Sound-pads

3/17/2026 Major update!!! See below for details.

A screen shot of the updated Stec Records Sound-pads panel.

My "Sound-pads" app is a free web tool that provides large buttons that play drum and other percussion sounds when clicked.

A screen shot of a StecRecords.com Sound-pads pad.

The sounds are loudest near the middle of the pads and are responsive enough to be used musically on touch devices. You can adjust the size, position and color of each pad and pick which of the built-in sounds to use.

The most recent upgrade added the ability to create different "sets" of pads that you can edit, save and even share via email. A pad-set picker lets you select your own pad-sets or one of the built-in factory presets.

A screen shot of the Sound-pads panel pad-set picker.

A screen shot of the Sound-pads panel Percussion 1 pad-set.

The help file (or PDF) ) has a pretty complete breakdown of the app but my 3 year old grandson was able to navigate it so you can probably just go the app and give it a try: "Sound-pads"

Update details

The big winter-2026 update brings the ability to save pad-sets to your computer or send them via email (no account or login required). Many new percussion samples have been added and the audio for the pads can now be made to play backwards. A "Pad-set editors" panel provides a list of your pad-sets in a left pane and an editor for the selected pad-set in a right pane.

A screen shot of the Sound-pads panel pad-set editors.

The inner pad-set editor is also a splitter with the list of pads on the left and an editor for the selected pad on the right.

A screen shot of the Sound-pads panel pad-set editor.

Note that each sound is a separate audio file that gets loaded when the panel opens. Depending on the speed of your internet connection and phone/computer/tablet, it can take a few seconds to load. Each button briefly glows when the associated sound is loaded.