How to use
Beatdriller

From the top of the screen down, you’ll find:

• The header - the Beatdriller title, a PRO button, a Record button for live takes, and a lightning bolt that lights up when the engine is ready to play.
• The kit bar - pick your sound kit, and jump to the Drillpad synth or the Arranger.
• The nine pads - your drums. Tap them to play.
• The transport - Play/Stop, tempo (BPM), master volume, pattern length and the metronome.
• The step sequencer - the grid where you program a beat.

Tap any of the nine pads to fire its sound. Beatdriller uses a custom low-latency engine on both iPhone and Android, so the sound triggers the instant your finger lands - no lag. Pads flash as they play.

Each row is a pad and each column is a step in time. Tap a cell to switch the step on; tap again for a louder double-hit; tap once more to clear it.

The fader on the left of each row sets that track’s volume so you can balance the mix. Made a mistake? Use Undo. Want a clean slate? Tap New Seq.

Prefer to play it in? Tap the Record button in the header. Beatdriller counts you in with the metronome, then captures whatever you tap on the pads - automatically quantized onto the grid so it lands in time. Tap Stop when you’re done and your performance is in the sequencer.

Open the kit selector in the kit bar and choose Customise (or New Kit). You now have nine blank pads ready to fill with your own sounds.

From the same picker, choose Browse files (any audio or video file) or Pick from Photos (a video or screen recording). If you pick a video, Beatdriller pulls the audio out of it for you automatically.

Fill as many pads as you like (and add per-pad FX if you want), then tap Save Kit As and give it a name. It appears in your kit list, ready to reload any time.

From the kit bar, tap Drillpad. The big square in the middle is the XY pad - drag your finger anywhere on it to play.

Open Sound Settings to fine-tune the synth: the pitch Range and Low Note, Glide, an Attack / Release envelope, filter Resonance, Drive, an LFO for vibrato (rate and depth) and the output Volume.

Switch the source to Your sound (load or record a sample) and you unlock X FX and Y FX. Stack any combination of Delay, Chopper, Ducker, Crush, Distortion and the Glitch chunk-rearranger onto each axis - then the position of your finger drives them live as you drag.

In the RECORD & SAVE section, tap Record take, perform on the pad, then trim it. Choose Save to Pad to drop it onto a drum pad, or Save to kit. Your Drillpad creation becomes a playable drum you can sequence like any other.

Use Save Kit / Load Kit for kits, Save Seq / Load Seq for beats, plus saved songs and My Sounds. There’s no cap on how much you can store.

From the kit bar, tap Arranger. Drag your saved sequences from the palette onto the timeline lanes to place them. Drop one below the last lane to start a new track (up to 8).

Zoom in and out with the slider or tap Fit, and tap the ruler at the top to scrub through the song.

The MASTER strip glues the whole mix together with a Glue Compressor, a Stereo Widener and a Limiter. Tap Preset for an instant mastering chain, and keep an eye on the LUFS meter to judge loudness. Hit Play song to hear it all together.

Use the Export button on the main screen (for a sequence) or Export song in the Arranger. Name your file, trim the start and end on the waveform, pick WAV or MP3, and share it straight from your phone.

The whole app - unlimited saves, every effect, the arranger and export - is free. Tap PRO at the top of the screen to upgrade: Beatdriller Pro simply removes the ads for uninterrupted sessions. Already bought it on another device? Use Restore purchase.