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Neil Evans edited this page Oct 8, 2026 · 5 revisions

BeatBake

BeatBake is a macOS drum-notation app for building grooves, teaching materials, printable practice worksheets, and whole-song drum charts.

It is designed for drummers, drum teachers, and students who need a fast way to write clear drum notation without wrestling with a full notation package.

Download BeatBake

The latest public release is available here:

Download BeatBake for Mac

BeatBake includes a free 7-day trial. After the trial, saving work, printing, and MIDI Out require a licence.

System Requirements

  • macOS 14 or later.
  • Mac version available first.
  • iPad version coming soon.

Display And Window Size

BeatBake is usable at a minimum window size of about 1100 x 720, but the app is more comfortable at 1280 x 800 or larger.

Recommended:

  • 1280 x 800 or larger for general laptop use.
  • 1440 x 900 or larger for a roomier editing and worksheet-building layout.
  • Collapse the top control bar when working on smaller screens.

Printing uses the macOS system print dialog, which can feel large on the minimum window size. This is normal system behaviour; the print controls should still be usable, but printing is more comfortable at 1280 x 800 or larger.

What BeatBake Is For

BeatBake helps you:

  • Build drum grooves quickly on a grid.
  • See the groove as proper drum notation.
  • Make printable worksheet pages for students.
  • Save and reuse groove presets.
  • Create one-bar or multi-bar practice patterns.
  • Chart a whole song, with sections, repeats and time bars, and print it.
  • Play grooves back with internal sounds, click, count-in, and MIDI Out.
  • Export or print notation and worksheets as PDFs.
  • Send grooves, charts and worksheets to Sibelius or MuseScore, and bring drum parts back from them.

The app is especially useful for drum lessons: you can build an exercise, hear it, print it on a worksheet, and hand it to a student in the same session.

Quick Start

  1. Open BeatBake.
  2. Choose a note value and grid mode.
  3. Click on the grid to add drum hits.
  4. Press Play to hear the groove.
  5. Use the notation panel to check how it reads.
  6. Save the groove or add it to a worksheet.
  7. Print the score or worksheet when it is ready.

Help Pages

Groove Builder

The main grid lets you:

  • Place notes on any drum voice for any subdivision.
  • Switch between time signatures.
  • Add ghost notes, accents, flams, and R/L stickings.
  • Write a fill stems up with one click, using the Bar voice menu.
  • Choose exactly where an open hi-hat closes.
  • Work across multiple bars.

Worksheet Builder

The worksheet tool lets you:

  • Collect exercises onto a single printable page.
  • Create reusable teaching worksheets.
  • Replace a specific exercise number if you spot a mistake.
  • Double-click an exercise to edit it on the grid.
  • Rename and reorder exercises, including by dragging.
  • Set how many times each exercise loops during playback.
  • Print one exercise per line or two exercises per line, with or without stickings.
  • Export the whole worksheet to Sibelius or MuseScore.

Each worksheet can contain up to 10 exercises.

Song Chart Builder

Chart a whole song as you listen: count the bars, label the sections, add repeats, first and second time bars, segno and coda, and drop in a drum part wherever a bar needs one. Play the chart back, print it, or send it to Sibelius or MuseScore. See Song Chart Builder.

Sibelius And MuseScore

Export grooves, charts and worksheets as MusicXML for Sibelius, MuseScore, Dorico or Finale, and import a drum part from them. See Sibelius and MuseScore.

Playback And Practice

BeatBake includes:

  • Internal drum sounds.
  • Click/metronome.
  • Count-in.
  • Tempo control.
  • Full-groove playback.
  • Single-bar loop or play-once practice.
  • MIDI Out for sending the groove to external software or instruments.

The top control bar can be collapsed when you need more room for note input on a smaller screen.

Licensing

BeatBake can be downloaded and tried for free for 7 days.

After the trial, a licence is required for:

  • Saving work.
  • Printing.
  • Exporting to Sibelius or MuseScore.
  • MIDI Out.

You can still open the app and explore the interface without a licence, but the main teaching and export features need activation after the trial.

Updates

BeatBake uses Sparkle for app updates. When an update is available, BeatBake can check for it and guide you through installing the new version.

Support

For questions, bug reports, or feature requests, use the BeatBake release repo:

BeatBake Releases on GitHub

If you are a drum teacher using BeatBake in lessons, feedback about worksheet flow, notation clarity, and teaching use cases is especially welcome.

BeatBake

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