You can put your own voice, a hand clap, or a sound from a file onto a drum pad on Android. Then you play it like any other drum. PlainPads imports an audio file onto any pad, or it records the microphone straight onto one. It has no sign-up and nothing locked, so sampling works from the first tap.

These steps follow the app’s listing as of November 2026. If you have never built a beat before, start with how to make a beat on Android with drum pads and come back here.

Record a sound from the microphone

  1. Install PlainPads. It opens on the pads.
  2. Choose the pad that should hold the new sound.
  3. Tap Record from mic. The app asks for the microphone permission only at this point, and not before.
  4. Make the sound. Short, clean hits work best as drums: a knock on a table, a tongue click, one spoken word.
  5. Tap the pad to hear it back.

The pad plays whatever the microphone heard. Record somewhere quiet if you don’t want room noise in every hit.

Import a sound from a file

  1. Get the audio file onto the phone first.
  2. Choose a pad and import the file onto it. WAV, MP3, M4A, OGG, FLAC and other formats are accepted.
  3. Tap the pad to check it.

This is where PlainPads is the wrong tool. It has no internet permission, so you can’t browse or download sounds from inside the app. If you want to search an online sample library while you play, this app doesn’t do that. Get the file some other way, then import it.

Only sample audio you have the right to use. The built-in sounds are different. The privacy policy releases them as CC0, which is public domain.

Make the sample fit the kit

Each pad has its own settings:

  • Pitch. Move a voice sample up or down until it sits with the drums.
  • Volume and pan. Balance it against the built-in sounds and place it left or right.
  • Play mode. Pick one-shot, hold, or loop. Loop suits a longer sample you want to repeat.

You can mix your sample into any of the 8 kits: Trap, House, Hip-Hop, Dubstep, Drum & Bass, Lo-fi, 808 Machine, and Acoustic. Several effects can run at once while you play. You get a filter (low-pass, high-pass, band-pass), echo synced to the tempo, reverb, distortion, flanger, and a lo-fi bitcrusher. A bitcrusher on a voice sample is a quick way to make it sound like part of the beat.

Put it in a beat

  1. Open the 16-step sequencer for your pad and switch on the steps where it should play. Add swing if the beat feels stiff.
  2. Set the tempo anywhere from 40 to 240 BPM, or use tap tempo. Turn on the metronome if you need it.
  3. To play it live instead, use one of the four loop tracks. Recording starts from the next bar. You can overdub, undo, mute, or clear.

Save and export

The current beat saves automatically. Saved beats can be reopened, renamed, or duplicated. I would duplicate a beat before swapping in new samples, so the old version stays as it was.

When it sounds right:

  • Export the beat as 1, 2, 4, or 8 bars of WAV.
  • Or record a full performance, effects included, as a WAV file.

Share the file to any app or save it on the phone. PlainPads has no account. Your beats, recordings, and imported sounds stay on the phone.

Get PlainPads on Google Play