How to connect electronic drums to Fortnite Festival

Since Season 14, on 16 April 2026, Fortnite Festival's Main Stage has a Pro Drums mode that takes "any MIDI kit with the proper configuration", on PC. Seven steps from the cable to the cymbal option and double kick, Epic's platform table so you know whether your console is in it, and a quick comparison with playing your own charts in WebEDrums. Every claim links to Epic's own page; where Epic is silent, this page says "not stated".

Published by WebEDrums Updated October 23, 2026

Try now for free Where the charts come from

Three full plays a day, every feature, no account. Chrome or Edge.

Does Fortnite Festival support electronic drums?

Yes, on Windows. Epic's e-kit page says any kit "if it supports MIDI output" works in Main Stage Pro Drums, and its peripherals page adds the wireless Rock Band 4 kits. For e-kits the one platform listed as native is Windows.

What do I need?

Fortnite on a Windows PC. Epic lists e-kits as unsupported on the consoles, the Switch and the phones.
An electronic kit with MIDI output: USB, or 5-pin MIDI OUT and a USB MIDI cable. The connection guide covers cables and drivers.
Cymbal pads and a double pedal, optionally, for cymbal notes and the double-kick Jam Tracks.

How do I connect an electronic kit to Fortnite Festival, step by step?

Connect the kit to the PC. Epic’s words: a USB to 5-pin MIDI cable or a USB-B to A cable. Use a data cable, switch the module on, and on Windows close any other program that has it open.
Open Settings. In Fortnite, select the Main Menu in the top right, then Settings.
Select the kit on the MIDI Controller tab. Epic says the device should be found automatically; if not, click Rescan Devices.
Check the drum bindings. On the same tab, under Festival (Pro Drums), hit each pad and cymbal and make sure every zone you play is bound to something.
Turn cymbals on. If you have cymbal pads, also enable them under the Festival section of the Game tab; that switch is what turns on cymbal notes in gameplay.
Optionally enable double kick. Since v41.00, Pro Drums: Enable Double Kick adds double-kick parts to the Jam Tracks that have them.
Play Main Stage on Pro Drums. Start a Main Stage song and choose Pro Drums. The e-kit path is Windows only; see the platform table below.

Quick comparison

Fortnite Festival or WebEDrums for your kit?

Fortnite Festival

Pro: Licensed Jam Tracks with the full band
Pro: Rock Band 4 kits on Windows and PlayStation too
Pro: Double kick on selected tracks since v41.00
Con: E-kits on Windows only
Con: Jam Tracks only; no way to bring your own charts
Con: Cymbals need bindings plus a separate switch; no practice loop documented

WebEDrums

Pro: Your own Clone Hero, YARG and Rock Band charts, tens of thousands of songs
Pro: Any OS with Chrome or Edge, nothing to install, Chromebook included
Pro: Presets with cymbal zones, then loops, slow-down, a metronome and a heat map
Con: Drums only
Con: Three full plays a day free; Pro removes the limit
Con: Chrome or Edge (Firefox with limits, no Safari)

Try now for free Where the charts come from

Which pad is which lane, and what about cymbals?

Epic publishes no default layout or MIDI note numbers: not stated. Bind as in the other games: snare head and rim to one lane, open and closed hi-hat together, a cymbal's bow and edge together, and hit every zone once to see that something lights. The kit pages for Alesis, Roland and Yamaha list the notes each module sends per zone.

Cymbals are two settings: the bindings on the MIDI Controller tab and the switch under Festival on the Game tab that enables "cymbal authoring in gameplay". Skip the switch and every cymbal note stays a pad note.
Double kick is the Pro Drums: Enable Double Kick setting, for "select Jam Tracks" from Metallica and Slipknot to DragonForce; the same idea as Expert+ in the community games.

Which platforms does Epic list as supported?

Epic's table of kits it has tested, reproduced as published on 16 October 2026:

Epic's Pro Drums peripheral support by platform
Kit	Windows	Xbox One / Series	PS4 / PS5	Switch, Switch 2, Android, iOS
E-kits and other MIDI devices	Native	Unsupported	Unsupported	Unsupported
Xbox One Rock Band 4 drums with kick pedal and cymbals	Supported with the Xbox controller dongle	Unsupported	Unsupported	Unsupported
PS4 Rock Band 4 drums with kick pedal and cymbals	Unsupported	Unsupported	Native	Unsupported

An e-kit on a console is not in the table; whether that changes later is not stated. The Rock Band drums on PC guide covers what the plastic kits need elsewhere.

What does Fortnite Festival not do?

The songs are Fortnite's Jam Tracks, from the Item Shop and the season's Music Pass; Epic describes no way to bring your own files, so the community's charts stay outside it, and no practice loop or slow-down is documented for Pro Drums. The drum charts guide explains where the community's charts come from.

Sources

Checked on October 16, 2026. If one of these pages has changed and this guide has not caught up, tell us on the contact page.

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Product names belong to their owners; WebEDrums is not affiliated with Clone Hero, YARG, Alesis, Roland or Yamaha.