Ghostnote
A drum chart builder for drummers.
Work in progress
Lay out a song section by section, notate each section's groove on a real drum staff, and read it
back from a dark, stage-readable Perform view you can follow from behind the kit, while Ghostnote
drives your drum sampler over MIDI and keeps a backing track locked to the chart.
Most charting tools are one of two things: full classical notation editors (heavy, mouse-driven) or
plain-text roadmaps with no rhythmic detail. Ghostnote sits in the gap: a fast step-grid editor that
thinks in grid slots the way a drummer does, rendered as genuine engraving (Bravura SMuFL glyphs,
Elaine Gould's Behind Bars rules) so the chart is unambiguous on a music stand, and playable so
you can practice to it before you ever sit down.
The vocabulary is real drumming: ghost notes, accents, flams and drags, buzz rolls, nested tuplets at
any ratio, a hi-hat foot layer, per-hit velocity you can drag to shape dynamics. It exports PDF and
imports MIDI, MusicXML and Rock Band charts.
What's embedded here is the live app, but it's really a full-screen tool, so open it in its own tab
for the full experience (and plug in a General-MIDI drum sampler if you've got one).
Open the live app ↗