How to make a beat with BirdBeat.

• REC

  Tap the big button, make a sound, tap again. Or pick 1 BAR, 2 BARS or 4 BARS: four clicks count in and you get a clean loop. The ring shows your level: green is good, red is too loud.

• EDIT

  CHOP puts every hit on its own pad. Select a part with the handles for SLICE (a pad) or PERCH. Tap a pad and its ✕ removes it; drag it onto another to move it.

• BEAT

  Tap a track, tap its steps. In PADS, ● REC STEPS turns what you play into steps. Hold a pad for its sound and its own FX: space, echo, drive, pan.

• PERCH

  Four layers that loop on top of the beat. Hold one to record, load, mute or copy it. MIX has a fader per track, FX the XY square and live effects.

• EXPORT

  Bottom right: YOUR SONG gives you the whole song as a WAV (the sound) and a MIDI file (the notes) to share or save.

• No time?

  TRY A BEAT turns your recording into a whole beat. Tap one of three styles, ↻ shows three others, ✓ KEEP IT keeps it.

• Share

  EXPORT › YOUR SONG › ↗ SHARE: WAV and MIDI into a chat, your cloud or a DAW app.

• Rules

  Tap plays or selects, hold opens options. UNDO in the header undoes anything. Everything saves by itself. Every first time brings a bird into your album.

• 01Your first beat in two minutes2 min · needs nothing
• 02From a field recording to a beat10 min · something that makes a sound
• 03A beat from a file you already have5 min · an audio file
• 04Drums, levels and step locks10 min · needs nothing
• 05From loop to song: banks and chains5 min · a pattern
• 06Layering with perches10 min · a microphone (optional)
• 07Performing live10 min · a running pattern
• 08Taking it to your DAW5 min · a pattern and a DAW
• 09Backups and moving to another phone3 min · a place for one file
• 10An app on your home screen2 min · your phone

• Phone

  Open the app on your phone in Safari (iPhone) or Chrome (Android) and hold it upright. Tablets are not tested yet; hold them upright too. On iPhone, switch off silent mode or you will not hear anything.

• Microphone

  The first tap on the big button only asks for the microphone; once allowed, the button pulses and the next tap records. Tap again to stop (it stops by itself after a minute), or hold it and let go. The microphone is only on while it records. Only record what you're allowed to: private conversations need the OK of the people in them. No microphone? Use the demos or import audio files.

• Saving

  Everything saves automatically, in this browser on this phone. Nothing is uploaded, so export a backup now and then (workflow 9).

• Undo

  UNDO in the header undoes crops, bounces, pad and step edits in one timeline; hold it to redo. What changed back lights up briefly. Removing a pad or clearing a perch shows UNDO right away instead of asking "Are you sure?". Try things.

The screen at a glance

• Time2 minutes
• You needyour phone

1. Open the app. The home screen opens; on the first visit press GOT IT on the short notice there.
2. Scroll down to the demo cards. The chips above them (CHILL, GROOVE, DANCE, HARD) show just those demos, four at a glance. Tap a card: it loads and plays. Swipe for more, tap another card to switch, tap the playing card to stop.
3. Found one you like? KEEP THIS ONE → takes you into it, straight to BEAT.
4. At the top of BEAT you see every track as a row in the colour of its pad: KICK, SNARE, HAT and CLAP are the drums, PAD 5 and below play slices of the bird. Tap a row: its 16 steps show big below.
5. Change something: tap a step on or off, or tap the tempo in the header in time with the music to set a new one: from the fourth tap the bird flaps along in the new tempo.
6. Tap ■ STOP to stop. Tap the bird to come back to home and the demos.

• 1 BlackbirdBoom-bap · 90CHOP: fluting phrases on pads, answering the snare
• 2 Tawny owlLo-fi · 78Pitch locks: one hoot plays a melody
• 3 House sparrowHouse · 124Repeat locks (ratchets) on the chirps
• 4 WoodpeckerDrum & bass · 172A bird as percussion, with nudge
• 5 CuckooTechno · 132Two banks chained into a 32-step loop
• 6 Herring gullTrap · 140Hi-hat rolls and a pitch drop
• 7 NightingaleSynthwave · 108Delay and reverb, played live on the XY pad
• 8 Carrion crowReggaeton · 98Bank II is the drop: switch banks while it plays
• 9 Feral pigeonDub techno · 120A perch playing the whole recording under the beat
• 10 Great titElectro · 128Mute and solo: drop tracks out and back in
• 11 RobinUK garage · 132Swing: the 2-step shuffle
• 12 MallardFunk · 108Ghost notes: quiet snare hits from volume locks
• 13 BigfootMinimal techno · 128Nudge: one knock comes late and the groove drifts
• 14 BigfootHard techno · 140A whoop as a stab, pitched down between the knocks
• 15 Black-tailed godwitGabber · 180The Dutch national bird over a distorted industrial kick

Good to knowEvery demo opens as its own project, named DEMO: …. Your own projects stay exactly as they are. The raw bird recording sits on P1, muted (except in the pigeon demo): hold P1 and tap MUTED to hear it. All bird calls are synthesized in your browser. You can also hear the demos on the home page.

Next: record your own sound →

• Time10 minutes
• You needsomething that makes a sound

1. Find a sound with clear hits: knocking on a table, a pan lid, keys, a bird outside the window, or your voice saying "boom" and "tss".
2. Tap the bird, then ● NEW BEAT. The bird walks you through your first beat: after each step it waits until you tap NEXT → (or open the next view yourself).
3. In REC, tap the big red button, make the sound, tap again (or hold the button and let go). The first time, the first tap only asks for the microphone: allow it, then tap again to record. When the pill above the button shows REC with the time, it records. Want a clean loop? Pick 1 BAR, 2 BARS or 4 BARS under the button first: four clicks count in, then it records exactly those bars and stops by itself. The ring around the button shows your level: green is good, yellow is loud, red is too loud, grey means it hears nothing. The bird listens too. The recording lands on the selected perch and a bird flies there. REC in the header records too, from any view; the display under the bird then shows the perch, the length and the time. A free take sleeps on its perch: it is there to be cut up and does not play along with the beat (a take in bars does).
4. Open EDIT and tap CHOP: markers grow into the waveform where the hits are, and the slices fly onto pads 5 to 16 below. Tap a pad to hear it; its part of the sound lights up, and while the beat plays each marker flashes with its pad. Want a sound on another pad? Drag the pad onto that one: its steps move along. The recording sleeps on its perch and stays out of the beat; ▶ PLAYS ALONG next to the perch name lets it loop along. ▶ on the waveform plays just the selection on its own.
5. Not the right hits? Drag the handles in the waveform (they nudge inward to show where) to choose the part you want (ALL selects everything, ZOOM shows it bigger, CROP makes it the whole sound, and ZOOM and ALL then work on that), then hold CHOP: choose fewer or more hits and at most 4, 8 or 12 slices, then ✂ CHOP AGAIN. By hand instead: select a part and tap SLICE for a pad, PERCH for a perch or LIBRARY to keep it for later. ZOOM and CROP wait until you have chosen a part. To empty the perch, hold it and tap CLEAR PERCH (the recording stays in the library).
6. Open BEAT, tap a PAD row and tap some of its steps. The beat starts with your first step. Then tap KICK and SNARE and give them steps too. Tap a track's name to hear it; the selected track's small steps can be switched right there. In BEAT › PADS, the panel above the pads shows the sound of the pad you tapped, even the synthesized kick.
7. Once the beat has a few steps, it gets a name by itself (like SPARROW BEAT 1); RENAME in the message changes it. BirdBeat saves every change by itself; SAVED ✓ flashes on the display. Your beat now waits on the home screen under "Your beats".

Short on time?TRY A BEAT (in EDIT, below the slice pads) shows three styles, each with a tiny picture of its kick and snare. Tap one and your recording is chopped and played in that style. A preview shows the style and its steps while it plays: ↻ ANOTHER STYLE, a chip per style, and ✓ KEEP IT. ✕ brings back what you had. The ↻ above the cards shows three other styles.

TipWant exactly one sound on one pad? Select it in the waveform and press SLICE instead of CHOP. Hold a pad and tap LOCK: locked pads (🔒) are never overwritten.

Watch outCHOP fills free pads and replaces the slices of the same sound; slices of other sounds stay. If all pads hold other sounds, remove some first: tap a pad and its ✕, or CLEAR ALL above the slice pads (locked pads stay). Every change can be undone.

Next: use a file instead of the microphone →

• Time5 minutes
• You needan audio file on your phone (WAV, MP3 and similar, up to 50 MB)

1. Tap the bird, then LIBRARY under More. The sample library opens.
2. Tap + IMPORT A FILE and choose an audio file (on iPhone from the Files app). It appears in the list, marked FILE.
3. Tap LOAD next to it. The sound lands on the selected perch.
4. Open EDIT and tap CHOP. Go on as in workflow 2 from step 5.

Good to knowYour own recordings are in the library too, under REC, and the last ones are listed in the REC view: tap one to hear it, LOAD to use it. LIBRARY in EDIT keeps the selection (SLICE); holding a pad or a drum's name and tapping SAVE SOUND keeps that sound, the kick too (SOUND), and ON A PAD puts it on any free pad later.

Watch outProjects use samples from the library. If you delete a sample that a project uses, its pads and perches become empty there. BirdBeat names those projects and asks before it deletes. Deleting a beat leaves its sounds in the library; if only that beat used some of them, BirdBeat asks whether they should go too.

Next: shape the drums →

• Time10 minutes
• You neednothing

1. Open BEAT. Tap KICK, SNARE, HAT or CLAP at the top and tap its big steps.
2. Want to see everything at once? Tap or pull down ▾ ALL STEPS: every track shows as two rows of eight big steps, and you can set them right there. ▴ CLOSE or a pull up puts it away.
3. Hold a drum's name: SOUND has its level (chips 25 to 100 and a fine fader up to 150 %), MUTE, SOLO and its sound: Boom, Punch, Retro, Studio, Vinyl, Future, Trap, Industrial or Synthwave. FX has SPACE (its own reverb), ECHO, DRIVE and PAN. SAVE SOUND keeps the drum in the library. Quicker: the speaker at the end of each track row mutes it in one tap.
4. Play it in: in PADS, switch on ● REC STEPS and play the pads along with the beat. Every hit lands on the nearest step.
5. Hold a pad: SOUND has its level (chips and fine fader) and its own sound: LENGTH from FULL down to TICK, TONE from DARK to THIN, ◀ REVERSE, and CUTS OTHERS or RINGS ON: pads that cut stop each other, like a closed hi-hat stops the open one. FX has space, echo, drive and pan, as for the drums.
6. Hold a step for its locks: velocity, pitch, nudge and repeat for this one step. A small mark on the step shows it has a lock.
7. Try it: repeat 3× or 4× on a hi-hat step gives a roll. Nudge moves a hit 10 or 20 ms early or late. Pitch on a pad row turns one sound into a melody. Velocity 25 % makes a ghost note.
8. A bass line: above the tracks, tap + SYNTH and pick BASS (or ACID, PLUCK, PAD …). It lands on a free pad as its own track. Tap steps for its rhythm; hold a step to pick its note and octave, and the step shows the note. Or play it in KEYS with REC NOTES.
9. All levels side by side: PERCH › MIX, a fader per track with M (mute) and S (solo). Double-tap a fader to put it back to 100 %. Levels, mutes and solo are saved with the project and go into the export.

TipDemos 2 to 4 and 6 to 14 are full of locks. Load one and hold a step with a mark to see how it is done; the mallard (12) shows ghost notes, the robin (11) swing.

Next: turn the loop into a song →

• Time5 minutes
• You needa pattern

1. The banks I II III IV sit at the top of BEAT, each holding a pattern. Tap II: an empty bank starts as a copy of the current pattern.
2. Change the copy: add a fill at the end, drop the kick, bring in another pad.
3. Tap I to go back. Now hold II and tap CHAIN I → II. Both banks play one after the other, 32 steps in total. Chained banks are marked. Switching banks turns the page, so you see which way you went.
4. To end the chain, hold any bank and tap END CHAIN.
5. Start a bank over: tap the bank you are in again and then the red ✕ on it, or hold it and tap CLEAR PATTERN. The message offers UNDO.

TipDemo 5 (cuckoo) is a ready-made chain: bank II ends with a snare fill and a hi-hat roll. In demo 8 (crow), bank II is the drop: tap it while the beat plays.

Next: add layers on the perches →

• Time10 minutes
• You neednothing (a microphone is optional)

1. P1 to P4 sit just above the bottom bar in every view. Tap one to select it: REC records there (the header shows it, for example → P3) and EDIT shows its sound.
2. Open PERCH: four branches. A bird sits on every perch that holds a sound and grows and nods with its own level, so you see which layer is playing; it sleeps when its perch is muted.
3. Hold an empty perch to fill it: ● RECORD, a sound from the LIBRARY, or tap one of the demo birds, which sings two bars at your tempo onto the perch. Or put part of a sound there: select it in EDIT and tap → PERCH.
4. Hold a perch with sound for more: ▶ LISTEN, MUTE, SOLO, EDIT, CHOP, REVERSE, COPY to a free perch and CLEAR PERCH. Every change can be undone; swipe the sheet down or tap DONE to close it.
5. Bounce: EXPORT (bottom right) › BOUNCE LOOP. BirdBeat renders the loop and asks where to put it: on a pad, on a perch, or as the loop. Great for printing effects or freeing up pads.
6. CROP in EDIT trims the selected perch to the selection. Your pads keep their slices. Made a mistake? UNDO.

TipIn demo 9 (pigeon) P1 is not muted: the whole recording loops under the beat while the pads throw short coos into the delay.

Next: perform it live →

• Time10 minutes
• You needa running pattern (demo 7, the nightingale, works well)

1. Press ▶ PLAY and open PERCH › FX. Drag in the XY square: left and right is the filter, up and down is the space (delay plus reverb). Your finger leaves a trail.
2. Switch on TILT and the phone itself is the XY pad: tilt it sideways for the filter, forwards and back for the space. On iPhone, BirdBeat asks for the motion sensors once; the values stay on your phone.
3. Live effects: hold one of the five buttons below the square: ½ SPEED, TAPE STOP, STUT 1/8, STUT 1/16 or WASH. Let go to return.
4. Melodies: in BEAT › KEYS the keyboard plays a track's sound, pitched: pick it in the row on top (a synth track from + SYNTH is the classic). OCT − / OCT + for the octave. SCALE: ALL is a piano; MAJOR, MINOR or PENTA show only the notes of that key, so nothing sounds wrong. ● REC NOTES writes what you play onto the track's steps, with the notes, while the beat runs.
5. Shake it: switch on Shake for variations on the home screen (tap the bird, then More). Then shake the phone while the beat plays for a new variation; not good? UNDO in the message.
6. Post it as a video: EXPORT › VIDEO CLIP (or tap the bird › SHARE). Pick 15 S, 30 S or 60 S and ● MAKE THE CLIP: your song plays while an upright video records (the bird, the steps, the waveform, the address at the end), so keep the screen on. ↗ SHARE THE CLIP hands the video file to your phone's share menu; ⤓ SAVE keeps it. Where the browser cannot record MP4 the file is a WebM, and some apps only take MP4.
7. Share or save the song: EXPORT (bottom right) › YOUR SONG. It renders in a moment: the chain, or else every bank with steps in order, and your perches. You get a WAV (the sound) and a MIDI file (the notes: drums on channel 10, pads from C3, a synth track with its tune). ↗ SHARE hands both to your phone's share menu, ⤓ WAV and ⤓ MIDI save them. Each track's own FX are in it. The XY square's filter and space stay as you left them; the hold effects (½ SPEED, TAPE STOP, STUT 1/8, STUT 1/16, WASH) are not.

Next: continue in your DAW →

• Time5 minutes
• You needa pattern, and a DAW (music software) on your computer

1. Tap EXPORT (bottom right), then STEMS. Or tap the bird, then ALL PROJECTS. The projects sheet has the exports.
2. MIDI saves the pattern, or the chained banks, as a MIDI file. Drums are on channel 10 (kick 36, snare 38, hi-hat 42, clap 39), pads on channel 1 from C3 (pad 5) upwards. Swing, nudge, repeats and velocity are included, and so are track levels, mutes and solo.
3. STEMS saves every active track as its own WAV file in one ZIP, together with the MIDI file. The stems are dry: no track FX and no master effects. They are all the same length and follow the track levels.
4. The files land in your downloads (on iPhone in the Files app). Send them to your computer: AirDrop, a cloud drive or an email to yourself.
5. In your DAW, set the tempo from the file name (for example …-90bpm) and drop all stems at bar 1. They line up.

Watch outStems are dry: no track FX and no master effects, so they sound plainer than playback in the app.

Next: back up your work →

• Time3 minutes
• You needa place to keep one file

1. Tap the bird, then ALL PROJECTS › SAVE BACKUP. You get one .birdbeat file with all projects and samples. Inside it is a ZIP file: to open it on a computer, rename it to .zip.
2. Keep it somewhere safe: a cloud drive, your computer, an email to yourself. BirdBeat never uploads anything by itself.
3. On the other phone, or after clearing your browser: ALL PROJECTS › RESTORE, choose the .birdbeat file. Projects are added; nothing that is already there gets overwritten.
4. Tap LOAD next to a project in the list to open it. Home shows your beats as cards above the demos, with their steps and tempo: tap one to open it, + NEW BEAT starts another.
5. YOUR DATA on the home screen (under More): export everything, or delete everything BirdBeat stored.

Watch outBrowsers can delete site data: in private windows, when you clear your history, or when storage runs low. Export a backup after every session that matters.

Next: make BirdBeat an app on your phone →

• Time2 minutes
• You needyour phone

1. Tap the bird. ADD TO HOME SCREEN shows up as long as BirdBeat is not installed yet.
2. Android: tap it and confirm the browser's dialog. iPhone and iPad: tap Share in Safari, then "Add to Home Screen".
3. Start BirdBeat from the new icon: full screen, and after the first visit it works without internet too.
4. While the beat plays, and in PERCH, the screen stays on.
5. Held sideways, BirdBeat asks you to turn the phone upright; the music keeps playing.

Good to knowThe bird explains a gesture the first few times, then keeps quiet. A ? at the bird means it has a tip for the view you are in. To see the guided first beat again: tap the bird, then SHOW ME AGAIN. Every first time brings a bird into your Bird album (home, under More); the grey ones tell you what brings them.

Watch outOn iPhone and iPad, switch off silent mode or you will not hear anything.

Something else? Use the contact page or write to hainz@birdbeat.eu. The counts are anonymous, so your message is the best way to know what does not work.