Create complete drum patterns, percussion grooves and rhythm ideas, then export them as MIDI for your DAW.
Our free drum and percussion generator creates complete rhythmic phrases for a range of electronic, urban and groove-based genres. Instead of placing completely random drum hits, the generator coordinates the kick, snare, hi-hats, percussion, fills and tonal percussion to produce patterns that work together as a groove.
Choose a genre, select the type of song section you are writing and control the activity of each part of the rhythm. You can preview the result in your browser, create related variations and export the finished pattern as a multi-track MIDI file for further editing in your DAW.
The generator can produce patterns from 1 to 8 bars long, making it useful for quickly creating a basic loop or developing a longer drum phrase with movement between the bars.
Drum & Percussion Generator
Grooves are built from coordinated multi-lane phrases, then shaped by section, difficulty, activity and bar role. Controls update the current phrase automatically. Generate New Groove selects a different coordinated phrase; Vary Current Groove keeps the phrase identity and changes its details. Timing, dynamics, articulation and tonal percussion are carried into a multi-track MIDI export.
Control changes update the current phrase automatically. Generate New Groove chooses a different phrase; Vary Current Groove keeps the phrase and reworks the detail.
Lock Bars
Locked bars preserve their notes, timing and dynamics. Setting an activity control to Off is a global mute and overrides bar locks for that lane.
Rhythm View
Groove Analysis
Groove Structure
The coordinated phrase “Pop Backbeat A” develops across 4 bars: bar 1 statement, bar 2 answer, bar 3 development, bar 4 turnaround.
Core Drums
13 kick hits form the foundation. 8 snare or clap hits define the backbeat, of which 0 are ghost or supporting notes.
Hats & Percussion
21 closed hats, 6 open hats and 17 percussion hits provide movement.
Feel & Dynamics
Balanced energy, tight feel, 20% swing and 35% humanize shape the pocket and velocity.
Development
No fill is used, keeping the loop stable. Standard mode keeps every lane aligned to the same 4/4 phrase.
How this groove was created
Phrase Engine
The groove is built from the coordinated phrase “Pop Backbeat A”. Activity controls either thin or expand a lane, never both, so the curated phrase stays recognisable.
Bar Roles
Bars are assigned musical roles (bar 1 statement, bar 2 answer, bar 3 development, bar 4 turnaround). Statements stay close to the source phrase, answers and developments vary more, and turnarounds carry the largest change plus the fill.
Note Placement
Added notes are weighted by spacing within their own lane, by proximity to kick and snare accents for call-and-response. Uniform random placement is not used.
Energy
Balanced energy controls velocity, accent strength, open-hat intensity and the force of fills.
Kick Activity
Standard activity uses a target density rather than repeated random deletion. Beat 1 and structural anchors remain protected; settings above Balanced follow the genre-specific kick policy.
Percussion Activity
Standard activity sets a controlled target density below Balanced and adds only well-spaced, context-aware notes above it.
Hi-Hat Activity
Standard activity controls closed-hat subdivisions, open hats and occasional MIDI hat bursts.
Snare Activity
Standard activity controls a capped number of main, ghost and response notes. Breakbeat styles use one coordinated snare source rather than layering a second phrase bank.
Difficulty
Intermediate difficulty now affects retained support notes, additions, ghost-note density, retriggers, displacement and cross-rhythm complexity across the whole groove.
Swing & Timing
Swing is set to 20% and scaled by tempo (110 BPM gives a 0.98× depth factor). The second sixteenth of each beat is delayed by 2% of a step and the fourth by 1%, which is the nonlinear relationship human players produce.
tight feel applies per-lane push and pull: the kick sits marginally ahead of the grid and the snare marginally behind, with ghost notes placed slightly early. Humanize is at 35%.
Dynamic Shape
Velocity combines a step-role accent, a slow hi-hat wave over roughly eight steps, and a phrase-length envelope that rises into the turnaround. Velocities span 72–127 with a mean of 94. 6 hits reach maximum velocity; lowering Energy or Humanize will restore more accent headroom.
Collisions
Masking is resolved by frequency register and velocity hierarchy rather than random deletion, so percussion density stays consistent between generations.
Preview Sound
Clean Electronic changes only the browser preview. MIDI placement, velocity and articulation remain the foundation.
Kick
13 kick hits create the main rhythmic foundation.
Snare / Clap
8 snare or clap hits define the backbeat, of which 0 are ghost or supporting notes.
Hats
21 closed-hat hits and 6 open-hat hits provide subdivision and motion.
Percussion
17 percussion hits fill spaces around the core drums.
Cross-Rhythm
Standard mode keeps every lane aligned to the same 4/4 phrase.
Fill & Development
No fill is used, keeping the loop stable.
Updated 22nd July 2026 ;18.39
How to Generate a Drum Pattern
- Choose a genre to load the appropriate rhythmic style and starting tempo.
- Select a section, such as an intro, verse, chorus, drop or breakdown.
- Choose the number of bars you want the drum phrase to contain.
- Adjust the activity controls for the kick, snare, hi-hats and percussion.
- Set the groove using the feel, swing and humanize controls.
- Click Generate Groove to create a new rhythmic composition.
- Preview the pattern or export it as MIDI to continue working in your DAW.
You do not need to understand drum notation or music theory to use the generator. However, the visual sequencer can also help you see how different drum parts interact across each bar.
Build a Complete Track with Our Music Generators
The drum and percussion generator can be used alongside our other free music production tools to build the main parts of a track.
- Start with the chord progression generator to create the harmonic foundation.
- Use the melody generator to write a melody based on your chords.
- Create a rhythm-focused low-end part with the bassline generator.
- Add more complex percussion cycles using the polyrhythm generator.
Each generator allows you to explore an individual part of the composition before exporting the MIDI and arranging everything inside your DAW.
Genre-Based Drum Pattern Generator
Different styles of music use different kick placements, backbeats, hi-hat subdivisions, percussion patterns and approaches to variation. The genre setting changes the underlying phrase structure rather than simply changing the preview sounds.
The available styles include:
- Pop
- House and Tech House
- Hip-Hop, Trap and Lofi
- Afrobeat and Amapiano
- Drum and Bass and Jungle
- UK Garage, including 2-Step, 4x4 and Speed Garage
- Deep UK, modern and experimental Dubstep
- IDM, Braindance, Drill and Bass and Experimental Electro
- Funk
Some genres also provide additional controls. Amapiano patterns can include a pitched log drum part, while Afrobeat can use tonal percussion. You can select the key and scale of these parts before exporting them to MIDI.
Complete Rhythmic Phrases
A convincing drum groove is more than a collection of individual hits. The kick, snare, hi-hats and percussion need to support one another while still leaving enough space for the bassline, chords and melody.
The generator builds coordinated multi-lane phrases and gives each bar a musical role. A longer pattern may begin with a clear statement, introduce an answer or development and finish with a turnaround into the next section.
The fill controls also modify the existing drum parts rather than simply adding an unrelated fill over the top. This helps the result feel more like one connected performance.
Shape the Groove
Energy controls the overall strength of the pattern, including its accents, velocities, open hi-hats and fills. The individual activity controls let you separately increase or reduce the number of kick, snare, hi-hat and percussion events.
This means you can create a busy hi-hat pattern without making the kick equally complicated, or remove the percussion while keeping the main drum groove intact.
Difficulty
The Easy, Intermediate and Advanced settings affect the rhythmic complexity of the result. Higher difficulty levels can introduce more syncopation, ghost notes, displaced hits, rapid MIDI retriggers and cross-rhythmic ideas.
Difficulty is not simply another density control. An advanced pattern may contain more detailed rhythmic movement even when the overall activity remains fairly low.
Swing and Humanize
Swing changes the spacing of selected subdivisions to create a more shuffled rhythmic feel. It produces a deliberate and repeated timing relationship across the groove.
Humanize adds smaller timing and velocity differences between individual hits. It helps reduce the rigid effect that can occur when every note is placed at exactly the same position and volume.
The Groove Feel control provides broader timing options, including tight, driving, relaxed, behind-the-beat and loose performances.
Generate Groove or Create a New Variation
Generate Groove creates a new rhythmic composition using the selected genre and settings. It can choose a different underlying phrase and substantially change the relationship between the drum parts.
New Variation keeps the main identity of the current phrase while changing some of its supporting notes, development and details. Use this when you like the basic groove but want an alternative version for another part of your track.
You can also lock individual bars. Locked bars remain unchanged while the generator creates new material for the unlocked sections. This is useful when one part of a phrase already works but the remaining bars need more development.
Experiment with Polyrhythms and Polymeters
The Cross-Rhythm section allows you to add more advanced rhythmic relationships to selected hi-hat or percussion lanes.
A polyrhythm places a different number of evenly spaced pulses against the main beat. Available relationships include 3 against 2, 3 against 4, 5 against 4 and 7 against 4.
A polymeter repeats a pattern using a cycle that is shorter or longer than the main 4/4 bar. As the cycle repeats, its accents move to different positions against the rest of the groove.
For a more focused tool dedicated to these techniques, try our free polyrhythm generator.
Export Drum Patterns as MIDI
Once you have created a groove, use the MIDI export to move the pattern into your music production software. The exported file retains the note placement, timing, velocity and rhythmic articulation of the generated phrase.
Drums and tonal percussion are placed on separate MIDI tracks, making it easier to assign your own drum kits, samples, percussion instruments or log drum sounds after importing the file.
You can then edit individual notes, change the sounds, rearrange the bars or combine the pattern with your own playing. The browser preview is only a quick reference; the MIDI pattern is intended to be customised using your preferred instruments and samples.
Drum and Percussion Generator FAQs
What is a drum pattern generator?
A drum pattern generator creates rhythmic note sequences for instruments such as kicks, snares, claps, hi-hats and percussion. This generator uses coordinated genre phrases so the individual drum parts are designed to work together.
Can I export the generated drums as MIDI?
Yes. Click the Export MIDI button to download the current drum and percussion phrase. You can then import the file into a compatible DAW or MIDI editor and assign your own sounds.
What is the difference between swing and humanize?
Swing applies a repeated timing relationship to selected subdivisions, creating a shuffled feel. Humanize adds smaller timing and velocity changes to individual notes, making the performance feel less mechanically identical.
What does New Variation change?
New Variation develops the current rhythmic phrase while retaining its main identity. Generate Groove creates a more substantially different composition.
Can the generator create percussion without drums?
You can reduce the kick, snare and hi-hat activity and increase the percussion activity to create a more percussion-focused pattern. Individual activity controls allow the different parts of the groove to be shaped separately.
Does the MIDI include the browser preview sounds?
No. The preview kit is used only to audition the pattern in your browser. MIDI contains the notes, velocities and timing information, allowing you to select your own drum and percussion sounds inside your DAW.