Peel is a free, open source, online drum machine application that lets you make drum sounds like a Roland 808.
It is a web application, that is it works inside your browser from the website peel.fm. On the surface you see a grid where you can compose your beat with eleven types of percussion. It allows you to share your composition through a unique link.
Peel emulates the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, better known as the 808. It produces the signature deep bass, metallic snare drum, hi-hats and other percussion sounds that became iconic features of early hip-hop and electronic music producers.
Apart from using it online, you can also install it on your computer by following the installation instructions that are given in the GitHub repository.
Way of use
The interface of the program is quite simple and you will not have any difficulties. You have a loop with sixteen beats. You can adjust the speed and you have eleven types of percussion. Each time you mark a square it corresponds to a hit on the corresponding percussion. You are given the ability to adjust the volume of each percussion.
By right clicking on each square you can set it to sound every 32 beats or multiples of 16. So essentially the loop can be longer than 16 beats. Or you can tell it to have an accent.
Use the play button to listen to what you've composed. Or you can modify the melody and then play it again. So you can keep doing it until you get the result you want. Also, when you're done, you can simply generate the share link to share with your friends.
In addition to creating a link, you can also save your work. Click Your Jam > Save to disk, then save the Peel file. You can later import the file and play the beat you composed.
Unfortunately, Peel doesn't offer any option to save your beat as an MP3. If you really want to save as a music file, then you have no choice but to record the system sound.
Briefly
Peel is one of the best virtual drums out there. With very good sound and easy to use. The only downside is that it can't save beats as MP3 files.
The original photo is our attempt to make a rhythm for ciftetelli. You can listen to it or change it from here https://peel.fm/67b005b.
