Is there a free drum machine program for Windows XP?

Answer 1

HammerHead (very stable, somewhat limited)

http://download.cnet.com/HammerHead-Rhythm-Station/3000-2170_4-10027874.HTML?tag=mncol

Hydrogen (full of features, ported form Linux so slightly slower and less stable)

http://www.hydrogen-music.org/?p=download

my personal favorite is to get samples from freesound.org and use them in a tracker like

ModPlug (great freeware tracker)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/modplug/files/

As already mentioned, although Hammerhead is good for quickly knocking out short loops and patterns, it is limited in many ways, for example it doesn't let you easily use whatever .wav files you want (it ought to be as easy as placing them in a folder and they should automatically become selectable in the channels), you can't chain patterns into a complete song, it provides no synthesis and EQ options (to be able to create your own sounds and tweak them so they sit perfectly in the mix), it only offers two or three effects, it doesn't go to 32nd notes, it only has 6 channels, it can't be driven from midi beat clock from a DAW or external sequencer if you want other instruments to play along with it.

FlexibeatzII overcomes these limitations and it was developed on and for Windows XP:

http://flexibeatz.weebly.com

You can hear complete productions done only with it (something not possible with Hammerhead) at:

www.myspace.com/flexibeatz

The type of sound processing and effects algorithms it features are atypical for a freeware application, and are such that one is not likely to outgrow it in a hurry.

Features:

* TR909/X0X style sequencing interface

*Plays any wav files in its 10 channels

*Note resolution to 32nds

*Chain patterns up to 999 measures

*Dynamically vary pan, pitch and level of each sound in each channel, as well as each sample's play start and end point while the sequence is playing

*Set swing and accent

*Mute and solo per channel

*Lock BPMs of sounds in channels to master tempo

*Auto stretch samples to fit a specified fraction of a measure, or to multiple measures

*Dynamically specify which sounds can cutoff (mute) which other sounds

*Randomize sample selection per channel and notes per pattern per channel

*Auto-generate arpeggiator patterns

*Ability to process and add effects to the samples in each channel: reverse, 3 types of distortion, master LP filter, freely draw and apply pitch envelope to a sound, freely draw and apply LP, HP or BP filter envelope to a sound, freely draw and apply a volume envelope to a sound, chorus, delay, compression, change amplitude of positive and negative halves of the waveform independently, reverb, lo-fi (bit and sample rate reduction), 3-band parametric EQ (featuring LP, HP, BP, Lo Shelf, Hi Shelf, Notch, Peak), stutter effect, auto chop up waveform and randomly re-assemble, apply waveshaping by manipulating individual harmonics, change pitch without affecting duration, change duration without affecting pitch, vocoder, ring modulator, auto-wah

*Ability to synthesize sounds from scratch, and use these in the channels as instruments, or combine them with samples in various ways (such as FM'ing one with the other)

*Record sequence to a .wav file while its playing

*Record level slider movements

*Export patterns to .wav files without playing them

*Automatically isolate the 'hits' in a drum loop and export each slice as a separate .wav file, and import each slice into a separate channel

*Graphical time and frequency spectrum display of each sound in each channel

*Slave playback via midi sync to another sequencer (eg a DAW, hardware sequencer etc)