I'm looking for an easy freeware drum machine for rehearsing with.

October 26, 2015 2:06 PM

I'd like to find a program that would play some pre-recorded or pre-programmed drum beats in various styles at user-defined tempos to practice playing music with. Something online would be OK but I'd prefer a freestanding Windows OS program. I don't want to have to use a sequencer to create my own beats. I'd just like to be able to pick a style and a tempo and let it go. Basically a more-interesting metronome.

I wouldn't be trying to make recordings with this, so it doesn't need to interface with recording software. Is there anything like this available that you would recommend?

posted by straight to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Best answer: Maybe this is too obvious, but if you search YouTube for e.g. drum loop 90 bpm there are lots of options (try also "drum track," "backing track")
posted by theodolite at 2:26 PM on October 26, 2015

Response by poster: Ha. It never occurred to me that someone had just uploaded drum tracks at every possible tempo to YouTube, but as soon as you suggested it, I realized that, of course, lots of people have done that.

That works pretty well. Thanks, theodolite.
posted by straight at 4:00 PM on October 26, 2015

If you just want to make simple beats, the demo of fruity loops would work great. It can save but not open, but you weren't trying to record anyways. You can just lay out a drum beat quite quickly at whatever tempo you want with one of the default drum kits whenever you need one. It takes less than a minute.

It's definitely less annoying than laying out a beat on a keyboards drum patch with the built in sequencer, which was how i learned to do it. Or cakewalk(ugh, i don't miss 90s computer production stuff)
posted by emptythought at 4:31 PM on October 26, 2015

Drumbot is a "free online drum machine for non-drummers" that does pretty much what you asked for in a browser window. There are several other fun musical tools on the same website.
posted by cincinnatus c at 3:01 AM on October 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

The Metronomics ios app is on a different platform, but does what you are asking in a novel way. It does different kinds of randomization to create grooves for you to play along with.
posted by umbú at 5:00 AM on October 27, 2015