xlStudio: How to Make Music with a Drum Machine in Microsoft Excel

When we learned that someone had implemented ray tracing inside Excel, our question basically was: "What's next?" First came a strategy game inspired by the classic Civilization, and second... a drum machine! Indeed, YouTuber Dylan Tallchief, who specializes in all things electronic music, poured his knowledge into the latest version of Microsoft Excel and created a drum machine where you can modify multiple parameters.

The cheapest drum machines cost somewhere between 65 and 75 euros. Obviously, there are much more advanced and flexible models with a significantly higher price, but if the idea is to dip your toes into the particular world of electronic music, buying a basic drum machine is not something that will break the bank. Now, if spending money is not an option at the moment, why not explore a software-based solution?

What we have here today is not "professional" in the sense that it wasn't developed by any high-profile company. In fact, you wouldn't even consider the possibility that it works correctly without additional details. But if we think for a moment about the things we've seen Microsoft Excel do in the past... it doesn't sound so strange anymore, right?

A drum machine in Excel

Just as the title says: YouTuber Dylan Tallchief created a drum machine in Excel. The idea isn't exactly new, since users of dedicated software have noticed certain similarities with Excel's general format in the past, but this 14-minute video confirms that it's not a simple whim. semi-officially known as xlStudio, this drum machine has initial support for eight patterns (but you can open more in the "Open" section), each with independent speed and pitch values ("60" is equivalent to C5).

Apparently, Dylan was careful not to turn his machine into a chaotic mess of cells and columns, and by following the video closely we can verify that he dedicated some time to the interface, with secondary controls to maximize and minimize fields, and copy multiple values easily. The main limitations of xlStudio are two: Don't edit while playing (that stops all scripts), and don't use too high BPM values (Dylan calculates 300 is a reasonable maximum).

xlStudio is available for free download (link below), although it seems it only works with Excel 2019 / Office 365. To finish, Dylan himself admits that it would be tedious to create a song with xlStudio, but if the plan is to experiment at zero cost... why not?

Download xlStudio: Click here