Web developer Kyle Stetz has come up with a completely badass gizmo called “Typedrummer” that allows you to create “ascii beats.” Essentially, it’s the easiest drum sequencer in the world. Drum sounds are assigned to the letter keys of the keyboard. You start typing, and all at once you’re “making beats” effortlessly.

The first thing I typed in was “bad beat,” and I gotta say, it actually wasn’t bad. Try it!

As you learn what sounds are assigned to what keys, you can get creative and do some complex and interesting beats—at least for such a simple tool. I mean, it’s not going to put any drum-machine makers out of business, but it’s certainly a toy that has actual practical real-world uses. For now, you are somewhat limited in what you can do tempo-wise. Adding a parenthesis allows you to do a triplet—hopefully we’ll see the addition of more special features soon!

One unintentional “special feature” is that—at least in Chrome—if you have a beat going and you switch to a different window, the beat goes a bit wonky—which is actually a cool end-result. You can switch windows to create glitchy breakdowns!

One user at “hacker news” at ycombinator.com published this list of “guesses” as to what each key represented on the sound palette:

a: click with a slight rattle, like rattan brushes
b: closed hihat
c: distored synth bass with rattle, like tambourine
d: distored synth bass higher pitch and muted
e: muted synth bass
f: sizzle ride hit like crash
g: maracas
h: muted maracas
i: afuche-cabasa
j: synth snare
k: deeper snare
l: castanets
m/n: tap on closed hihat - maybe striking the hardware?
o: booming tonal bass
p: half muted tonal bass
q: muted bass
r: very muted, blockish bass
s: synth splash
t: agogo bell
u: guiro upstroke
v: guiro downstroke
w: tambourine
x: snare
y: synth snare
z: concert bass
non-alpha: rest
(): beat = 1/3 - note: triplets will begin on the letter before the first open paren, it modifies the space before, not after, each note

.

Thanks Kyle Stetz, of the Internet, for giving the world the thing we’ll be doing for the next hour: Typedrummer!