Turn a PC into a toolbox with these Windows Apps for Drummers

Grab a spare snare stand and use it to hold your new Laptop Drummer’s Tool-kit. Our selection of the best free Windows Apps for Drummers transforms the PC into an Instructor / Studio / Tool Kit / Music Stand / Band Mate and more! These are our recommended apps, but there are many more out there.

 

Drum Machines / Sequencers

A PC or Laptop with a suitable sequencer can be anything from a simple drum machine, a sandbox for grooves or a learning tool. It can also be a whole lot of fun just as a cool toy. here are our favourites.

Hydrogen

hydrogen Windows Apps for DrummersHydrogen is an advanced drum machine for GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. It’s main goal is to bring professional yet simple and intuitive pattern-based drum programming

General

  • Very user-friendly, modular, fast and intuitive graphical interface based on QT 4.
  • Sample-based stereo audio engine, with import of sound samples in .wav, .au and .aiff formats.
  • Support of samples in compressed FLAC file.

Sequencer and mixer

  • Pattern-based sequencer, with unlimited number of patterns and ability to chain patterns into a song.
  • Up to 192 ticks per pattern with individual level per event and variable pattern length.
  • Unlimited instrument tracks with volume, mute, solo, pan capabilities.
  • Multi layer support for instruments (up to 16 samples for each instrument).
  • Sample Editor, with basic cut and loop functions. (NEW)
  • Time-stretch and pitch functions via rubberband cli. Require the rubberband-cli package. (NEW)
  • Play-lists with scripting function. (NEW)
  • Advanced tab-tempo. (NEW)
  • Director Window with a visual metronome and song position tags. (NEW)
  • Time-line with variable tempo. (NEW)
  • Single and stacked pattern mode. (NEW)
  • Export/Import single patterns into song projects. (NEW)
  • Midi learning via Shift+MouseClick on many gui-cotrollers combined with a midi settings editor. (NEW)
  • Ability to import/export song files.
  • Unique human velocity, human time, pitch and swing functions.
  • Multiple patterns playing at once.

Other

  • JACK, ALSA, PortAudio and OSS audio drivers.
  • ALSA MIDI and PortMidi input with assignable midi-in channel (1..16, ALL).
  • Import/export of drumkits.
  • Export song to wav, aiff, flac or ogg file.
  • Export song to midi file.

Website: http://sourceforge.net/projects/hydrogen/

orDrumbox

The orDrumbox is a free drum machine software, designed to be as creative as possible with unusual features : auto-composition, polyrythmes, unusual arpeggiator, automatic sounds/track matching , custom softsynths, lowfi rendering, etc.
This tools can compose bass line and complete songs using included drum kits with the audio sequencer functions.

ordrumbox Windows Apps for Drummers

Pattern oriented

You can create songs by assembling variouspatterns. It’s up to you to determine the number of beats in each pattern (16 or 32 or whatever).

Each pattern is composed of tracks (as many as you want). Each track corresponds to one sound.

The tracks/sounds can be pitched and mixed and panoramized, and solo/muted/ with the interface. Polyrhythms capabilities: Add a loop point at the step you want, independently on each track.

Each track is composed of notes (one note by beat). On each note, you can independently control pitch(from -12 to +12 semitones) and volume. Some notes can be loop point or scale notes

The number of different sounds is not limited, neither the number of tracks in a pattern, nor the number of patterns in a song.

Automatic composition

Automatic composer and arpeggiator

On each track you can use an automatic fill enginepowered by artificial intelligence technology. This way you can add melodic scales and semi-random notes to make the orDrumbox compose rhythmic and melodic patterns under your control.

It’s designed for creativity.

You only have to define some rules and the orDrumbox is going to generate beat variations and melodic lines using used designed scales. Some minor/major and more scales are pre-defined to help you with this feature see the arpeggiator window

Website: http://www.ordrumbox.com/

Hotstepper

Hotstepper is a free and easy to use drum sequencer with 12 channels. You can create music beats with different sound samples. You can use up to 12 different sounds simultaneously. After finishing your track you can export it to WAV file to the desired location. You can set the tempo of tracks by moving the BPM slider in the desired direction. It has various predefined samples with .HPA extension and they can help you when creating new ones. This beat maker program has wave stretching option which lets you stretch sounds to the length of the beat. It has delay control also and you can define the delay amount and adjust the value of feedback.

hotstepper Windows Apps for Drummers

Features:

  • Adjustable velocitiy and pitch for every event
  • Up to 12 different sounds can be used simultaneous
  • Adjustable velocity, delay, panorama position and pitch for every sound
  • Adjustable pattern size and resolution (triple, quarter)
  • Import wav files (10 second max, 44.1kHz, 16-bit, mono only) into the sound libary and select start and end sample points
  • Export drum patterns as Windows PCM (*.wav) files
  • Delay control so you can define the amount of the delay and adjust feedback
  • Shuffle control for adjusting the type of shuffle and its intensity
  • Organize patterns into a song (only one pattern may play at once)
  • Wave Stretching allows you to define sounds that will be stretched automatically to the length of the beat
  • Sounds can cut-off other sounds when started (ie. Closed HiHat stops Open HiHat)

Website:

http://www.threechords.com/hammerhead/hotstepper.shtml

 

Tuners

Yes, even us drummers can benefit from a good tuner. Applications include; Tuning the kit to specific pitch intervals, Tuning Batter and resonant heads to the same pitch, Tuning batter and resonant heads to different pitch, but keeping the same ratio throughout the kit and lastly to uniformly tune all the tension rods on a head.

Musical Instruments Tuner

Description

The Musical Instruments Tuner helps your tune your instruments by analyzing their sounds.

Musical Instruments Tuner

Usually, in order to fine tune your instruments to make the pitch of each music note precise, you adopt a timpani, and compare the tone of your instrument with the tone of the timpani. However, because of the inaccuracy of human acoustic perception or the lack of experience, it is hard to make each music note precise.
Given the fact that the pitch of a music note is defined by its frequency, the Musical Instruments Tuner records the sound of the instrument, analyzes the waveform of the sound to detect its frequency, and then compares the frequency with the standard frequency definition for each music note, so that it can detect the music note and the deviation.
The Musical Instruments Tuner has 3 main features: Display the recorded sound’s waveform, display the analyzed frequency spectrum and detect the music note and the deviation. Each feature can be turned on or off independently.

Features

  • Display the recorded sound’s waveform
  • Display the analyzed frequency spectrum
  • Detect the music note and the deviation

Windows Store:

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-ca/app/musical-instruments-tuner/4f7356d7-cd5e-419f-9523-b7a242dd950c#

modTuner

Description

modTuner is a sophisticated automatic chromatic tuner suitable for tuning a wide range of musical instruments including guitars, basses, ukuleles, violins, violas and cellos.
Its large, easy to read display is ideal for tuning even at a distance, and the carefully designed white-on-black appearance is ideal for use in dark performance environments.
modTuner uses a sophisticated digital signal processing algorithm to accurately and reliably detect the fundamental frequency of the note being played. modTuner’s background graphic glows when a reliable tone is detected, providing you with greater confidence while tuning.

Features

  • Accurate, automatic chromatic tuning precise to 0.1 cents
  • Supports the whole 88 key piano range from A0 to C8
  • Large, easily readible display lets you tune even from a distance
  • Drop/Capo enables you to use drop or capo tuning
  • Concert A calibration to match the tuning of another instrument precise to 0.1 Hertz
  • High Sensitivity mode to help tune certain difficult instruments
  • Noise Filter to measure and reduce environment noise for easier tuning in difficult environments
  • Tone detection and peak meter indicators let you know that modTuner is hearing your instrument
  • Set your favorite defaults for Concert A, Drop/Capo and Sensitivity

Windows Store:

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-ph/app/modtuner/2044b141-8de2-40e4-b686-f4e84cfafb94#

APTuner

Note Detection

APTuner is built around a best-in-class note detector spanning 8 octaves even for low piano notes. Our analysis algorithm eliminates many of the octave or fifth errors you often see with other tuners.APTuner

Strobe Display

New to version 1.2 is our true 8 octave strobe display. Every audio sample is fed through the GPU to calculate the real stroboscopic effect–exactly like a mechanical spinning disk.

Performance Analyzer

For the aspiring musicians in the group, you will love APTuner’s exclusive Performance Analyzer feature. Get an in-depth analysis of your playing ability over time. This is perfect for ear-training, scales, and getting a better awareness of your tonal quality. You can also watch the loudness of each note against its pitch. This way you are not only improving the consistency of your tone, but your volume as well.(currently only for iPhone)

Temperaments & Transpositions

APTuner has all the features you expect in a full featured tuner:

  • Adjustable A4 frequency
  • Transpose concert pitch to your instrument.
  • Switch to a wide range of historical temperaments.

Website:

http://www.aptuner.com/aptuner_index.html

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