6EN DRUMS release notes

What's new in 6EN DRUMS, newest version first. 6EN DRUMS user guide · 6EN DRUMS product page

v1.1.0 — 2026-11-12

  • BARS: patterns up to 8 bars (half a bar, 1, 2, 4 or 8). Every bar keeps the groove's core hits with its own small changes, each 4-bar phrase ends with a short pickup, and BAR 1–8 tabs show one bar at a time
  • COPY KICK and EXPORT MIDI carry the whole pattern, up to 8 bars, so 6EN BASS can follow an 8-bar kick
  • Sessions saved with 1.0.0 open as before; at 4 or 8 bars they repeat their 2 bars until you generate a new variation

v1.0.0 — 2026-11-12

  • First release of 6EN DRUMS, the first of the 6EN series of MIDI generators
  • Six-voice drum pattern generator: kick, snare, clap, closed hat, open hat, percussion on a 16-step grid
  • 17 style engines in a grouped dropdown: House, UK Garage, Techno, Breaks, Drum & Bass, Hip-Hop, Trap, R&B, Drill, Lo-Fi, Afrobeat, Jazz, Dembow, Electro, Miami Bass, Phonk, Jersey Club
  • PRESETS: 24 factory presets in the header (style, feel, humanize, density, velocity, length, tempo and fill), plus your own — SAVE keeps your hand edits; rename or delete from the list. Presets never change your kit, and locked rows stay
  • Four feel presets: Straight, Pocket, Loose, Drunk
  • VELOCITY range, 0–127 (drag or type, e.g. 107–120 or 0–120), with ROLL for a fresh set of velocities inside it
  • Right-click a step to split it into two 1/32 notes; drag a hit sideways to shift just that hit off the grid
  • SWING, RANDOM and DENSITY controls; GENERATE VARIATION — more kick, snare, hat and percussion layouts per style (each style keeps its feel), and never the same kick and snare groove as your last few variations
  • ◀ ▶ beside SEED step back and forward through your last 64 variations, hand edits and fill included
  • 16 fills in four groups (CLASSIC, BUILD, TOMS, BREAK) — pick one beside ADD FILL; they cover the last beat, two beats or the whole last bar, and tom fills use your tom rows
  • NUDGE: shift any voice a few milliseconds early or late (for example, hats slightly behind the beat)
  • STEPS: 8, 16 or 32-step patterns (32 = two bars, shown one bar at a time)
  • Drag the voice names to reorder the rows to match your drum instrument
  • Plays in sync with your host and sends the pattern as MIDI to the drum instrument of your choice
  • MIDI OUT: activity light, MIDI channel, and ROUTE — step-by-step routing help for your host with a test note
  • Select rows (click / Shift-click names) and hits (Shift-click) to give them their own SWING, RANDOM, DENSITY and VELOCITY, or shift / nudge them together
  • LOCK any voice to keep it while GENERATE VARIATION, DENSITY, style changes and RESET change the others
  • MUTE and SOLO on every row (M / S): mute the kick, the hats or the snare without losing its hits; Option-click to mute or solo just that row. EXPORT MIDI follows them
  • Roles: every row has a role (kick, snare, hats, toms, ride, crash, perc, FX...) — patterns follow the role, so they fit any drum kit layout
  • Rename any row; names like "Kick 808" or "Hihat Open" set the role. Right-click a row for Role, Rename, Learn note, Remove
  • LEARN NOTE: hit a pad to set a row's note; dragging a note plays each pad as you pass it
  • KIT layouts: General MIDI, 16 pads from C1, 808 drum machine (its 11 instruments, notes and row order), or paste a pad list
  • Cowbell role: styles built on the classic drum-machine sound give the cowbell its own part
  • ADD ROW: up to 16 rows (toms, ride, crash, shaker...); remove added rows with ×
  • KIT: save your rows, names, notes, order and channel as the default for new instances
  • Set the MIDI note each voice sends, to match any drum instrument
  • EXPORT MIDI: drag the pattern into your host, or save it as a .mid file (drum channel 10)
  • COPY KICK: copies where the kick hits as text — paste it into 6EN BASS so its bass follows your kick (exported MIDI files carry it too)
  • macOS: VST3 and AU — Intel & Apple Silicon
  • Windows: VST3 — Windows 10/11, 64-bit