1. Tap a square to add a hit; tap it again to remove it. Each row is one drum. The faint 1 e & a on the squares is how a drummer counts: 1, 2, 3 and 4 are the beats.
  2. Tap a drum's name to fill its row in one go: On every beat, On 2 and 4 (the snare's backbeat), Every eighth note (the hi-hat's)… The one it already plays is ticked.
  3. The ⋯ beside Drums: the Beat Library — a hundred-odd beats to start from; Beatbox a Beat — make the sounds ("b" for a kick, "k" or "psh" for a snare, "ts" for a hi-hat) and they're written into the grid; Make It Busier or Simpler, one step at a time; and This Beat → What's This Beat? names it and suggests one thing to try.
  4. Press Play. Change the tempo with − and +, drag the slider, or tap Tap in time with a song you like.
  5. Press and hold a square for Loud (an accent) or Soft (a ghost note). Loudness is what makes a beat groove.
  6. Press and hold → Split This Step turns one square into 2, 3 (a triplet) or 4 thinner ones — quicker hits for hi-hat rolls and fills. Tap each thin one on or off.
  7. Press and hold → Pitch plays that step higher or lower — a fifth up, an octave down… Pitch a kick for a booming bass line, or your own sound for a melody. The step shows how far (+7).
  8. Timing (the “4/4 · 1 bar · 1/16” button) sets the time signature, how many bars the beat runs, and the step size.
  9. Feel: Swing (on the Beat screen, beside the speed just above the grid — and in the Beat's ⋯ → Speed, Swing and Timing…) pushes every second step late, from straight to a full shuffle — try a little on hip-hop, lo-fi and funk; Human feel lets each hit land a touch late or soft, like a drummer.

Plays in, at the top, is your song's parts: a lit part plays the beat, so tap one to drop the beat out of it (an intro without drums) or bring it back. Press and hold a part to give it its own beat — make a second scene (a busier chorus beat, a fill) and choose it for that part — or No Beat Here.

Your own sounds play on the drums too: tap a drum's name → Sound, and pick from Your Sounds (anything on the Sampler's pads). The row keeps its steps, tuning and length.

Like a beat? The Beat screen's ⋯ → This Beat → Save to My Beats… keeps it — its drums, sounds, tempo and swing, and your own sounds its rows play — and it's at the top of the Beat Library in every song.