WinPDrums: Play Drums on Your Keyboard

Pyro's Computer Keyboard Drums, or WinPDrums for short, is a fantastic drum machine program for Windows 98 to XP. Unlike most drum machine software, it runs live -- instead of using beat patterns, WinPDrums has you playing the keyboard.

It's not the only "keyboard-as-instrument" program; you can play the piano and djembe using the PC keyboard with other programs. But WinPDrums is a lot more fun.

This drum machine software encourages you to play along with other audio. It uses little memory and won't interfere with Winamp or your CD player. Maybe it's just my inclination to drum on anything available, but having actual drum samples under my fingers is satisfying when I want to add to the percussion on a song.

The samples aren't bad either. All 28 sounds are clean and crisp: There are five basses, ten regular hi-hats, three long hi-hats, two snares, seven toms and a crash cymbal. After some practice, you can create dramatic rolls and expressive patterns using the subtle variations between the samples.

It's possible to hold a key and get the sample to repeat super-fast, but there is a delay that makes timing almost impossible, even with "repeat delay" on the lowest setting in the Windows Control Panel. Sadly, sounds cannot be played simultaneously, but if you're quick you can fake it.

There isn't much to say about the interface. It lists all the samples and the keys that play them, and a big white square you must click before WinPDrums' settings kick in. Keys can be redefined, and the sample names can be changed -- a good thing to do if you want to remember which is the sharpest kick drum and which is the most muted, for instance.

WinPDrums does not include any way to save your work or record your playing, which is a big shortcoming if you happen across a great sequence and can't remember it again. If you want to record yourself, you need to use some other software. This is understandable, as it would use more memory and could easily ruin other audio. Still, it's a hassle to have three programs running to record a simple drum addition to a song.