Dubspot has relaunched as an online music school, and its first release is Dubspot Groove, a free drum machine that runs in your browser.
You can open Dubspot Groove and start programming immediately, with no software to install, without opening an account. It is pretty handy for sketching a beat on a computer or tablet without opening a DAW.
You get six instruments that share the same sequencer and effects rack. The selection includes two synthesized drum engines in the style of 808 and 909, a break slicer and resampler, two pad-based sample instruments, and an eight-channel tracker.
Patterns can contain 12, 16, 24, or 32 steps. Each hit has its own velocity, microtiming, ratchet, and pitch settings, while the master effects cover drive, bit reduction, filtering, echo, compression, and tape processing.
You can also import and chop audio, save your work, export a finished pattern as a WAV or MIDI file, or share it via a link. Anyone who opens that link gets the instrument with your pattern already loaded, which should make it easy to pass the idea to another producer.
Groove is also the practical element of Dubspot’s new Drum Programming and Groove Production course. Each lesson embeds the drum machine directly in the page, so you learn by rebuilding patterns rather than only reading or watching.
The exercises begin with a focused listening session. After hearing a reference groove, you recreate its important elements on the grid and press CHECK MY GROOVE. The course then checks step placement, velocity contour, swing, and per-hit timing, highlighting the areas that still need your attention.
The self-paced course contains 76 lessons across 15 modules, supported by more than 180 reference recordings and 50 performances, demonstrations, interviews, and archive clips. It begins with rhythm, timing, drum sounds, sampling, and arrangement, then moves through 34 genre studies.
Those studies cover plenty of ground, including Chicago house, techno, hip-hop, trap, jungle, drum and bass, garage, dubstep, reggaeton, dancehall, Afrobeats, amapiano, gqom, funk carioca, lo-fi, funk, and samba. Later lessons explore influential machines, timing and feel, and how to develop a loop into a complete track.
Lessons 1 and 2 are open without an account. Creating a free Dubspot account also unlocks the Tech House: Space and Syncopation and Peak-Time Techno: Four-Layer Roller lessons, including their graded exercises.
You do not need a DAW or any knowledge of drum notation. A one-time course purchase includes all 76 lessons and future additions, with completed exercises saved to your account.
The complete course is available for $19 through September 15, 2026, which is 80% off its regular $99 price. Dubspot.com is independently owned and operated and is not affiliated with the previous Dubspot/DS14 company or its founders.
More info: Dubspot Groove (FREE) and Drum Programming and Groove Production ($19 through September 15)
Last Updated on September 10, 2026 by Tomislav Zlatic.
