The Beat Studio Blog

Notes from the practice room.

Notes and releases from Beat Studio — the free electronic drum training app I build for Windows and Mac.

Have a question or stuck? FAQ Troubleshooting

All posts

Tutorial

Use Drum Module Sounds in Beat Studio: Wiring Guide

Connect your electronic drum kit to hear your module's own sounds while you train in Beat Studio, with or without an audio interface: every cable explained.

Tutorial

Map Your Drum Pads in Beat Studio: MIDI Mapping Guide

Map every pad of your electronic drum kit in Beat Studio with the Mapping Wizard or by hand, including rim zones and the hi-hat pedal, then test each pad.

Tutorial

Use Beat Studio Sounds With E-Drums: Wiring Guide

Connect your electronic drum kit to play Beat Studio's own sounds, with or without an audio interface: which cable goes where and which output to choose.

Tutorial

Windows Audio Output Modes in Beat Studio Explained

Choose the right Windows output mode in Beat Studio: Auto, Exclusive, Shared or Exclusive while training, and fix other apps going silent while you practise.

Release

Beat Studio 2.1.1: Windows Installer and Fixes

Beat Studio 2.1.1 adds a proper Windows installer with fewer antivirus false alarms, bundles the Visual C++ runtime, and fixes several pattern editor issues.

Tutorial

How to Edit a Drum Pattern in Beat Studio

Use the Beat Studio pattern editor to add, remove and move hits, set velocities, copy and paste sections, record from your kit and line the grid up with a song.

Tutorial

How to Import a MIDI or Guitar Pro Song Into Beat Studio

Import a MIDI or Guitar Pro file into Beat Studio on its own or with an audio file or URL, and sync the drum track to the original recording's real tempo.

Tutorial

Beat Studio First Setup: MIDI and Audio

Set up Beat Studio for your e-drum kit in a few minutes: connect your kit and headphones, map your pads, and get your sound and timing right before you play.

Tutorial

How to Extract Drum Hits From Audio in Beat Studio

Use Extract mode in the Beat Studio pattern editor to detect kick, snare, hi-hat and crash hits from a song's drum stem and turn them into a playable pattern.

Release

Beat Studio 2.1: Lifetime Licence and New Audio Settings

Beat Studio 2.1 switches to a one-time lifetime licence on Gumroad, merges Free and Pro into one app, and adds audio device, buffer and Windows output settings.

Release

Beat Studio 2.0: A New Library and Progress You Can See

Beat Studio 2.0 opens to a new card-based library, adds detailed session summaries with star ratings and insights, full pattern history, and fairer scoring.

Release

Beat Studio 1.9: PDF Export and Smoother Performance

Beat Studio 1.9 exports drum notation to PDF, colours the audio import waveform, adds a Pro Trial edition, and makes training and notation views smoother.

Tutorial

How to Build a Drum Kit From a Song's Drum Stem

A step-by-step Beat Studio workflow for cutting kick, snare and tom samples from a song's drum stem, shaping them, and playing the song on its own drum sound.

Release

Beat Studio 1.8: Turn Any Song Into a Drum Kit

Beat Studio 1.8 builds a playable drum kit from a song's drum stem, adds round-robin samples, softer velocity layers, crash detection and in-app MIDI mapping.

Release

Beat Studio 1.7.0: Refreshed, Expanded, Reorganised

Beat Studio 1.7.0 leaves beta with a darker theme, triplets and tempo marks in notation, full-screen transport controls, and a rebuilt Settings dialog.

Release

Beat Studio 1.6.0-BETA: Variable Tempo

Beat Studio 1.6.0-BETA adds variable tempo so patterns follow a song's real tempo curve, a new pattern creation wizard with audio sync, and retires Core.

Update

New: FAQ and Troubleshooting Pages

I've added a FAQ page covering tiers, pricing, MIDI setup, and more — plus a dedicated troubleshooting guide for the most common Beat Studio problems.

Release

Beat Studio 1.3.0-BETA: Flexibility & Feedback

Beat Studio 1.3.0-BETA brings in-app MIDI device switching, latency compensation modes, scoring-colored timeline hits, and pattern editor sub-divisions.

Tutorial

Meet SENS — the knob that makes your kit feel right

SENS reshapes the velocity curve on each drum channel of the Beat Studio mixer — boost ghost notes, tame hot pads, and dial in how every drum feels.

Why I built Beat Studio

An electronic drum kit, a 10-year-old who got hooked, and a frustrating search for a flexible drum app — and what came out of it.

Release

Beat Studio 1.2.0-BETA: Pattern Packs

Pattern Packs — a new way to organize, share, and discover drum patterns. Plus tempo sync, pattern info fields, score indicators, and a stack of fixes.

About Beat Studio

A free electronic drum training app.

Beat Studio gives electronic drummers real-time feedback on timing, velocity, and accuracy. Build any pattern from scratch, import a MIDI or Guitar Pro file, or drop in a song — Beat Studio separates the drum stem, extracts the pattern, and can turn the song's own drum sounds into a playable kit. Then review your session analysis to see your progress.

Get started — it's free