Interactive Drum Kit in Rive

I made this a long time ago when I had just started experimenting with Rive. Back then, I just wanted to make one simple musical instrument. My brain had other plans, and I ended up building a full-blown interactive drum kit.

This project was honestly chaos, learning, discovery, and a surprising amount of music theory that I didn’t sign up for. Here’s how it all came together.

I initially planned to make a single musical instrument in Rive just to understand how interactions work. But after browsing inspiration, I slowly spiraled into “why not build an entire drum set… in Rive… with sound… and interactions…?”

So I did.

I was obsessed with creating a dark, studio-like atmosphere. Something moody, something that feels like you’re in a recording room.

I went on a long scrolling journey through Pinterest, Dribbble, and Behance. I saved every drum kit reference that matched the vibe, then dropped some of them into ChatGPT to analyse visuals and break things down.

One drum set had this beautiful blue theme, and I instantly knew I wanted mine to look like that. So I generated all my drum kit instruments separately using AI in that same blue tone.

No vectors were drawn manually. All instruments were generated individually, then arranged inside Rive like a puzzle.

This project accidentally turned into a mini music lesson.

While building it, I got to learn all the actual names: • Kick drum • Snare drum • Tom drums • Floor tom • Hi-hat • Crash cymbal • Ride cymbal

I didn’t know any of this before. I only understood them because I had to map sounds and build logic for each one.

Each drum was generated separately. I then pulled them into a single Rive artboard and positioned them properly.

From there: • Added shadows • Added interaction effects • Added subtle FX to make them feel “live” • Created states for tapping • Created transitions for each hit

I even generated two drumsticks, which don’t appear in the showreel preview, but they do appear in the interactive Rive file. They follow the mouse, giving the whole setup this fun “virtual drummer” feel.

I sourced most drum sounds from free marketplaces (Pixbay etc.). But for two specific beats I really wanted to nail, I used ElevenLabs’ sound effects to generate custom tuned hits.

Then came the fun part: connecting each sound to the exact drum through Rive’s state machine and boolean triggers.

Tap the snare, snare sound. Tap the cymbal, cymbal rings. Everything is reactive.

I also created a small beat using only these drum sounds to show what this kit can actually do. That beat is added at the top of this case study.

This is where the project gets real.

Inside Rive, I built: • Hover effects • Tap effects • Drumstick following logic • Individual hit animations • A clean state machine that connects every interaction

The whole thing works surprisingly smoothly, even though nothing here is vector-based.

I included a full screen recording of the Rive file in action as the 2nd video. I want people to see: • How the state machine works (The state machine looks messy in the video, but I’d approach it in a much simpler way today, but I kept it as-is for the nostalgia and honesty of the process.) • How the assets are arranged • How each sound is mapped • What the logic looks like under the hood

This isn’t just a showreel. It’s a functional, interactive build.

I actually uploaded this project to the Rive Marketplace a long time ago, but I never shared my thought process it anywhere.

So this is the first time I’m properly showcasing it.

I’ve added the marketplace link so you can try the real interactive version. https://rive.app/community/files/22459-46855-interactive-drum-kit-animation

This project was wild, fun, messy, and one of the best ways to learn Rive.

What started as “let me try a single instrument” turned into: • A full AI generated drum kit • Real sound design • State machines • Hover interactions • A drumstick cursor • A working musical instrument in Rive

If this inspires you, or gives you ideas, then this throwback finally did its job.

That’s it for this case study. Now go tap some drums.