ButtonBass
Make Music Online

Free Online Drum Machine

ButtonBass Step Sequencer

808 & 909 drums · melodic phonk · acid house · your own samples

TR-808 KIT100 BPMA · 1
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Each letter is a pattern. Enter A A B A to arrange your beat. ECHO follows the tempo.

HITS: off → normal → loud → soft → off · RATCHET: 1–4 repeats · NOTES: cycle phonk cowbell/808 or house 303 pitches; Shift-click goes down · drum name = preview · M = mute · ⚙ = sound settings and sample upload · Space = play/stop

Make drum beats online with a step sequencer

The ButtonBass Drum Machine is a free online beat maker that works in your browser. Start with a preset or draw your own rhythm on a 16, 32 or 64-step grid. Choose synthesized 808, 909 and electro drums, a phonk kit with cowbell melodies and distorted 808 bass, or acid-house drums with a resonant 303 bassline. Upload your own drum samples, add reverb and tempo-synced echo, then download a WAV loop or separate drum stems. No account or installation is required.

How to make a beat

  1. Press PLAY or choose a pattern. Rock is ready when you arrive. PATTERN includes Hip Hop, House, Trap, Phonk, Techno, Funk Break, Reggaeton and Electro Funk. RANDOM creates a variation of that style.
  2. Place your kick and snare. In a 16-step bar, steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 mark the four beats. Put the kick on 1 and 9, and the snare on 5 and 13 for a simple backbeat. Click a hit again to change its strength.
  3. Add hats, accents and rolls. Try a closed hat on every other step. RATCHET repeats a hit two to four times for fast hat rolls. The ACCENT row pushes all sounds on a step harder.
  4. Shape your sound. Open a lane's gear panel to change tune, decay and pan or upload an audio sample. Adjust SWING, REVERB and ECHO to change the groove and space.
  5. Arrange and export. Make variations in banks A–D and chain them into an arrangement. EXPORT WAV downloads the arrangement as a repeating loop; STEMS exports each active sound separately. RECORD captures your live changes as a browser audio recording.

808 and 909 drum machine sounds

The 808 kit emphasizes a deep kick and metallic percussion. The 909 kit has a punchier kick and brighter hats. ELECTRO adds a zap and sharper electronic colors. These are synthesized interpretations of classic drum-machine sounds, rather than recordings of the original hardware. Every lane has its own volume, mute, tuning, decay and pan controls.

Make phonk cowbell melodies

Choose Phonk for a two-bar Drift groove at 142 BPM, based on the ButtonBass Phonk Maker. Its cowbell choices are Classic, Bright, Dark, Crunchy and 8-bit; its 808 bass choices are Classic, Sub, Punch and Dirty. Open either lane's gear panel to choose the sound. NOTES cycles pitches in F minor, so you can change the hook and bassline as well as the drums.

Make acid-house beats with 303 bass

House loads the 130 BPM “Smiley ’88” groove inspired by the Acid House Maker, with its 909-style kick, snare, clap and hats. The 303 BASS lane uses a resonant filter and driven saw or square wave. Open its gear panel to sweep cutoff or increase resonance, and use NOTES to change pitches in A minor. For continuous slides and the full acid synth controls, try the Acid House Maker.

Use your own drum samples and save beats

Open any lane's gear panel and choose UPLOAD SAMPLE to replace that sound with your own audio file. Samples and saved beats stay in this browser. BEAT LIBRARY lets you save, load, duplicate and delete patterns; COPY LINK shares the pattern and kit settings. Custom audio is not included in shared links, so those lanes use kit sounds for the recipient. WAV and stem exports do include your uploaded sounds.

Drum machine questions

Is this online drum machine free?
Yes. All five kits, nine pattern styles, sample upload, effects, recording and WAV exports are free. No account or download is required.
What is a step sequencer?
A step sequencer plays sounds at positions on a repeating grid. A 16-step bar divides four beats into sixteenth notes. Click a cell to put a drum hit on that step; use 32 or 64 steps for longer phrases.
Can I upload my own drum samples?
Yes. Open a lane's gear panel and choose UPLOAD SAMPLE. Audio files under 20 MB can replace a kit sound. Uploaded audio stays in your browser and is included in WAV exports, but is not included in shared links.
Can I download my beat as WAV or stems?
Yes. EXPORT WAV downloads a repeating WAV loop with your sounds and effects. STEMS downloads a separate WAV for each active sound. If the ZIP library cannot load, stems download as individual files.
How do I make phonk or acid-house beats?
Choose Phonk for cowbell melodies and distorted 808 bass, or House for 909-style drums and 303 bass. Open the melodic lane's gear panel to shape its sound, and use NOTES to change its pitches.
Does it work on phones and tablets?
The layout adapts to phones, tablets and desktops. It needs a modern browser with Web Audio support. Session recording depends on the browser's MediaRecorder support; WAV export is available separately.
Where are my older sequencer beats?
Supported older beats and saved-library entries are imported from this browser, with related voices combined into the new kit. Original storage is kept. The previous sequencer remains available for its original sound library and microphone recording.

Open the previous sequencer for older sounds, themes and microphone recording.

More free beat-making tools

Try the Drum Pad for finger drumming, Virtual Drumset for acoustic-style playing, Trap Maker for trap production, or the online DAW to arrange a larger project.

Let's make a beat!

This is a music playground. Each row makes a sound. Each little box tells that sound when to play. Your beat goes around and around like a circle.

Try your first beat

  1. Choose Hip Hop in PATTERN.
  2. Press PLAY to hear it.
  3. Tap a box to change the beat. Try RANDOM for a new idea.
  4. Press UNDO if you want to go back.

Tap a topic below to learn more.

Play, stop, speed, and undo
PLAY / STOP
Start or stop the beat. It keeps repeating until you stop it. The glowing boxes show where the music is right now.
BPM
This is the speed: how many beats happen in one minute. Move it left for slower music or right for faster music.
TAP TEMPO
Tap this button a few times at the speed you want. The app follows your tapping.
SWING
Make the rhythm feel a little bouncy. Some sounds wait a tiny bit longer. Try a little swing first.
MASTER
Change how loud the whole beat is. Each row also has its own volume slider.
UNDO / REDO
UNDO takes back your last edit. REDO brings that edit back. Try things—you can go back!
The boxes: hits, fast rolls, and notes
The drum rows
KICK is the deep “boom.” SNARE is the sharp “tak.” CLAP sounds like hands clapping. Closed hats make short “tss” sounds; open hats ring longer. RIM is a little click, TOM is a round drum sound, and bells or rides add a ringing sound. Phonk and House also have low bass sounds that can play a tune.
HITS
Pick this to add sounds. Tap a box once for a normal hit, again for a loud hit, again for a soft hit, and again to turn it off.
RATCHET
Make one hit play very fast repeats, like “ta-ta-ta-ta.” Tap a box to cycle through up to four hits in that little space. Pick HITS again to edit loudness or turn it off.
ACCENT
Light up a box in the bottom row to give all sounds at that spot an extra push.
NOTES
This appears with the Phonk and Acid House kits. Tap boxes in the cowbell or bass rows to change how high or low they sound. The app picks notes that fit together. On a computer, hold Shift while clicking to go down instead of up.
The numbers above the boxes
They show when sounds happen. In a 16-step beat, 1, 5, 9, and 13 are the four main beats. Try a kick on 1 and 9, and a snare on 5 and 13.
Step pages
Longer beats have buttons like 1–16 and 17–32. Tap one to see that part of your beat. The music still plays the whole beat.
Choose sounds and get beat ideas
KIT
A kit is a box of sounds. TR-808 has deep drums. TR-909 has punchy drums. ELECTRO has buzzy electronic sounds. PHONK has cowbells and deep bass. ACID HOUSE has drums and a squelchy bass tune. Changing the kit changes the sounds for all four letter patterns.
PATTERN
Pick a ready-made beat: Rock, Hip Hop, House, Trap, Phonk, Techno, Funk Break, Reggaeton, or Electro Funk. It replaces the beat in your selected letter. Some choices also set the kit, speed, or swing. Use UNDO to go back.
STEPS
Choose how many little spaces your beat has: 16, 32, or 64. More spaces let you make a longer beat. Making it longer copies your shorter beat into the extra spaces so you have a starting point.
RANDOM
Get a fresh beat idea based on the style in PATTERN. It replaces your selected letter's beat and starts playing. Press it again for another idea, or UNDO to go back.
CLEAR
Turn off all hits and accents in your selected letter so you can start from scratch. Your other letters stay as they are.
Change one sound: volume, M, and ⚙
Tap a sound's name
Hear that sound by itself. This helps you choose what to add.
The little volume slider
Make just that row louder or quieter. Try quieter hats so the kick and snare stand out.
M
This means mute: make a row quiet without erasing its boxes. Tap M again to hear it.
⚙ sound settings
Tap the gear beside a row to open its sound controls. Tap it again to close them. These settings follow that sound across all four letters.
TUNE
Make the sound lower or higher, like a big drum or a little drum.
DECAY
Change how long the sound rings. Left makes it shorter; right lets it ring longer.
PAN
Move the sound toward your left or right speaker. The middle plays through both.
UPLOAD SAMPLE
A sample is a sound from an audio file. Choose a short sound from your device to use instead of that row's kit sound. The file must be under 20 MB. It stays in this browser and is saved here when browser storage is available.
USE KIT SOUND
Remove your uploaded sound from that row and bring back the kit sound.
RESET
Put that row's tune, decay, and pan back to their starting settings. For the House bass, it also resets its wave and filter controls. Your hits and uploaded sound stay.
Phonk cowbells and House bass sounds
Phonk SOUND choices
Pick PHONK in KIT and open the cowbell's gear. Try Classic, Bright, Dark, Crunchy, or 8-bit. Open the 808 bass gear for Classic, Sub, Punch, or Dirty. Each choice gives the tune a different sound.
House WAVE
Pick ACID HOUSE in KIT and open the 303 bass gear. Saw and Square are two different buzzy sounds. Try both!
CUTOFF
Think of a blanket over the bass sound. Left covers it up so it sounds darker. Right lifts the blanket so it sounds brighter.
RESONANCE
Add a whistly, squelchy edge to the bass. Try moving this and CUTOFF while the beat plays.
Make a tune
Choose NOTES, then tap lit boxes on a melodic row. Phonk notes fit an F minor tune; House notes fit an A minor tune. These are groups of notes chosen to sound good together.
Make a longer song with A, B, C, and D
BANK A / B / C / D
These are four pages for four different beats. Tap a letter to work on that beat. Sounds and their settings are shared between the letters.
COPY TO
Copy the selected letter's beat into another letter. For example, copy A to B, then change B to make a new part. This replaces the beat already in the letter you choose.
CHAIN
Write the letters in the order you want to hear them. A A B A means: play A, play A again, play B, then play A. You can use up to 16 letters.
CHAIN OFF / CHAIN ON
Tap this to turn your letter list on or off. ON plays the list over and over. OFF repeats only the letter you selected.
Make the sounds roomy or echoey
REVERB
Make your beat sound like it is in a big room. A little can add space; a lot makes sounds wash together.
ECHO
Hear little copies of your sounds after they play, like “hello… hello… hello.” The repeats follow your beat's speed.
Save a beat or share it with a friend
Automatic saving
Your latest beat and edits are kept in this browser when storage is available. Use BEAT LIBRARY to keep several favourites. Clearing browser data can remove saved beats and samples.
BEAT LIBRARY
Open your saved-beat list. Type a name and press SAVE CURRENT to keep all four letters and their settings.
LOAD / DUP / DEL
LOAD opens a saved beat. DUP makes another copy. DEL removes it from the list. CLOSE takes you back to the app.
COPY LINK
Copy a link your friend can open to hear your beat. If copying is blocked, the app shows a link you can copy yourself. Uploaded audio does not travel in the link—your friend hears the kit sounds in those rows. Send a WAV if you want them to hear your own uploaded sounds.
Older saved beats
The app tries to bring in beats from the old sequencer on this browser. Some old sounds share a row here. The “Open the previous sequencer” link below the app lets you use the old sound choices.
Download your music or record yourself playing
LOOP REPEATS
Choose how many times the beat repeats in your downloaded WAV and stems: 1, 2, 4, or 8. If CHAIN is on, one repeat means the whole letter list.
EXPORT WAV
Download your beat as an audio file. It includes your sounds, uploaded samples, and effects. You can listen to it or put it in another music app.
STEMS
Download each active sound as its own audio file: kick in one file, snare in another, and so on. This helps you mix them later. Muted rows are left out. Usually the files come in one ZIP folder; if that cannot load, they download separately.
RECORD / STOP REC
Record the app's music while you play and change things. It starts the beat if needed. Press STOP REC to download your recording. The beat keeps playing until you press STOP. This records the app's sounds, not your microphone.
If RECORD is unavailable
Some browsers cannot make live recordings. You can still try EXPORT WAV to download your beat.
Screen clues and computer shortcuts
The little display
It shows your kit, speed, and the letter and step playing right now. Messages below the controls tell you when a beat is saved, copied, or downloaded, or when something needs attention.
Space bar
Start or stop the beat when you are not typing or using another button. In this help menu, Space opens or closes the topic you are on.
Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Shift + Z
Undo / redo an edit. On a Mac, use Command instead of Ctrl.
Close this help
Press CLOSE, tap the dark area outside this box, or press Escape on a keyboard. Your beat can keep playing while you read.