Try it free for 7 days, then unlock it once: no subscription. A rock drummer that improvises fills and variations so you can practice, write songs and play live.
Rock Drum Machine is a rock drummer in your pocket. It does not loop a recording: it plays like a drummer, adding ghost notes, open hi-hats and fills that change every time. Practice, write songs and play live with drums that feel alive.
FREE TO START
Rock Drum Machine is free to explore for 7 days with access to all features. Some actions are limited during the trial (exports, random grooves, sound changes and bars per session). After the trial, keep playing with limited features. Unlock the full version with a one-time purchase, no subscription. The full version unlocks the app and the Rock DM drummer. Mike and John are extra drummers, sold separately.
Already own Rock DM? Your full version stays unlocked. Nothing to buy again.
A DRUMMER THAT JAMS
• JAM and INTENSITY: go from a steady beat to a busy, improvising drummer
• Fills of variable length that come in the way a drummer would play them, with triplet fills and double bass drum
• Automatic fills every few bars, or fire them yourself
• Humanize, from Perfect to Drunk
ROCK, FROM CLASSIC TO ODD TIMES
• 114 grooves and 70 fills in 6 banks: Rock, Grunge, FunkRock, Shuffle, Progressive and Odd Times
• 65 real drum sounds, most recorded in three dynamic layers: ghost, normal and accent
• 25 factory kits plus two round-robin kits, Stage RR and Vintage RR
• Create or edit your own grooves in Edit Mode and Patterns Mode, and save them in your own banks
PRACTICE, WRITE, PERFORM
• Song Mode: chain grooves and fills into full songs
• 8 Live Pads: switch grooves and fire fills on the fly, with a countdown to the change
• Portrait layout on iPhone, so it sits on your music stand
• Mixer with volume, pan and reverb send for every drum
• Four effects: Compressor / Gate, Equalizer, Delay and Reverb
• External keyboard support: Space to play and stop, Enter for a fill
IN YOUR STUDIO
• AUv3 plug-in, plus a new MIDI-only plug-in to drive any other drum instrument
• Sound Module: play the kit as a MIDI sampler from your pads or keyboard
• MIDI Setup: independent MIDI Clock in and out, MIDI-controllable tempo, shareable maps
• Send and receive grooves and Live Pad Sets with the other Lumbeat drummers and iBassist
• Share a groove or a song by AirDrop, Mail or Files
• Export full audio, multitrack stems and MIDI
• Ableton Link and MIDI Clock sync
MORE DRUMMERS
Mike (Progressive Rock, with heavier, metal-style fills) and John (Classic Rock) are available as separate in-app purchases, each with their own kit and playing style. They are not included in the full version.
Requires iOS 16 or later.
It's very close to having a real drummer! The feel of the groove is like having John Bonham over for a session. Easy to jam along with. The iPad interface is a nice break from using my computer. Many of the samples offer round robin playback. And this brings up my only complaint: I do wish all the samples were round robin. On my computer drum machines they are all round robin, perhaps it was done this way since iPads have less storage. I feel guilty complaining at all given the ridiculously low price and I really can't overstate how great the drum beats feel when I play guitar along with it. The randomized fills and variations in the beats (which is adjustable) are a huge timesaver. I have a ton of other drum programs, however they have all required extra programming to make them feel more human. The sound quality is exactly how I would have recorded it my self and sits well in the mix. The room sound is great, still sometimes I just want it to be a bit drier. So I apply a transient designer to reduce the room sound and it sounds perfect. Love standing and using my fingers instead of my mouse or trackpad. I also purchased soft drummer and funk drummer (they are both amazing!!!). They are all so good that part me wants to skip the review:)
Needs a bit more humanization (see below)
Tilden Thorne
First off, I love all of this devs percussion apps. That said, each one needs a little something to truly kick it into the next level. In the case of this app, what is needed is a humanization perimeter that varies the velocity and timing (from slight to more drastic) of each hit. It may do a little of this already, I am not sure, but when the app gets to longer, very high speed drum parts (such as double bass drums, or drum rolls) there is a clear “machine gun” sound going on. This is a common artifact in a lot of drum machines and apps that don’t do much humanizing. What seems to cause the sound is the rapid triggering of the same sample, at the same velocity, with near perfect timing. The sound produced can very from just barely noticeable, to downright annoying. With a humanizing control, or a more deep amount of humanizing control, this could be mitigated to a large amount (or at least far better than it is currently).I implore the developer to implement this feature, it would elevate this drum app (and the dev’s others) into serious contention for the best automated drumming on iOS (or cement their lead as insurmountable). If the dev would like audio examples of this “machine gun” effect, I would gladly email sound samples. I do not wish to sound unduly critical, but the sound of this dev’s drum apps is in other ways so good, that it makes this issue stand out more.Please, look into this! It could honestly be the cherry on top of a great series of apps.
Almost just works by itself.
Gitarzz
I've been using this and a couple other Luis Martinez apps for a couple years now. My most recent buy was MidEast Drummer and I've already used it in a song. It's so easy to get a beat going that inspires you to play. I pick up my guitar or my bass and just start jamming along. Sometimes I have a specific riff and I have to alter the beat to what I need and that's easy enough. In fact setting up an entire song is a breeze. With all the apps Ableton Link enabled I can even have them all playing different parts in perfect time together.One problem I have with many drum machines is that tapping in fills can be a real pain. Adding ghost notes and minor changes so that the beat sounds natural are also usually advanced stuff in other drum machines. All that is easy stuff with a simple slider. Tell it how complex you want it and it comes up with stuff on its own. It's amazing.If you need a drummer and you don't have a real one available, these are easy to use, great sounding, and natural sounding apps. Only drummers will be able to tell it's not a real drummer... and even then, maybe not.
Great Drum Machine!
a function of (x)
I was looking for a simple drum app that I could use as an elevated metronome for practicing guitar. A few other apps that I tried (free versions) were just “ok”. They did the job, but were uninspiring. I stumbled upon this app and based on the reviews tried out the free version. All of a sudden, I had real sounding drums with realistic feel, a selection of time signatures and genres of music! I upgraded to the premium version to have it all. I haven’t even delved into the song creation, but this thing can do all that, if you wanted to try out some quick jams that sound incredible. I use superior drummer and Logic Pro for writing and recording. Too much of a pain to “whip out for practice “, but this app is great for that for what I need it for. I recommend this for anyone who needs a great sounding, on the fly drummer for gigs or just to hunker down and practice.
• MIDI controls: new END and END NO CRASH, one last hit on the next downbeat, then stop (no fill)
• Performance and bug fixes
Version 7.01
The developer, Lumbeat, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Lumbeat Ltd.
Size
441 MB
Category
Music
Compatibility
Requires iOS 16 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 16 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 16 or later.
iPod touch Requires iOS 16 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 13.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.