Playbeat 4

What it does

A drum machine and groove generator built around genre-based pattern generation. Pick up to three styles, hit the big button and it blends them into a beat, with a strength dial setting how sparse or cluttered the result is and separate targets for pattern, sounds or both. Lanes cover steps, density, pitch, volume and panning, with a root note and snap to scale. A smart list learns from presets and samples you tag.

In the demo

Jade imports her whole Playbeat 3 pack collection in one go, then works from an empty preset to show what the generator does alone. She blends styles, swaps kicks and hats, edits samples in place, and exports audio and MIDI stems per track.

Worth knowing

Free to download, $29.99 unlocks it, and the expansion packs are optional. iPad only on iOS, with a separate desktop version. A later update added an effects section: reverb, delay, compressor, EQ, filter, lo-fi, chorus, phaser, limiter and tuned noise, two slots per track plus a master pair, reorderable and kept when presets change. It also gives a fresh pattern on each reopen, and owners must hit restore once before their packs reappear.