Drum machine and drum synth for iPhone

Turn any recording
into a drum kit.

DRUMKIT cuts the hits out of any audio you give it and sorts them into a kit you can play. Or it builds them from nothing on a 14-engine drum synth. Then you sequence, arrange, process and export the track, all on your phone.

Everything runs on the phone.
Nothing gets uploaded.

Join the launch list Hear what it makes

$14.99 at launch, then $19.99. One purchase. No subscription, no account.

iPhone · iOS 17 or later Runs on device No subscription Works offline
Sample

Cut the drums
out of any track.

Give it a song, a loop, or record yourself hitting a table right in the app. DRUMKIT finds each hit, cuts it out and labels it: kick, snare, closed hat, clap, rim. You hear every slice, fix any label it got wrong, tick the ones worth keeping, and they land on the sequencer as a kit.

Find

Finding the hits

It scans for attack points and cuts out every hit. The scan runs on your phone; the file goes nowhere.

Check

Checking the results

Each slice shows where it came from, how long it rings and how sure the app is about its label. Play it, rename it, or change the category if it guessed wrong.

Keep

Choosing what to keep

Nothing is added until you tick it. Send the keepers to your sound library, or straight to the sequencer as a new kit.

Use audio you have the rights to. The app can't check that for you.

Drum Synth

Or build the sound
from nothing.

The drum synth has its own engine for each kind of hit, fourteen in all, from kick and snare to clank hat and woodblock. Stack up to nine layers, draw the volume and two LFOs by hand, and drag the filter across the sound's own spectrum. None of the 359 factory patches is a sample, so nothing you make sounds like the pack everyone else bought.

Library

359 factory patches

Sorted into nine categories, with no reverb baked in, so a patch sounds the same on any track.

Full

All 60 parameters, in six modules

FULL shows every control in six modules, with a fader for each of the nine layers.

Simple

Knobs that land on whole numbers

SIMPLE shows the knobs that matter for the drum you're on. Every knob snaps to the value it shows, so 58 Hz is 58 Hz.

Shapes

Draw the volume and the LFOs

Draw the volume as a line, and two LFOs that move the pitch, filter or volume.

Filter

See the filter over the sound

The filter curve sits over your sound's spectrum. Drag across for cutoff, up and down for resonance.

Sound Oracle

Not sure where to start? Try Sound Oracle.

Sound Oracle asks six questions about the drum you're after, like how long it should ring and whether it comes from an 808, a 909 or a Simmons, then plays you three to choose from.

SIMPLE shows the knobs that matter for the drum you're on. FULL shows all 60 parameters. Both edit the same patch.

Every drum synth parameter
Hear it

Drums made in DRUMKIT
on a released track.

This track is out now. Its drum kit was made in DRUMKIT and processed with Sonic Decimator, Chorus and Void Gate.

wh0mst Anywhere Else But Home from Same Old Ghosts · 45-second excerpt
0:00
Hear the full track on Same Old Ghosts
  • Kit sliced and synthesized in DRUMKIT
  • FX Sonic Decimator, Chorus and Void Gate
  • Export exported as stems
Sequence, arrange, perform

Then finish the track.

Sixteen tracks, each step holding its own pitch, velocity, filter, pan and envelope. Draw a pitched fill or a filter sweep with one finger in the piano roll. Switch to SONG and paint patterns across a timeline, with two rows for sweeps, stutters and tape stops on top. See everything the sequencer does →

One grid

Samples and synth sounds together

Sounds you sliced from a track and sounds from the drum synth go on the same step grid. Your edits save automatically.

Display

The whole pattern at a glance

Every track and both 8-step pages as a dot matrix, with the live output drawn over it.

Effects

Change effects while it plays

Tap FX and the display becomes the track's signal path. Open, reorder or add effects while it keeps playing.

Perform

Record patterns
by playing them.

Or skip the grid. In GROOVE the whole screen is a drum: tap a rhythm and DRUMKIT works out which drum each tap was. In PADS, hold FLAM or ROLL and play.

Groove

Tap anywhere on the screen

The whole screen is the input area, so there's nothing small to aim for. Tap with as many fingers as you want. DRUMKIT looks at where and how hard you tapped, decides which drum each tap was, and writes the hits into the step grid.

Pads

16 pads with flam and roll

There's one pad for each track, labelled with its sound and drum type. Hold FLAM and every hit plays as a flam. Hold ROLL and any pad you hold repeats in time; REPEAT sets the note length, from half notes to 32nds, triplets included. Hold a pad to change its sound.

Loop or take

Overdub, or review a take

LOOP records onto the playing pattern. TAKE records one pass so you can check the timing and which drum each hit became before you keep it.

Effects

25 effects, a few of them
built to break things.

Sonic Decimator is distortion on an XY pad: drag right for drive and wavefolding, up for fewer bits and a lower sample rate, while everything under 200 Hz stays clean. Fracture stutters and reverses on a grid you paint. Anvil makes every snare hit ring a tuned note, so a snare can play a melody. The essentials are there too: a five-band EQ, a compressor that can listen to another track, reverb, delay and a limiter. Every effect works on one track or the main mix, and playback keeps going while you tweak. See all 25 effects →

The field

The pad

The pad is a ferrofluid surface: it thrashes harder as DESTROY goes up and breaks into 8-bit blocks as CRUSH bites.

Motion

Sequencing the pad

MOTION turns the point into a step sequencer synced to the tempo, so the distortion moves with the beat.

Off steps

Glide and off steps

GLIDE smooths the moves between steps; off steps either snap back clean or hold.

Export

Stems that line up
at bar 1.

Each track exports as its own WAV, starting at bar 1 with the tempo written into the file, so Ableton, Logic and other DAWs that read tempo tags line it up for you. Prefer your own sounds? Export the pattern or the whole song as MIDI. Or export every sound you made as a 24-bit sample pack, sorted by category, for the sampler you already use.

You don't need a DAW, either. You can make a whole track in the app. Every export format →

NEW-SONG-EXAMPLE_120BPM_STEMS.zip
  • 01_KICK_NIGHTCALL.wav
  • 02_SNARE_NIGHTPOOL.wav
  • 03_CLOSED-HAT_MATTE-TICK.wav
  • 04_CLAP_NIGHTCLAP.wav
  • 06_PERC_NIGHTBELL.wavno 05, since that track had no steps
  • 09_CRASH_SOFT-SWELL.wav
  • 10_PERC_GHOST-PERC.wav
  • README.txttempo, time signature, bar count, how to import
Sample 0 is bar 1 · tempo written into every file

Import the folder at bar 1 and the files line up with each other and with your DAW's grid. The tempo is saved in each file, so DAWs that read tempo tags set it for you. Effects on the main channel aren't applied to stems, so the stems add up to your mix and you can master it however you like.

Coming to the Mac

Take it further
in LYLLTH.

LYLLTH is a separate music workstation for macOS, from the same studio. It opens DRUMKIT projects with their patterns, song, sounds and effects. The factory kits and effects are the same in both, so the beat sounds the same on the Mac.

You don't need LYLLTH to use DRUMKIT. It's in development and coming to the Mac App Store at $49.99.

About LYLLTH →

Questions

Common questions

Is it a subscription?

No. You pay once and every 1.x update is included. You don't need an account.

What do I need to run it?

An iPhone running iOS 17 or later. It will run on an iPad in iPhone compatibility mode, but the layout is designed for a phone screen.

How accurate is the drum detection?

It's good on clear drums and less sure on dense mixes, and it tells you how sure it is about each slice. You can relabel anything it gets wrong before you keep it.

Does it work with MIDI controllers, Ableton Link or AUv3?

Not at the moment. DRUMKIT is self-contained: move your work to other software with stems, MIDI or a sample pack.

Do I need LYLLTH?

No. DRUMKIT is complete on its own. LYLLTH is a separate music workstation for the Mac, in development, that opens DRUMKIT projects if you want to keep going on a bigger screen.

I'm not a sound designer. Will the synth be too much?

Start with the 359 factory patches, or let Sound Oracle ask six questions and give you three sounds to choose from. SIMPLE shows only the main controls; FULL shows all of them.

Does it work offline?

Yes. Slicing, synthesis, effects and export all run on the phone, and the app never connects to a server.

Can I use my own samples?

Yes. Import a track, loop or one-shot from the Files app, or record one with the iPhone's microphone. Tracks, loops and recordings are sliced into separate hits, and one-shots are imported as they are.

Who owns what I make?

You do. Sounds you make with the drum synth are yours to use in commercial releases, royalty-free. You're responsible for the rights to audio you import, since the app has no way to check. The details are in the Terms.

DRUMKIT app icon

$14.99 at launch.
$19.99 after.

DRUMKIT isn't on the App Store yet. Leave your email and we'll send one message when it's out, while the launch price still applies.

We'll only email you once, when it launches.

$14.99 Launch price Regular $19.99 after launch
  • Drum extraction from any audio, with a kit built from the hits
  • Drum synth: 14 engines, 359 patches and Sound Oracle
  • 16-track sequencer, piano roll, song timeline and PERFORM
  • 25 effects for tracks and the main mix
  • Exports: stems, MIDI, 24-bit or 32-bit float masters, sample packs and .fkit projects
  • Every 1.x update. No account, no subscription, works offline.

Requires an iPhone with iOS 17 or later. Runs on iPad in iPhone compatibility mode.

One email when it launches. Sold through the App Store, so Apple's refund process applies.