You'll be making beats or tunes in no time flat
Computer technology has opened up the world of music creation to everyone. People armed with nothing more than laptops and creative vision can pop musical hits out easily and share them on social media or music streaming services such as SoundCloud.
You could install any free music production software to get started, but you don’t have to download music sequencer software if you don’t want to. Choose one of the online tools from the list below.
Table of Contents
1. Audiotool (Free)
Audiotool is an audio production suite that’s free. It offers a simulated audio production environment with virtual replicas of many popular instruments and studio gadgets.
Audiotool uses a modular design that lets you hook up its synthesizers and pedals to create the sound you want. It’s an excellent way for people who have worked with traditional studio equipment to get going quickly.
Audiotool includes plenty of tutorials to help you learn. Also, load one of the demo tracks to see what a pro can get out of this software.
2. Chrome Music Lab (Free)
Officially, Chrome Music Lab is a Chrome Experiment aimed at helping kids learn to make music. However, adults who want to dabble in the basics of digital music can use it too.
Rather than being a single unified sequencer and instrument tool, the lab is broken up into several simple, colorful, and friendly music creation tools. The Song Maker is one tool that best demonstrates the principles of creating melodies and sequencing notes. The music lab isn’t the best place to create sounds for serious projects, but it’s the most approachable website for making music online for sure.
3. Sampulator (Free)
Sampulator is a straightforward tool for creating musical samples so that you can use them in a sequencer to build songs. The tool comes with several free sample packs, and you can buy more as part of various themed packs. It has a simple, straightforward multitrack timeline, so it should be possible to create complete songs with it. Each sample pad is linked to a key on your keyboard. So, after putting in some practice, hit the record button and create your tune.
The only problem is that we could not figure out how to export our song. Online research suggests that Sampulator supports exporting WAV files, but we couldn’t find the button to do it, which is a puzzling omission.
4. Soundation Studio (Free With $1.99 and $6.99 Options)
Soundation Studio is one of the most fully-featured online music production tools you can use today. The killer feature of Soundation is its collaboration projects, where you and other team members can work on a single music project together in the cloud.
The free version has serious limitations that make it unsuitable for professional products, such as limited audio export quality. However, you can simply sketch out some ideas and learn the software without paying.
5. PatternSketch (Free)
Rather than being a full music sequencer, PatternSketch is “just” an electronics drum machine written as a web app.
It’s incredibly intuitive to put together beats for your project and to export audio for use in your main sequencer. There are preset patterns if you just want a classic beat to use quickly and plenty of drum kits to choose from too.
6. Acid Machine (Free With $7 Windows and Mac App)
As the name suggests, this browser-based tool, which is still in Beta, is designed for the Acid House genre of music. Acid House:
- Supports synth and drum machine virtual instruments
- Has a pattern editor and sequencer you can use by activating song mode
- Can be purchased as a standalone desktop app for Windows and Mac
7. BeepBox (Free)
BeepBox is a simple melody sequencer that sounds like classic 8-bit video game chiptunes. It has a simple interface, so you’ll be making cool bleep-boop tunes in no time.
One ingenious feature is that you can store notes and settings in the actual URL. You can “save” your songs by saving the URL in a text file. BeepBox is also available as a downloadable app. It’s probably more convenient to use the save and export feature built into the app itself.
8. Online Sequencer (Free)
Online Sequencer has the most apt name of any website listed here. It’s a music sequencer in the purest sense. Simply pick the instrument you want and use the pattern editor to sequence notes in the proper order and time.
You don’t have to start from scratch either. Others have created almost two million sequences that you can load up and modify.
You now have the pick of eight fantastic music tools that will run in a web browser. There’s no reason to procrastinate on those jam sessions. If you do end up cutting or remixing tunes with these tools, post the link down below.
