Navigate to the DRUM screen. This is the step sequencer — a grid where rows are instruments (kick, snare, hi-hat) and columns are points in time. You fill in the grid, press play, and the machine loops through it.
Start with the Pattern Generator
Every genre has rhythmic conventions. A boom-bap beat swings differently from a trap beat. House has a four-on-the-floor kick. Drill has triplet-feel hi-hats. The generator knows these conventions and builds a pattern that follows them — at the right tempo, with the right swing. It's a starting point, not a finished product.
- The bar at the bottom of the drum screen changes depending on what you're doing. For pattern generation, make sure you're in TOOLS mode (the bottom bar will show pattern generator options).
- Pick a genre. For your first track, BOOM-BAP is a solid choice — it's swung, punchy, and works with almost any sample. But pick whatever matches the vibe of what you captured.
- Tap GENERATE.
- Press play. You have a beat.
- Not feeling it? Tap the dice icon to re-roll — every roll is unique. The generator now uses AI to search your sample library and pick sounds that match your chosen genre. It can even suggest effects for each track.
Available genres: Boom-Bap, Trap, House, Drill, Lo-Fi, Reggaeton, Afrobeats.
Understand what was generated
Before you start editing, take a second to read the grid. Understanding what you're looking at makes everything easier.
For a boom-bap pattern, you'll typically see:
- The kick lands on beat 1 and somewhere around beat 3 — the heavy downbeats.
- The snare hits beats 2 and 4 — the backbeat. This is the head-nod.
- The hi-hat subdivides the beat — filling in the space between kick and snare.
- Some steps might be dimmer than others. That's velocity — quieter hits that add a human feel. They're ghost notes.
Edit the grid
- Tap a lit step to turn it off. Tap an empty step to turn it on.
- Drag vertically on any step to change its velocity. Higher = louder (brighter orange). Lower = softer (dimmer).
- Long-press a step for fine control — exact velocity percentage and micro-timing offset.
- Lock a different sample to a single step — put a rim shot on just one snare hit, or a different kick on beat 4. Long-press a step and choose SOUND LOCK to pick a new sample for that step only.
Common first edits: move a kick that landed in an odd spot to beat 1. Add an extra hi-hat where it feels empty. Remove a snare ghost note that's cluttering things up.
Switch to Piano Roll
The drum screen also has a piano roll view for melodic tracks. Instead of tapping grid steps, you draw notes on a piano-key layout. Pick a scale (Major, Minor, Pentatonic) and every note you draw stays in key. The Draw, Erase, and Select tools work like a simple painting app for music.
Time Signature and Grid Subdivision
You can change the time signature (4/4, 3/4, 6/8, and more) and the grid subdivision (1/4 notes down to 1/32nd triplets) for finer control over your patterns. Tap the time signature display near the top of the drum screen to open the settings.
Note Repeat
The note repeat strip below the grid auto-triggers a track at musical intervals — hold a hi-hat track for rapid 1/16th rolls, or a kick for 1/8th patterns. It saves your thumb from having to tap every single step.
Swap a drum sound
The generator loads factory sounds. If the kick doesn't hit right or the snare is too thin, swap it.
- Long-press the track label (e.g., "Kick") on the left side of the grid.
- The assign sheet opens with 57 factory drum sounds — kicks, snares, claps, hats, cymbals, percussion.
- Tap any sound to preview it. Tap again to assign it to that track.
Add swing
Straight timing means every step is evenly spaced — like a metronome. Real drummers don't play that way. Swing delays every other 16th note slightly, creating a push-pull groove. It's the difference between a drum machine and a drummer. Subtle swing makes a beat feel alive.
Find the SW control in the transport strip. Drag it up from 0.
- 0% = perfectly straight. Good for house, techno, trap.
- 25–35% = classic hip-hop bounce. The sweet spot for boom-bap and lo-fi.
- 50%+ = heavy shuffle. Gets into jazz territory.
If you used the pattern generator with boom-bap, it probably already applied some swing. Nudge it up or down until the head-nod feels right.
Build a second pattern
A track that plays one loop for four minutes gets boring fast. Songs have sections — a verse that grooves, a chorus that lifts, a bridge that breaks things up. In ESSNCE, you build this by creating multiple patterns and chaining them together.
- Look at the pattern bank — a row of numbered boxes below the grid. You've been editing Pattern 1.
- Long-press Pattern 1 and select COPY.
- Tap Pattern 2 to switch to it. It's empty.
- Long-press Pattern 2 and select PASTE. Now it's a copy of Pattern 1.
- Edit Pattern 2 to make it different: add a crash cymbal on beat 1, change the kick pattern, throw in a hi-hat roll, or strip it back to just kick and snare.
You now have two patterns — a main groove and a variation. That's enough for a verse/chorus structure.
Add an effect or two
The FX rail runs along the right side of the grid. Each icon is a real-time effect that applies to the drum mix.
- REV (reverb) — adds a sense of room. Tap it once. Your drums now sound like they're in a physical space instead of a vacuum.
- SAT (saturation) — warm overdrive. Adds weight and grit without distorting.
- CMP (compressor) — glues everything together. Makes quiet hits louder and loud hits more controlled.
Save and share your drum kit
Save your entire drum setup — sounds, levels, effects, and all — as a kit file (.ekit) to share or back up. Load someone else's kit to get their sound instantly. Find the kit menu in the top-right corner of the drum screen.
You have two drum patterns — a main groove and a variation — with kick, snare, and hi-hat. The drums have swing, the right sounds, and a touch of reverb or saturation. They groove.