Step sequencer online
A 16-step drum sequencer in your browser. Each row is a sound, each column a 16th note: light a step and it plays when the loop reaches it.
Punchy house kick, bright hats, big clap
808 bass & chords
Fm7 → A#m7 → Fm7 → A#m7
The 808 follows the chord root in each bar; set a step's offset to walk the bassline. Pads hold until the next chord hit. Stabs are short.
Click a step once for a hit, twice for an accent, three times to clear. Space plays/stops, T taps tempo, R makes a random beat.
Saved beats (0)
Nothing saved yet. Beats stay on this device only.
Describe a beat, get a starting pattern
Type a vibe or a genre. AI writes the pattern into the grid above; edit it from there.
Ask the beat coach
Gets feedback on the pattern you have right now: what works, what to try next.
What a step sequencer does
A step sequencer chops one bar into equal slices and plays them in order, over and over. In 4/4 the usual resolution is 16 steps, so every step is a 16th note and every group of four is one beat. On the grid above, the key colours change every four steps to show the beats, the same way the TR-808 coloured its step buttons.
Because each hit sits exactly on a step, the result is always in time. That makes step sequencing the fastest way to program drums. Groove comes from two controls on top of the grid: accents (tap a lit step again to make it louder) and swing, which delays every second 16th. You can hear the difference in the swing demo.
How long is one step?
A step lasts 60 ÷ BPM ÷ 4 seconds. Faster tempos shrink every step, which is why fast hi-hat rolls at 140 BPM sound so tight.
| Tempo | One step (16th) | One beat | One bar (16 steps) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 70 BPM | 214 ms | 857 ms | 3.43 s |
| 90 BPM | 167 ms | 667 ms | 2.67 s |
| 100 BPM | 150 ms | 600 ms | 2.40 s |
| 120 BPM | 125 ms | 500 ms | 2.00 s |
| 128 BPM | 117 ms | 469 ms | 1.88 s |
| 140 BPM | 107 ms | 429 ms | 1.71 s |
| 174 BPM | 86 ms | 345 ms | 1.38 s |
For any other tempo, plus dotted and triplet values, use the BPM calculator.
Programming a beat step by step
- Kick on the beats. Steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 give a four-on-the-floor; 1 and 11 give a hip hop bounce.
- Snare or clap on 5 and 13. That is the backbeat on beats 2 and 4.
- Hats on every second step, then fill in a few of the gaps for movement.
- Switch to 32 steps and change the second bar so the loop does not repeat too exactly.
Prefer one sound at a time on big keys? The drum machine view edits a single row like a classic TR. Want to play it in live instead? Use the drum pads. Ready-made grids are in the drum pattern library.
Step sequencer questions
What is a step sequencer?
A step sequencer splits a bar of music into a fixed number of equal steps, usually 16, and lets you switch each step on or off for each sound. When it plays, it walks through the steps in a loop and triggers every sound that is switched on at that step.
How many steps are in a bar?
Sixteen is the standard for a bar of 4/4: four beats, each split into four 16th notes. Steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 are the beats. Thirty-two steps give you two bars, or one bar at 32nd-note resolution for fast hi-hat rolls.
What is the difference between a step sequencer and a piano roll?
A step sequencer locks every note to a grid position, which makes drums fast to program and always in time. A piano roll in a DAW lets notes start anywhere and last any length, which suits melodies and humanised playing but takes longer to edit.
Is this step sequencer free to use online?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no download or account, and you can export the loop as a WAV or MP3 file or share it as a link.
Which drum machines used step sequencers?
Roland popularised step programming with the TR-808 (1980) and TR-909 (1983): a row of 16 buttons, one per 16th note. Many later drum machines, grooveboxes and DAW drum racks copy that layout.
How long is one step?
One 16th-note step lasts 60 ÷ BPM ÷ 4 seconds. At 120 BPM that is 0.125 s (125 ms); at 90 BPM it is about 167 ms. The table on this page lists common tempos.