with intentional rests. It even generates 2-bar motifs and varies them across the song — the way a real bassist develops a part.
The bass reacts to the drums: it drops out on loud snare backbeats to give the 2 and 4 room, simplifies when the hats are busy, and fills gaps when the kick drops out. Section-ending bass fills complement the drum fills — jazzy gets walking diatonic runs, Dilla gets soft chromatic dissolves, 808 styles let the sub tail ring. The bass has its own breakdown thinning, chorus re-entry hits, turnaround figures, and pre-chorus builds.
Every beat is a lesson — and a starting point. Click any grid cell to hear that hit and understand why it's at that velocity. Toggle ✏ Edit mode to start tweaking: click empty cells to add hits, click filled cells to adjust velocity or delete. Regenerate any section with 🎲 to get a fresh pattern in the same style. Loop a section with 🔁 to practice along. Undo with ↩ if you don't like a change. Add new sections to the arrangement with the + buttons below the strip.
Tap Tempo: Double-click the BPM display (or press T) and tap along to set the tempo from feel — the app detects your BPM from 4+ taps. Swing is visible: the grid offsets odd-numbered steps to show you the timing displacement. At 50% (straight) the grid is even. At 66% (heavy) you can see the shuffle.
Keyboard shortcuts: Space = play/stop, R = new beat, T = tap tempo, E = edit mode, L = loop, ←/→ = navigate sections.
The analysis explains things most tutorials skip: why Dilla's hats are always 8ths (never 16ths), why G-Funk uses a 3-level hat dynamic, why Memphis beats are defined by what's absent, why the bass uses Dorian chords for G-Funk warmth and Phrygian movement for dark menace.
Nothing is prebuilt. The generator picks from 312 curated kick patterns across 28 style-specific libraries, selects a chord progression from the style's pool, chooses a player touch profile (Premier, Questlove, Dilla, Lil Jon), assigns per-instrument swing amounts, builds the bass line note by note from the kick pattern and chord changes, applies ghost notes and fills matched to the era, and assembles a full song arrangement with a dynamic energy arc. Up to 9 instruments play together — drums, bass, electric piano, synth pad, synth lead, organ, horn stabs, vibraphone, and clavinet — each following the same chord progressions and reacting to each other.
Strict vs Improvise: In Preferences, choose how melodic instruments behave. Strict (default) plays the same part every time — perfect for learning and practicing. Improvise regenerates with slight variations each play — like a live band. Drums and bass are always consistent as the rhythmic foundation.
Beat drops: The beat includes dramatic moments of silence — the last 4 steps of the breakdown go completely silent before the re-entry slam, the pre-chorus drops out before the chorus, and verses occasionally have a 1-beat silence for impact. ALL instruments respect these drops — when the drums go silent, everything goes silent.
37 styles with 6 regional variants. Export MIDI for any DAW, MPC patterns for Akai hardware, chord sheet PDFs, DAW-specific setup guides for 9 DAWs, or render straight to WAV. Full song arrangements (2:45–3:30) with verse, chorus, breakdown, fills, transitions, and energy that builds across the song. The analysis includes glossary tooltips — hover any highlighted term (ghost note, backbeat, swing, relative minor) for an instant definition.
During playback, 10 visual effects bring the beat to life. The playback cursor leaves a fading trail across the grid. Cells flash and scale up when hit. Row labels glow in their instrument color — kick red, snare orange, hat blue. Arrangement cards are color-coded by section type. A frequency visualizer pulses below the player. The progress bar tracks your position in the full song with section markers. The last 4 steps of each section glow red as the fill approaches. Chorus entries trigger a radial pulse. The player panel breathes at the tempo. It's a light show that follows the music.
Below the visualizer, 9 instrument buttons let you mute and unmute any instrument during playback — drums, bass, keys, pad, lead, organ, horns, vibes, clav. Instruments not available for the current style are greyed out. Click to toggle. Muting an instrument removes it from playback and export. Drums mute is session-only — it resets when you generate a new beat or load from history, so you never accidentally export a beat with no drums.
Every beat you generate is saved to history. Click HISTORY to browse, load, or delete past beats. Star your favorites with ⭐ — starred beats get a gold highlight so you can find them fast. Back up your entire history to a JSON file, or restore from a backup. The current beat is always protected from deletion.
Every beat exports as a complete production package in one ZIP:
• MIDI files — full song + individual sections, GM channel 10, swing baked in. Drop straight into any DAW.
• Bass MIDI — separate bass .mid files (channel 1) so you can load them into a synth, 808, or Keygroup track.
• MPC .mpcpattern files — ready for Akai MPC Live, MPC One, MPC X, Force. Chromatic C1 pad layout. Straight grid — set swing on the device.
• Bass MPC patterns — load into a Keygroup or plugin track alongside the drum patterns.
• Piano / EP MIDI — keys .mid files (channel 2) with the right sound per style: acoustic grand piano for jazz/Nujabes/Queens, electric piano for Dilla/G-Funk/lo-fi/bounce. Voice-led chord voicings with style-aware comping. Swap for any Rhodes, Wurlitzer, or synth in your DAW.
• Piano / EP MPC patterns — load into a Keygroup or plugin track for keyboard chords on your MPC.
• Synth Pad MIDI — pad .mid files (channel 3) for dark styles: Memphis choir, phonk detuned pads, Griselda strings, crunk synth stabs.
• Synth Lead MIDI — lead .mid files (channel 4) for G-Funk: pentatonic melody with slides.
• Organ MIDI — organ .mid files (channel 5) for jazz/Nujabes: sustained harmonic layer.
• Horn Stabs MIDI — brass .mid files (channel 6) for boom bap/big/driving: short punchy chord hits.
• Vibraphone MIDI — vibes .mid files (channel 7) for Nujabes/jazzy: bell-like arpeggiated tones.
• Clavinet MIDI — clav .mid files (channel 8) for bounce/G-Funk: funky percussive comping.
• WAV audio — rendered full mix with all instruments, ready to use as-is.
• WAV stems — individual WAV files for each instrument (drums, bass, EP, pad, lead, organ, horns, vibes, clav) so you can mix them yourself in your DAW.
• PDF beat sheet — printable color-coded pattern grids with the full analysis.
• Chord sheet PDF — piano keyboard diagrams with feel-aware voicings for each section.
• DAW guides — step-by-step setup for Ableton, Logic, FL Studio, Pro Tools, Maschine, Reason, Reaper, Studio One, GarageBand.
• MPC guide — pad assignments, swing setup, firmware 3.7.1 and 2.x workflows.
Everything is uniquely generated. The drums, bass, fills, transitions, and chord progressions are assembled from scratch every time. No two exports are the same. Your beat is yours.
Hit play and rap over it — full production with drums, bass, and style-matched instruments, ready to go. No setup, no loading samples, no programming. Just a beat and your voice.
The flow guide is built for you. It calculates how many syllables fit per bar based on the actual BPM and kick pattern density — not generic advice, but numbers specific to this beat. It names the exact beat positions where the kicks land (e.g. "beat 1, and-of-2, beat 3") so you know where to place your hardest-hitting syllables. Sparse kick with 2 hits per bar? You have room for dense internal rhyme and multisyllabic schemes. Busy kick with 5 hits? Keep it punchy and direct.
The style-specific tips tell you how to ride each groove. Dilla beats want you to drift behind the pocket — half-asleep delivery where every word still lands. G-Funk wants smooth and effortless, floating over the bounce. Memphis wants slow and deliberate, every word a threat. Crunk wants short, aggressive call-and-response chants. The beat tells you how to flow if you listen to it.
Export the WAV and you've got a practice beat, a demo backing track, a freestyle cipher session, or a scratch track for writing. The arrangement has intros and outros already built in — press record and go.
These are scratch-ready productions, not loops. Full song arrangements with intros that build, verses that groove, breakdowns that strip down to just kick and hat (giving you space to cut), and outros that wind down naturally. The WAV export is a full mix — drums, bass, and all melodic instruments together. Drop it on a deck and it sounds like a record. Need just the drums? Export individual stems.
The breakdown sections are where you work. The drums thin out progressively — bar 1 drops the ghost notes, bar 2 drops the claps, bar 3 is just a kick on 1 and sparse hats. That's your window for scratching, drops, and transitions. The last chorus hits hardest after the breakdown — the contrast is built in.
Generate beats in different styles and tempos to build a library. Classic boom bap at 90 BPM for head-nod sets. G-Funk at 98 for West Coast vibes. Memphis at 72 for dark, slow sessions. Every beat is unique — you'll never run out of material. Layer them with your vinyl finds, blend the tempos, cut between styles.
The chord sheet gives you everything you need to play along. Piano keyboard diagrams show the exact voicings for each section — triads for boom bap, 7th chords for jazz, 9ths for Dilla, min7 for G-Funk. The voicings change with the style because the harmony is modal, not just "minor key." G-Funk uses Dorian mode — the IV chord is C7 (major), not Cm7, and that raised 6th is what makes it sound warm and funky instead of dark. Memphis and Griselda use Phrygian — the bII chord (Db in the key of Cm) creates that sinister half-step tension.
Keys (Piano / EP): The app generates a complete keyboard part automatically — acoustic grand piano for jazz, Nujabes, and Queens (the sampled piano sound from jazz records), electric piano (Rhodes/Wurlitzer) for Dilla, G-Funk, lo-fi, bounce, and halftime. It comps in style-appropriate rhythms — sustained chords for Dilla, jazz comping on upbeats for Tribe, arpeggiated tones for Nujabes, pad-style for G-Funk, stabs for bounce. The voicings use voice leading (common tones held between chords), per-note velocity humanization, and react to the drums. In your DAW, swap the MIDI for any keyboard sound you want — the voicings work with any piano, Rhodes, Wurlitzer, or synth.
Synth Pad: For darker styles (Memphis, phonk, dark, Griselda, crunk, hard), the app generates atmospheric synth pads — choir sounds for Memphis/phonk (with a detuned chorus effect), string ensembles for dark/Griselda, and aggressive sawtooth stabs for crunk.
More instruments: G-Funk gets a mono synth lead (the signature whistle melody with slides). Jazz and Nujabes get organ (sustained drawbar underneath the EP) and vibraphone (bell-like arpeggiated tones). Bounce and G-Funk DJ Quik get clavinet (funky percussive 16th-note comping). Boom bap, big, driving, chopbreak, and old school get horn stabs (short brass chord hits locked to the kick). Every style has at least one harmonic instrument beyond drums and bass.
The bass MIDI is a masterclass in hip hop bass playing. It's not just root notes on the kick — it uses correct 5th and minor 7th intervals as passing tones, plays chromatic approach notes and hammer-on grace notes, slides between pitches for G-Funk, drops to sub octaves on beat 1 for weight, and breathes with intentional rests on weak beats. Load the bass MIDI into your DAW and study the note choices — then play your own version on top.
WAV stems: Export individual WAV files for every instrument — drums, bass, EP, pad, lead, organ, horns, vibes, clav. Hear each part in isolation, study the voicings, or import them into your DAW for mixing practice. The "Select all stems" button in the export dialog checks all 9 at once.
The suggested key section gives you a starting point with I/IV/V chords, 3-chord combos, and style-matched alternate progressions (Andalusian cadence, ii-V-I turnarounds, neo-soul turnarounds, trap minor). The drums, bass, electric piano, and synth pads are the foundation — everything you add makes it yours.
Use it as a starting point or a learning tool — or both. Generate a beat in the style you want, export the MIDI, and customize it in your DAW or MPC. Each style auto-selects the right drum kit and bass sound (TR-808 for G-Funk, Brush Kit for Nujabes, Synth Bass for Memphis — shown in the style display). Swap the samples, adjust ghost note velocities, add your own fills, re-voice the bass with your own synth or 808. The patterns are musically correct with authentic swing, dynamics, and arrangement structure — you're not starting from a blank grid.
WAV stems: Export individual WAV files for every instrument — drums, bass, EP, pad, lead, organ, horns, vibes, clav. Import them into your DAW as separate tracks for mixing, or use the full mix WAV as-is. The "Select all stems" button in the export dialog checks all 9 at once.
Study the patterns to level up your own programming. Click any cell to hear the hit and understand why it's at that velocity. Read the About This Beat panel — it explains accent curves, ghost clustering, pocket-delayed snares, fill construction, and bar variation techniques that most tutorials never cover. Generate 10 beats in the same style and compare the kick patterns, ghost placements, and fills. That's how you internalize a style deeply enough to program it yourself.
The per-instrument swing is something most producers don't think about. Dilla's hats swing 30% harder than his kick. Premier's ghost snares float while his kicks are mechanical. G-Funk bass swings slightly harder than the kick for that smooth bounce. This tool shows you those relationships — once you see them, you'll hear them in every record.
40+ years of hip hop production knowledge in every parameter. Nothing is generic. The chord progressions use real modal harmony — Dorian IV for G-Funk warmth, Phrygian bII for Memphis menace, ii-V turnarounds for jazz hop. The swing system applies different amounts per instrument, the way real producers program. Player touch profiles shape the humanization — Questlove's ghost notes cluster around velocity 45-55, Premier's kicks are almost mechanical, Dilla's everything floats behind the beat, Lil Jon's crunk is maximum velocity with zero variation.
Regional sub-styles capture the geography of hip hop. Bronx boom bap (Premier's tight, minimal, fewer ghost notes) sounds different from Queens (Large Pro's jazzy approach with ride cymbal and wider dynamics) sounds different from Long Island (De La's playful, loose, more swing). G-Funk splits into Dre's polished control, DJ Quik's raw funk with busier kicks, and Battlecat's heavy-bounce deep pocket.
The bass generator is tempo-aware. At slow tempos (68-78 BPM), bass lines get busier with more ghost notes and longer sustains — Memphis and Phonk styles breathe with expressive movement. At fast tempos (98-110 BPM), patterns simplify and tighten — Old School and Driving styles stay punchy without cluttering the groove. Note durations, density, and ghost note probability all scale with BPM, so every beat feels right for its tempo.
312 curated kick patterns across 29 dedicated libraries. 37 styles with 6 regional variants. Named player profiles. Per-instrument swing. Modal harmony. Bass call-and-response. Tempo-aware bass generation. Dynamic arrangement arcs. Section-ending fills matched to each era. Hat articulation that varies bar by bar. This is what 40 years of hip hop sounds like when you encode it into code.
Beats you generate are yours — commercial releases, demos, freestyles, DJ sets, samples, anything. No attribution required, no royalties, no restrictions.
Artist, producer, and track references are for educational purposes only. Hip Hop Drummer is not affiliated with or endorsed by any artist, producer, or label. All product names, logos, and brands (including Roland, TR-808, Akai, MPC, E-mu, Moog, Korg, Juno, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Teenage Engineering, Ensoniq, Boss, Casio, and others) are trademarks of their respective owners.
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