StepStrum Lite
Turn chords into natural strummed and chord-note patterns.
A free MIDI strumming plugin for turning held chords into realistic, tempo-synced MIDI patterns with upward and downward strums plus Low, Mid-Low, Mid-High, and High chord notes.
What StepStrum Lite lets you do
Sketch natural strummed and chord-note MIDI parts quickly, using chord-relative note selection and any instrument that responds to MIDI.
Turn chords into strummed MIDI
Play a chord and hear a tempo-synced strummed pattern immediately.
Shape the strum
Adjust timing, swing, gate, humanize, and velocity response from one place.
Build pattern slots
Create and switch between up to eight rhythmic ideas.
Mix strums and chord notes
Build patterns with Up and Down strums or select Low, Mid-Low, Mid-High, and High notes from the chord you are holding. The selected positions follow your harmony as you change chords.
Sketch faster
Create guitar-style rhythm parts without drawing every MIDI note by hand.
Core controls
Nine controls let you shape how your strums feel, from timing and groove to velocity and retrigger behavior.
- Spread
- how wide the strum is in time
- Gate
- how long notes are held
- Swing
- groove and rhythmic feel
- Humanize
- natural timing variation
- Velocity Mode
- how dynamics are applied
- Time Division
- rhythmic grid resolution
- Chord Window
- how played notes form chords
- Restart Mode
- how patterns retrigger
- Latch
- sustain playback without holding notes
Upgrade to Pro
Lite includes all six playable step types. Pro adds MIDI pattern keyswitching and per-step velocity, gate, and trigger probability for $39 USD.
- MIDI pattern keyswitching. Assign pattern slots to MIDI notes for real-time variations, fills, and changes.
- Per-step velocity lane. Draw dynamics across the pattern one step at a time.
- Per-step gate lane. Set how long each note holds, individually per step.
- Per-step trigger probability lane. Control when each step fires to add natural variation.
- Pro expansion packs. Use additional Pro content when available.