How do I make a basic rock beat?

Kick on cells 1 and 9, snare on cells 5 and 13, closed hi-hat on every odd cell. The "Basic rock" preset is this pattern.

What does an accent do?

An accented cell plays louder. Accents on the first cell of each beat make the groove clearer.

0% is straight; 20 to 60% gives a hip-hop or shuffle feel. Only the off-beat sixteenths move, so add sixteenth-note cells to hear it.

The file ends with 0.6 seconds of decay; trim it to the bar length, 60 ÷ BPM × 4 × bars seconds.

Build a 16-step drum pattern and loop it — kick, snare, hats and more

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A step sequencer with eight drum tracks on a 16-step or 32-step grid that loops the pattern you draw, for rhythm practice or sketching a groove.

Press cells in the grid to place hits: once for on, again for an accent (loud), once more for off. A long press sets an accent at once.
Press "Play": the pattern loops and the current step is marked. The Space key also plays and stops.
Set the tempo (BPM), "Swing" and "Volume" at the top; choose "32 steps (2 bars)" for two bars. Each track has "Mute" and a volume slider.
Choose a "Preset" and press "Load preset", or press "Random fill" for a starting point.
Save the result with "Download WAV" or share it with "Copy link".

All sounds are synthesised in the browser: kick (sine wave with a pitch drop), snare (noise plus a tone), hi-hats (filtered noise), clap (three noise bursts), rim (a click), tom (a pitch drop), cowbell (two square waves). No sample files are used.
One cell is a sixteenth note, 60 ÷ BPM ÷ 4 seconds long; the tempo range is 40 to 240 BPM. Hits are scheduled ahead on the audio clock, so page delays do not shift the beat.
Swing delays only the off-beat sixteenths (cells 2, 4, 6 and so on) by n ÷ 2 percent of a sixteenth at n% swing.
The WAV file is 44.1 kHz, 16-bit mono with 0.6 seconds of decay at the end. The pattern is saved only in this browser; a share link carries only the pattern.

How do I make a basic rock beat?: Kick on cells 1 and 9, snare on cells 5 and 13, closed hi-hat on every odd cell. The "Basic rock" preset is this pattern.
What does an accent do?: An accented cell plays louder. Accents on the first cell of each beat make the groove clearer.
How much swing should I use?: 0% is straight; 20 to 60% gives a hip-hop or shuffle feel. Only the off-beat sixteenths move, so add sixteenth-note cells to hear it.
Can I use the WAV as a seamless loop?: The file ends with 0.6 seconds of decay; trim it to the bar length, 60 ÷ BPM × 4 × bars seconds.