Welcome 2groove with dB!

dB is a drummer bot. You tap rhythms with your finger (I mean, most conveniently), and it creates a full drum groove.

Here, you will find the step-by-step instructions. This help window will move to the right side of each graphical user interface (GUI) item as you proceed from one to the other using the Prev and Next buttons or the arrow keys on your keyboard.

Now go ahead and click “Next” to begin.

NOTE: Google Chrome works the best, Mozilla Firefox is also fine. Good luck with the others. Unfortunately, touchscreens don't work yet (you need a physical keyboard).

2groove immediately, turn on the metronome switch on the center top, and tap a rhythm using the space bar on your computer keyboard. You will see a blinking light on the bottom as you tap, but no sound yet.

Once you feel comfortable tapping along the metronome, press down the “A” key while tapping. You will then see an "ON AIR!" indicator and start hearing your input. When you release the "A" key, your input will be passed to the bot. From there, dB takes care of the rest.

Oh, also, do not forget to turn on the playback switch on the left to hear the groove ;)

Adjust this knob on the left to change the tempo.

NOTE: Random value at the page load.

Adjust the metronome volume with this one.

NOTE: Once a groove is generated and the metronome tone is disabled automatically, this knob becomes the main volume control of the playback.

You can also tap the tempo!
As you hit the "T" key, you will see a blinking light here on the left, hear a click tone, and the tempo will be adjusted accordingly.

Turn on the metronome tone via this switch on the left.

NOTE: once a groove is generated, the click tone and the switch will be disabled automatically, and you will need to refresh the page to start again with a metronome click.

Adjust this knob to change dB's sampling temperature. Increase it for more randomness or decrease it for stability.

HINT: this parameter's behavior highly depends on the following "Threshold" parameter.

NOTE: Random value at the page load.

Adjust this knob to change dB's threshold level applied to the output probabilities.

Here, you determine how the generated (softmax) probabilities are translated into actual note-on events.
Thus, increase it for less notes or decrease it for denser rhythmic patterns.

HINT: this parameter's behavior is (also) highly dependent on the previous "Temperature" parameter. For example, a higher Threshold value combined with high temperature will result in a sparse rhythm (or even none!), while low Threshold & low Temperature can feel like "wooohooo" dense rhythms.

NOTE: Random value at the page load.

The piano roll visualization window is this one in the middle with vertical lines. You will see your tapped rhythms and the generated drum grooves there.

Green lines indicate the quantized grid locations for quarter notes, and the white ones, for 16th notes.

HINT: You can visually observe the microtiming deviations of the generated notes in relation to these vertical lines. Similarly, dynamics are expressed as the color transparencies.

HINT: Move your mouse cursor onto the generated hits to see the specific drum part name.

HINT: Click and drag the corners to change the window size of the piano roll.

Click this button to generate a new groove based on the last tapped rhythm you have played.

HINT: This can be an excellent opportunity to explore different Tempo, Temperature, and Threshold combinations.

Turn the playback on and off.

As you hit the space bar, this light will blink, and you will hear a sound.

BUT, the tappings will not be passed to dB until you keep pressing the "A" button on your keyboard!

Here, you will see the "ON-AIR!" indicator while you press down the "A" key to create your tapped rhythm input, which will be passed to the drummer bot as soon as you release the "A" key.

Did you like the groove?

Click this button to download the MIDI file and make it all yours!

NOTE: giving credit never hurts ;)

That's all folks.

Happy grooving!


HINT: Just refresh the page if things go terribly wrong. Every restart comes with a new set of random parameters. Good luck!