PadBrain is built for drumming live: backing tracks to the house, the click to your in-ears and pad sounds on cue, from one iPhone, iPad or Mac. For small gigs, college shows, worship teams, rehearsals and lessons, without a laptop rig.
PREP THE GIG ON YOUR MAC — ONE CLICK
• Drop the gig folder and get a draft set: tracks or stems, MIDI markers, chord charts and the song list are read for each song's tempo, meter, sections and beat one, and each stem goes to your ears (click, guide), the house, or muted (drums).
• With a click track it also reads tempo changes (a tempo map) and odd meters with their grouping.
• Tap a section on the review to hear two bars, then MAKE A SET. Only a mixed file? The Mac can take the drums out (for practice and backup).
• The set goes to your phone or iPad in one backup file. Everything runs on your Mac — no account, no internet.
WHEN THE BAND DRIFTS
• SYNC: the band lands a beat off the click? Tap on the band's one and the click and bar count move to it at once. Undo for ten seconds.
• With a backing track, the same button takes the click out: you lead the band to the bar line, and the click comes back exactly on it.
ON STAGE
• Backing tracks and click run on one clock. One splitter cable: left to the house (tracks + pads), right to your in-ears (click + cues).
• One line under the song says where the sound goes — and warns when a single output puts the click in with the band.
• Section chips and HOLD: tap the chorus when the leader calls it, or HOLD for "once more". Moves land on the next bar line.
• "Next ▸ Chorus · 3 bars" beside the section, then the beats of the last bar.
• Voices only fades the band and keeps your click. An ambient pad in the song's key fills the space between songs.
• Stopped, tap the tempo to hear one bar of the next song's click in your ears before you count it in.
• PANIC (hold), LIVE LOCK (tap to lock, hold to unlock), foot switches and page-turner pedals.
PADS
• A kit per song, nine pads: a recorded acoustic kit with four dynamics and up to four takes per sound, a worship kit with ride, bell and floor tom, 808, percussion and FX.
• Plug in a USB MIDI pad, drum module or trigger and play. Around 10 ms.
• Pads that fire on a section's first beat, a crash on the chorus. Soft hits ignored and screen pads locked after a stop, if you want.
PREP
• Paste the song list from the chat: titles, keys, tempos, meters and song forms become a set. Backing tracks are optional.
• Share tracks from mail, a chat or AirDrop; the app listens for the tempo and sections.
• Rehearsal tempo 90–110%, pitch unchanged. Several sets, a linked iCloud Drive folder per set, a whole show in one file.
• Rig drawings, down to the plugs, and a pre-show check that warns when the click would reach the room.
Every feature free. No ads, no account, no data collected. Works offline.
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