Elastic Drums

So, I got this app and a few of the IAP’s (next is ‘import sample’) and then didn’t use it for a while. At first, I don’t even know why but I thought it was hokey. Honestly, I had yet to figure out the velocity function (this is now huge for me, in other apps too, much like LFO) and wasn’t impressed with the layout or even the sounds. Fast forward to about a month ago and I’m digging deeper. I really was looking for more organic sounding drums but have found that the sounds this app is capable of is extremely versatile. And I’m sure once I acquire the import IAP I’ll be totally addicted. I’m really just getting started with this app even though I’ve had for quite some time. I give it 5 stars simply because there is so much more to it than meets the eye.

I have been scouring the web to find a simple yet dynamic drum synth and this is well on its way to becoming just that! I managed to keep myself entertained for a several hours making ‘live’ techno on one pattern! (Adjusting it on the fly). I love how far you can stretch a sound with this... seriously, with a couple nice fx on it there is a lot to play with and evolve over time. Absolutely part of my regular arsenal now. All I need to give it 5 stars is - Individual track outs and AU. I’m sure this has been requested.... I don’t think it needs much else, because everything else you can do in a host channel strip just fine... Not to say I wouldn’t like more drum synths to choose from, or FX..., but srsly, please get me individual outs and I will be all lollipops and rainbows about this nearly perfect beast of an app!

I’ve been using ElasticDrums since it first came out and it’s always been an amazing box of tricks. It has so many awesome synthesizer engines, a pretty competent sampler to import your own sounds, great variety of FX, intuitive interface, and it just calls at you to use it. My favorite synth is the DLC Merz synth named after my favorite japanoise producer, Merzbow. I’ve made so many sick noisy patches using that synth engine alone. Anyway, I can recommend this app 100%. If you want something that can make full tracks from scratch on your phone, you won’t be disappointed with this one. PS. oh and how can I forget the awesome Jam mode!? It lets you easily turn your song patches into fun live performances with a ton of extra FX and parameters to manipulate your track.

I have well over a hundred iOS audio apps. I have been beta testing apps for eight years and have seen many come and go. I have seen many abandoned or sequel versions come about and forcing you to cough up extra cash or the dreaded ‘subscription’ model. This app is none of those. It is a SOLID drum machine with all the bells and whistles. This is literally my fave drum machine for iOS. If you make any beats on an iOS platform then this will most def be a mainstay in your app aresenal. Priced very fair for all that it does and the in apps are also priced fairly. There are many drum apps and I own a lot of them but I find myself returning to this app more than all of the others. If you are into electronic music or production you need this app. Solid.

This is one of the best drum machines on the iOS market, made by real dedicated musicians. The on-the-fly changes make for great options of creativity and diversion and the UI makes it easy to navigate even without a MIDI device. If I were to suggest one thing it would be to allow us to change the color scheme; especially with the new OS it would be really great to have some new colors and would certainly drive me to get the FX bundle. Thanks for all your hard work, folks!

Well, I am not as upset as I was the other day. I probably won’t take to social media and flay you in public. Probably. So, the main reason I bought you drum app in the first place was the abilty to upload my own samples. After almost two years, you think I should pay for it now? No, no. Not right. Not right at all. Add to that, you took all the presets and your charging for then now? Where did you hear that tha was ok? I would like a answer as to why you did this to your loyal users. I want to know the details, because from where I am standing you have some explaining to do. Luckily I don’t need your app anymore. Importing your own sounds/samples is pretty much stock these days in most drum machines or Daws. This leaves me with a really bad taste in my mouth.

So normally this is a 5 star app, but lately the audio on the low end has a weird... Buffer/busted speaker like sound to it. I thought at first because the phone speaker or the pattern, but I've experienced this with multiple headphones and patterns I've had for a long time that didn't have that sound before. I tried messing with audio buffer rate but this didn't help. Tried using digitakt as my USB audio card and does not sound any better. I don't have this issue with any other music app or anything else. I'll be happy to give this 5 stars when fixed but I really need the Dev to check this out in case others might have the issue. This would be my favorite app again.

I’ve recently gotten back into Elastic Drums and find myself amazed at how little I had thought about it compared to what it does. This app truly lives up to its tagline “The Flexible Drum Machine”. My goodness, you can do everything with this! Everything from Electribe drum and sampler type madness to old school 808 and even plain ol’ acoustic rock drumming. There’s an amazing array of useful synths and most importantly a good sampler which you can build your own kits with. The power available here easily outshines 1000’s of dollars of equipment, and all in a nice neat package. Sure, there are some in-app purchases needed to really leverage all the capabilities, but they’re reasonably priced and help keep the development going. Developers gotta feed their families too. The iPhone interface is surprisingly well thought out too. Highly recommended!

Hello. I love this app. Its flexible, fun to play, and a powerful musical tool. The main thing i think could be reworked is in the arrange section/song mode/chaining If these areas were improved this app would be the perfect drum solution for me. Ideas for improvement: Either Multiple looped sections rather than the one main loop which can change length by multiples of 4. Or the Ability to chain sequence loops together manually. Look to the keystep pro chaining for inspiration. Either of these would create a far more useable drum solution for multiple use cases. (Ie. Live) Also Setting to queue patterns rather than change instantly where playback is at could also aid in live performance settings. Maybe long press functionality…?

If you’re into experimental production and/or drum creation, then I recommend this app! As a sound designer, I love the different engines in the app that help create original drums (every time if you would like) as well as the automated effects (and pretty much everything else!) Also I think it’s important to mention they have randomize on individual sounds, as well as patterns and all sounds at once! One of my favorite apps for experimental drums for sure.

ABILITY to add your own sounds along with the flexibility and extensibility of the available drum synthesizers Makes this super useful. Being able to easily randomize entire patterns, projects, instruments, sequences, etc. makes us extremely useful for generating good rhythm’s in midi/daw. The effects a lot of fun, And I appreciate that uses the same Maddie notes as standard Ableton

I would like my money back. While trying to use this app, standalone, upon opening, it immediately creates microphone feedback. No microphone settings, anywhere within the app that I can find so I’m not sure why this is happening. And when I try using as audio unit extension within Cubasis3 or AUM, elastic drums interface blows up to an unusable size and then becomes unsizable and unmovable. I cannot scroll around, and I cannot shrink the screen, and I cannot get elastic drums interface it to fit in the window, no matter what size the window is (minimized or maximized)

This is one of the best apps on iOS. You can get beats out of this you’d not get anywhere else. Any negative comments you see here are user error in one form or another! Hooray ED! You can get some great beats right away but you can dig into and find more and more possibilities. Listen through a decent sound system. Big bottom! Looking forward to the iPad version.

I've popped for a bunch of drum machines on the App Store, looking for the one that feels like hardware, that feels pro, that inspires. This is it. No matter the genre your into, this app kills it. And if your looking for an app to turn you into autechre, you won't find it... but, Elastic drums will give you the best head start. BUY IT NOW!

While there are numerous drum machine apps - this one is spectacular. If sound options ranging from sample to various types of synthesis, to independent beat cycle lengths doesnt grab your attention, surely the ability to perform the playback switching in real-time will! There’s plenty more fun to be had here.

This is hands down my favorite drum sequencer Built in effects and easy automation makes for smooth workflow. Also the multi channel out is good for those who need it.I don’t personally ,but I like that it’s there

Great app with lots of fun sound design tools but boy is it hard to get audio from this in 2024 without auv3 support. Sure, I could AUM or Audiobus it, but given its sister app has this features and is at the same price point, it would be a welcomed quality of life improvement.

Sampler is a sweet addition to an already powerful groove development and performance playground. Extra star for being a responsive, proactive dev. I am absolutely loving this drum synth & sequencer. The sound sculpting capabilities are much deeper than your average drum synth and the automation tools open many possibilities.

This is a must-have. Pure Groovebox genius. Loop and song export of each stem, including Ableton Live Project export. Powerful sample instrument, automation-o-rama synth(s) powerhouse. Live mode, including live recording, features go on and on, and dev keeps adding them. Buy it, and buy the dev a nice dinner too

Crashing when going into background mode! Everything is updated. Please don’t tell me I have to uninstall/reinstall TM

I enjoyed this a lot when it came out, but it fell to the wayside when I started using Aum and DAWs. I just bought the new plugin from the developer, I’m hoping that since that is auv3, this one may become auv3 too. I’d still say its worth the money without it, its unique and fun.

love the features, i just with they actually worked. In a 16-step sequence, the 16th step never plays for the full duration. It sounds more like 15 ½ steps. I can’t find any workaround.

Top shelf app, does everything I need and then some. Would love to see in auv3 some day!

I played with elastic drums for about 30 minutes and loved it. So, I paid for the sample import functionality. And loaded samples from .zip into elastic from the file manager. It loaded, but now crashes when I load most samples and will not let me delete any samples. I bought AudioShare after elastic drums nagged me to endlessly. It sounded like that would help me manage my samples. Nope. Still can’t remove them. So I’m out the price of AudioShare and the sample import feature, and don’t have the ability to delete all the samples I loaded. Which makes my user samples folder a mess. Making the sample import entirely useless.

Arguably the best drum machine app out there. I import the drum beats into Garage Band and then if it’s avant security guard ready, Logic Pro. In the next release, I can’t wait to install this app into my brain.

I have been using elastic drums from day one, and I love it still. I really enjoy the workflow and design, it’s very appropriate for the way I think about some drum sound design. I do have a problem for the past couple of years though, inter app audio is not very consistent, buggy, crashes and generally does not play nice with Cubasis (which I use about 99% of the time). It’s not a elastic drums issue, it’s an inter app audio issue. It happens with all other apps that use inter app audio. I’m at the point that I just won’t use apps that only use inter app audio. I would love to dive back into using elastic drums, but every single time I use elastic drums I have a crash before I get to render anything. This may have something to do with the fact that I really push the cpu on my mixes, but with AU3’s I generally don’t loose much data when I have a crash, and with au3’s crashes happen way less frequently. Freezing tracks with inter app audio doesn’t help, and I try simply rendering elastic drums tracks outside of using cubasis, but it makes it difficult to easily make changes to a things if I have to render, export and then import for each and every change. It’s a big hassle that kind of gets in the way of using the app/flow. Again I don’t think it has anything to do with the way the app is made. Elastic apps are rock solid. Inter app audio is not rock solid and really is making its way out. Hopefully other developers will see this and convert their apps to au3 primarily.

For what I paid for this, it should work flawlessly. Too many issues with the sounds bugging out and not being consistent each time I load them.

I can not figure out why it sounds so bad but n the New IPad Air It just makes a terrible garbled bass sound. On my IPhone XR it sounds great. I will gladly change the rating if I get some help.

Great for making experimental beats and grooves that push boundaries. If you want to create EDM that stretches minds, this is an amazing tool.

There’s nothing else like it

Elastic drums is a classic. Multi output is great Fyi when everything is assigned to multiout, fx sends don’t work.

The more I play with it the more fun it becomes. Well worth it.

Easy mayhem, great sounds. What's not to like?

Good engines and sound. However, weak MIDI implementation and lack of AU support or individual audio outs leave it redundant as a serious tool. A decent time waister on a long flight.

Kicks sound distorted. All fx are off. I’ve deleted the app, reinstalled. Tried on iPhone 15 and iPad mini 6th gen. Love to give it a higher rating but it’s unusable at present

Every time I open this app, it doesn’t play. Not on the ipad or iphone. Always have to erase it & redownload it to get it to work properly.

Love it. Want to use it more but prefer the state recall and other features of AUv3 over IAA. Pretty please, make this come true..,

Yes what a gem and getting stronger

I have bought and tried several drum/rhythm/percussion arrangers in the iOS universe. This one TEARS IT UP!! Everyone else can go home. This is the most flexible “drum machine” out there. I could go on too long about this, but let it suffice to describe its major distinguishing features. First EVERYTHING, every knob tweak and setting can be recorded into the pattern. And ALL of those live changes will play back exactly as recorded. This give you the abilty to alter the sound of each instrument from subtle variations to drastic changes in real time. And there are so many possible parameters that this makes ElasticDrums (ED) incredibly flexible and you can create a huge number of variations in each pattern. Moreover, each pattern can have its own instrument assignments AND all those recorded knob-twiddlings which apply to everything from basic volume settings to FX levels and changes. It is so flexible that each pattern can actually be a totally separate and different piece of music, if you want, especially when you throw in all the live-performance bits including the very useful “jam” feature which lets you perform on this ap in real time in very creative ways. Second, the workflow is very familiar to anyone used to using synthesizers. Sounds are drawn from acoustic and electronic samples and tones synthesized within ED itself. Synthesizer elements like Envelope Generators and Filters abound. While there is a sizable library of different samples, the ability to load your own samples into the sample library is essential and ED gives you a lot of control over the sample variables once loaded into an instrument slot. Third, the workflow is also very clear and obvious while still being very flexible. It does not lock you into one way of working. Fourth, there are several VERY useful features. One is the ability to set each row in the sequencer to its own time frame. Not only can you set the number of steps within the larger phrase, you can multiply and divide the phrase length itself, PER EACH INSTRUMENT, in each pattern. This is HUGE because it allows you to create VERY long phrases WITHIN shorter ones or vice-versa. Fifth, on my iPad Pro, ED is very responsive and fast. It responds instantly. I have not noticed any lags or delays in performing any of its diverse functions. Improvements? I wish it had more than 6 instrument rows. That problem is mitigated somewhat by the afore-mentioned phrase-length feature combined with all those other variables. Taken together with all these features you can create the impression that there are MANY more instruments being used in your composition. But at any given moment a maximum of 6 sounds are possible. So it is difficult to not want MORE instruments per pattern. The program has four FX channels, which is great; but you can effectively only use two at a time. I wish we could use all four FX chanel’s simultaneously. Despite these vague short-comings, this is by far THE MOST versatile and musical “drum machine” I have ever seen, including all the hardware units. It is more like an actual musical instrument than it is a “machine”. You cannot do better than ElasticDrums. I don’t think anyone will top this ap anywhere in the near future. Buy it!

I’ve used this for years and my love has only deepened. Get it. Get the Sampler IAP too and load on some folders from your favorite drum machines/ packs etc. (Built in sounds are fun but I don’t love them without postprocessing. But I brought in some drums from Samples From Mars and holy smokes it’s perfect.) It’s ideal for coming up with an assortment of loops, not for painstaking composition of a song. It’s ideal for movement by accident and playful approach, not control. The dynamic of Constraints → Creativity is strong here These loops become parts of real songs for me when I bounce them out to audio. I usually send through some tone shaping (Analog Heat and/or cassette tape, lately), then capture in Hokusai (ipad), Ableton and/or Beatmaker (ipad), then have clips I arrange like any others. So yeah don’t worry about arranging in the app if that’s not fun for you. I treat it more like an instrument than a DAW. I have it on iphone and ipad and use it often on both. On ipad I frequently pair it with Patterning 2. ED winds up doing the weirder stuff and then I use Patterning to “ground” it with more solid and straightforward drums, but longer-form patterns, probability, etc. Patterning can also do tonal parts better. Also goes well with Bram Bos’s stuff but hey what doesn’t!!! I also use on ipad this with a host (apematrix or AUM), and Korg Sync Kontrol (panned to one side and you pan the audio to the other side), and a TRRS splitter, together with hardware : Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator, namely Tonic and KO. Hours and hours and hours of fun in the park, on plane, etc. and of course at home too. for what it’s worth I have used (and mastered) plenty of moreso-“pro” equipment for samplers and drums, including Ableton/Push and others. Yet these days I use the above setups more often (as far as drums and samples go), and it’s not for lack of time etc. It’s just more fun and I wind up with more interesting and inspiring material. Get it.

Thank you thank you developer(s) for this amazing app. Soo many powerful features in this ultra powerful drum machine/percussive sound design/sampler tool!! The drag+record automation on the synth/sampler params, fx =Amazing!! Being able to record/export stems is massively useful. And of course Ableton Link, nuff said. There's so much good in this app for the price, its crazy! But as for the "update love" mention in my review title (i.e. 4 stars): can we please PLEASE get the audio glitches when switching between presets that use the sampler, fixed? Even with my buffer all the way up (1024) it's still glitchy as it, I presume, needs to buffer all the samples from one preset to the next. This preset load glitching is really bad for during live performances. Also for live performances, we really need to be able to midi map to the global EQ/Volume (but also mapping to tempo, tempo X, & compressor would be amazing) Also trying to build songs in the pattern view is painful- without an "insert empty/remove" pattern option (button? which would shift all subsequent patterns from the one selected up/down). Having to copy/delete dozens of times to make new space in the song list... oof. And I hope one day we see an automatable note probability knob per track added in (and the ability to automate length/sequencer rate division knobs would also be stellar!) Ok ok enough feature dreaming/creeping! Sorry not sorry ;) Honestly if we could at least just get the audio glitches when switching presets (that use sampler) fixed, that will surely bump this app back up to 5 stars in my book. I still love this old but gold app regardless!

I love this drum machine. But no AUv3. So no state saving in host apps. :(

The best drum synth for iphone.

Elastic Drums is very accessible yet deceptively powerful. You get 6 instruments and load of presets to get you started. These can be anything from a snare to a kick drum to even a bass note or stab. The interface makes it easy to preview sounds as you tweak them with easy-to-find parameters. You can lay things out in the sequencer, and export wav files to AudioShare, email, etc. But the real fun of this app comes in the effects and automation. You can apply effects to individual instruments, or master effects like freezing and filter sweeps. There's even a pretty useful randomization feature for inspiration. A few key features - including AudioBus and IAA, plus a true iPad version - are missing at launch, but I still give it 5 stars because the features are promised in the near future, and the app is very promising. Similar to SeekBeats in terms of sound design, but I think this one will end up being more accessible.

I love a good drum machine app but they all are too infrequent. Lately there have been some worthy new additions. This is one of them. I resisted this for awhile until the app went universal and tried it out. I was not really expecting anything interesting but within minutes made one of the best beats I had produced in a good long while. Finding a good iOS drum synth has been a problem for awhile - the ones with good sound seem to suffer from various user interface clunkiness and the ones that offer smoother interfaces unfortunately just all sound predictable and uninspiring. This one sounded great before even getting to the extremely fun and impressive FX panel, the quality of which is not exceeded in any other mobile app. If this doesn't change your perspective on mobile drum synthesis then nothing so far released will.

Very cool looking UI and even better sound! It is like having a poor man's MachineDrum or MonoMachine from Elektron in my pocket. Elastic Drums gives you six independent drum synths. Each synth can be triggered using a 16 step sequencer. The cool part is that up to 12 parameters (pitch, effects, panning, grain synth effect, etc.) can be adjusted and saved per step in a sequence via automation! The creative potential is inspiring and very deep as a result. Sound quality is really good and it is Audiobus compatible. Moreover, you can chain patterns (with automation in tact) to create entire drum tracks. Just like Elektron stuff the program is a little confusing at first. But like the hardware it is imitating, exploration is generally rewarded with high quality results! Good stuff!

ED is one of those music app I recommend to my people who need real control over electronic drum sounds. It offers automation of parameters in a way that allows your sounds to breathe and evolve. Flexible steps (1-16) and tempo rates (current tempo x .5-4.0) make for interesting polyrhythms. I found exports to be a bit less intuitive and would love to see a 1-touch export-all-stems-as-individual tracks option yet still reach for this app both when mobile as well as when in the studio for that unique sound. From subtle to brash, all from this phone app. Bonus: developer has been consistently responsive and friendly.

**update** The introduction of samples into this amazingly versatile drum machine has sent it over the top! Not only do you get more sound out of this app, but you can import or record your own sounds!!! Incredible machine with some very "tweakable" sounds! You can get very old school with this beast or create some very modern unique sounds. The layout is user friendly, so I guarantee you'll be laying down some patterns and linking up a song in no time! This app stays fresh and gets frequent updates not just to fix bugs, but to make improvements and enhancements! I'm very pleased to have bought this fun, creative app!

Elastic Drums is a great app for a wide range of electronic drum sounds. The app does have its own signature sound, and (at least in my experience) it leans towards edgier and weirder sounds than the classic x0x palette. But that's not a bad thing—if your tastes lie in more aggressive or experimental music, you will love it, and I have no doubt it can be tamed to do other sounds as well, especially with the new sample functionality. With per part sequence length and speed options, recordable step modulation of synthesis parameters and effects, and great global performance controls, there is so much room for variation that this is a wonderfully flexible creative tool.

Alot of apps take a while to get your head around. Elastic Drums has an amazingly well laid out and simple interface but with ability to create amazingly complex and layered tracks. The synth engine under this is great and though it is titled as a drum synth, with the effects layers, pitchable sounds and recordable automation of almost every parameter and effects it is capable of basses, melodic sounds and tuned atmospheric sounds as well. Great for deep sounding edm,/idm and even glitchy ambient. The randomizer for sound creation is great and allows you to really tailor your own kits and sound. An amazing app that keeps getting more amazing with every update