Drum n Drummer is a drum machine for Android designed to make the creation of smooth glitch free drum patterns, songs and drum loops quick and easy.
Create and play drum patterns/ loops on your phone or tablet.
Fast, easy interface with 3 levels per strike, realistic 'choking' hi hat and fine control over tempo, swing and shuffle.
No need to stop and start, even when loading a new pattern or a new drum kit. Patterns are saved as you go and you can create as many new patterns as you like.
Time signatures: 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 7/8, 9/8, 12/8 (via 4/4 with 100% swing).
Once you have created some patterns you can switch to 'song mode' where you can assign up to nine patterns to pads and then trigger them in a live performance. Drum n Drummer ensures the patterns switch smoothly with perfect timing. With an in app purchase, you can then go on and chain patterns together to create a full song arrangement complete with count in and stop.
In a song, one of the patterns acts as the 'tempo master' and all of the patterns use its tempo, swing setting and drum kit.
Drum n Drummer is also available for Amazon Fire Tablets and is 'actually free' via Amazon Underground. Click the appropriate link below for your location:
Add a drum strike: Tap on an empty position to add a drum strike, red for loud, amber for medium and green for quiet.
Remove a drum strike: Tap on the green segment.
Create a new pattern: Tap the '+' icon and choose 'Create a new pattern'. Choose from one of the presets and you'll then be asked for a name for your new pattern. If you use a pattern name that already exists the name will be appended with 1,2,3 etc.
Save a pattern: You don't need to save, the current pattern is automatically saved, for example when you load another pattern or receive a phone call. The tempo, swing and current drum kit are all saved with the pattern.
Undo a change: If you make a change you don't like, tap the 'pen' icon (edit) and select 'revert to saved'.
Load a pattern: Patterns you create can be reloaded by tapping the 'documents' icon and selecting the pattern.
Delete a pattern: Load the pattern, tap the 'pen' icon and then select 'Delete current pattern'.
Change the tempo and 'feel': Tap the 'clock' icon to change the tempo for the current pattern. You can also alter amount of swing and choose to swing on half notes or quarter notes (i.e. shuffle).
Create a longer pattern: Tap the 'pen' icon and select 'Add a second bar'. The first bar will be cloned and you can now edit the second bar. To switch between bars swipe left or right.
Change the time signature: You cannot change the time signature of an existing pattern. When you create a new pattern you select a preset and this determines the time signature, e.g. '7/8 click'.
Create a 12/8 'triplet' pattern: Create a standard 4/4 pattern and set swing to 100%. The first three ticks in each beat are then triplets (1 & a, 2 & a...) You'd typically not use the fourth tick of each beat which becomes a 1/24 note, but it can sometimes be useful for fills and 'skips'.
Create a 6/8 pattern: Choose a 3/4 pattern (i.e. 3/4 click). From the point of view of programming a pattern the only real difference between 3/4 and 6/8 is where you put the accents as they both have 12 'ticks' in a bar. For a 6/8 pattern you would typically put the accents on the first and seventh ticks rather than on the first, fifth and ninth for 3/4.
Triplets in an otherwise straight pattern: Applying swing or shuffle to patterns can get you the right feel for all sorts of rhythms but there are some variations that are not currently possible. For example, true triplets on top of a straight 1/8 or 1/16 note pattern is not directly available as the 16th ticks are constant across the bar and across all instruments. One solution would be to use the export wav feature to export triplet components and then use that wav as an instrument in a user kit on the straight pattern. Using rhythmic samples in a user kit opens up a huge number of possibilities but you do lose some flexibility, for example you can't easily change tempo at a later stage.
Create a song: In the menu select 'Go to Song mode'. Tap on the empty pads to load patterns. Long press the pads for more options. Create more songs using the 'plus' icon.
Play the song patterns (jam): Once you have loaded the pads you can 'play' them by tapping. Drum n Drummer will choose when to switch patterns to keep the beat smooth even if your tap isn't right on the beat.
Change the tempo or drum kit for a song: The pad that has the black circle is the 'tempo master pattern' and all of the pads will use the tempo, swing setting and drum kit from the master pattern. Any edits you make to that pattern will effect the whole song. To edit a pattern from song mode, long press the pad and select 'Edit the pattern'. This will take you back to pattern mode where you can make your change. Return to song mode by pressing 'Go to Song mode' in the menu.
Create a song arrangement: The in-app-purchase 'song_arranger' enables a screen where you can chain the patterns of the song into a full arrangement and play it back. On that page you can add sections to the song defining which pattern to play and how many times each should repeat. You can also add a count in and an ending pattern.
Create an audio loop for use in other apps or tools: [USING V0.38 ON MARSHMALLOW? SEE BUGS] The in-app-purchase 'pro_features' enables this feature. Tap 'Export wav file...' from the main menu to save the current pattern as a stereo 16bit 44.1Khz .wav file on the device's memory (often called the 'internal SD card' or 'internal storage'). You can access the files using a file explorer app or by connecting the device to a computer. The exact location of the file will vary from device to device but typically you will find a folder called 'DrumNdrummer' at the top level of the internal storage and within that there is an 'exports' folder containing the exported audio files.
The audio files have the same name as the patterns, e.g. if you export a pattern called 'abc' you should find a file at:
/InternalStorage/DrumNdrummer/exports/abc.wavYou can copy or move the wav files to wherever you need them or delete them if you wish. Note that the DrumNdrummer folder is not automatically deleted if you uninstall the app.
Use your own sounds to create drumkits: [USING V0.38 ON MARSHMALLOW? SEE BUGS] The in-app-purchase 'pro_features' enables nine new drumkits, 'userkit1' through 'userkit9'. By default these use the sounds of the 'Studio' kit but you can set them to use your own sounds by placing your .wav audio files in a folder that the app creates on the device's memory (often called the 'internal SD card' or 'internal storage'). You can copy files using a file explorer app or by connecting the device to a computer. The exact location of the folder will vary from device to device but typically you will find a folder called 'DrumNdrummer' at the top level of the internal storage and within that there is a 'sounds' folder which is where you should place your sound files.
NOTE: if no 'DrumNdrummer' folder has been automatically created after running the app, this is likely related to bug #001 below. As of Drum n Drummer v0.39 you can force the directory to be created by selecting 'Export wav file...' from the main menu.
The .wav files must be:
Each kit is composed of eight sounds labelled in the app as:
For example to over-ride just the snare drum sound for 'userkit1' place your own sound file with the name:
'userkit1_SN.wav' at: (Note the underscore character, it is not a space and not a dash)
/InternalStorage/DrumNdrummer/sounds/userkit1_SN.wavSimilarly any or all of the other sounds can be over-ridden, e.g:
/InternalStorage/DrumNdrummer/sounds/userkit1_KK.wav /InternalStorage/DrumNdrummer/sounds/userkit1_TT.wav /InternalStorage/DrumNdrummer/sounds/userkit2_HH.wav /InternalStorage/DrumNdrummer/sounds/userkit2_OH.wavIf the app is running when you change sounds in the 'sounds' folder you may need to reload the kit (select 'Select drumkit...' in the edit menu) to load the new sounds.
To troubleshoot, after loading a pattern or changing the kit, you can select 'Sound load messages...' in the main menu and see information about files that the app last tried to load.
Known problems and workarounds.
#001: WAV EXPORT AND CUSTOM KITS NOT WORKING (MARSHMALLOW). found in v0.38 | fixed in v0.39: There is an issue with permissions that results in a misleading error message 'Cannot create file using pattern name. Please rename the pattern to avoid illegal characters' when exporting a wav file. In fact the permission that allows the app to write to the external memory has not been correctly set and the app has failed to create the directories for user sounds and export files. This can be remedied manually by taking the following steps:
Drum n Drummer ships with three built in kits with more available as in app purchases:
Studio: A clean dynamic acoustic kit with a tight brass snare.
Studio2: Accoustic kit with a standard snare and punchy kick.
80S: The classic early 80s drum machine.
Jazz (upgrade): A jazz kit with brush hit / swiped snare.
Power (upgrade): Big, over the top kit with splashy kick and gated snare.
