A fully capable sampler — no install, no catch

• Free, and instant

  The whole instrument is free and opens in seconds on a phone or a laptop. No download, no plugin, and no account needed to start playing.

• An instrument you carry

  Add sampler.fm to your home screen and it opens like any other app, full screen, with a layout built for thumbs rather than a shrunken desktop one.

• Nothing leaves your machine

  Recording, file conversion, chopping and effects all run client-side on the Web Audio API — your audio is processed on your device, not on a server.

• No sample pack required

  Hold a pad and sampler.fm synthesizes a sound on the spot — thirteen types, from kicks and hats to a tuned 808 bass, a fresh variation every time.

• Chop, shape, sequence

  Slice a sample across a bank of pads, give each pad its own effects chain, and program the beat by tapping steps or playing it in live.

• Timing that holds

  Notes are scheduled ahead on the audio clock, not fired from a JavaScript timer, so the groove stays steady while the browser draws everything else.

• Kits you can share

  Publish a kit and it gets a public page under your username. The link opens your kit in the instrument, ready to play — not a screenshot of it.

How it works

The instrument is a 4×4 grid of pads, four banks deep — sixty-four sounds in a kit — played by touch, mouse or keyboard. Sound gets in three ways: record from the microphone, upload a file, or generate one of the built-in sounds.

From there it is chop, shape, sequence: slice one sample across a bank of pads, give every pad its own effects chain, and build a beat by tapping steps or playing them in live over a running loop. A refresh loses nothing, and signing in adds cloud sync, a profile, and public pages for the kits you publish.

The docs take each of those in turn, a page at a time.

Questions

Is sampler.fm free?

Yes. sampler.fm is free to use, including sampling, chopping, the per-pad effects and the step sequencer. You only need an account if you want your samplers and beats saved to the cloud so they follow you between devices.

Do I need to install anything?

No. sampler.fm runs in the browser — Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Edge — and there is nothing to download and no plugin to load. Audio conversion happens on your own machine rather than on a server.

Does sampler.fm work on a phone?

Yes. sampler.fm has a separate touch-first layout for phones and tablets, with the pads and controls sized for thumbs rather than a desktop layout shrunk down. On iOS you can add it to your home screen, where it opens full screen like any other app. Everything works the same as on a laptop, including recording from the microphone.

Can I record my own sounds?

Yes. You can record straight from your microphone onto any pad, or upload an audio file from your device — uploads are converted in the browser, so nothing is sent away to be processed. There are also built-in sounds: hold a pad and sampler.fm synthesizes a drum hit, an 808 bass or a pluck on the spot, a fresh variation every time.

Can I share what I make?

Yes. Signing in gives you a profile at sampler.fm/your-username, and publishing a kit gives it a public page of its own with a shareable link. Anyone who opens the link gets the kit loaded in the instrument, ready to play.

What effects does each pad have?

Every pad runs its own serial effects chain: a 10-band EQ, a filter (high-pass, low-pass or band-pass), an amp envelope, reverb, delay, chorus, distortion and a lo-fi bitcrusher. Reverb, delay, chorus, distortion and lo-fi have a wet/dry mix, and settings can be saved as presets and reused on other pads.

How does the sequencer work?

The step sequencer gives every loaded pad a row, and you can program a beat two ways — tapping cells in the grid, or playing the pads live while it records. Both write to the same loop. It runs from one to eight bars at 40–240 BPM, with quantize, swing, tap tempo and a metronome, and it schedules notes on the audio clock so timing does not drift.

Does my work save automatically?

Refreshing the page keeps your work: the pads and their audio come back exactly as they were, and only closing the tab starts a fresh session. Saving is what puts a kit in the cloud — saved samplers and beats sync to your account, so you can start a beat on a laptop and open it on a phone.