Metronome
A precise metronome built like an instrument panel. A ball or pendulum hits the floor on the beat, the step sequencer shows the kick, snare, hat, china and toms of the groove, and the timeline, spectrum and level meter show what is sounding. Everything is drawn against the audio clock, so picture and sound stay in time. Fullscreen and screen wake lock make it usable in the rehearsal room.
How to use it
- Pick a mode: Click for a normal metronome, or Drums for a groove played by a drum kit.
- Set the tempo with the buttons, the slider, or by tapping the tempo with Tap.
- Choose a time signature and, in drum mode, a kit and a groove. Gallop, double kick, thrash and blast beat are among the seventeen.
- Follow the beats on the ball, the step sequencer and the timeline. Press F or the Fullscreen button to fill the screen and Esc to go back.
- Set a count-in and a number of bars if you want to practise a fixed stretch. Press Start or the space bar.
- Change the tempo while it runs without stopping. Start below your clean tempo and raise it in small steps. Your settings are saved for next time.
What tempo should I practise at?
Start at a tempo where you can play the passage cleanly ten times in a row, then raise it in small steps of 4 to 8 BPM. Clean comes first and fast comes after.
- Thrash and melodic death metal often sit between 160 and 220 BPM.
- Doom and sludge usually sit below 90 BPM.
- Breakdowns are often played in half time, so set half the tempo and count double.
Why does the metronome keep steady time when the page is busy?
The sounds are scheduled ahead on the Web Audio clock instead of being started by an ordinary timer. The timing is therefore not affected by the browser redrawing the page or doing other work.
Which drum groove should I choose?
Pick the groove by the rhythm of the riff, not by the tempo. The groove gives the metronome a body: you hear where the kick and snare sit and can play against them instead of against a lone click.
- Gallop suits riffs built on an eighth note and two sixteenth notes.
- Double kick suits heavy riffs with a dense bass drum.
- Thrash suits fast riffs in straight eighth notes.
- Blast beat suits very fast riffs, where every beat falls on the pulse.
- Click is enough when you only want the tempo, for example for scales.
- Hammer blast and gravity blast suit extremely fast passages where kick and snare play in unison.
- Kick gallop suits riffs with three notes and a rest per beat.
- D-beat and skank suit punk-influenced thrash and crust.
- Blast beat and double kick with tom fill play a tom fill every fourth bar, so you hear where the phrase turns.
Frequently asked questions
How do I set an odd time signature like 7/8?
Pick the time signature in the list or set the number of beats per bar. The accent lands on the first beat, so you hear where the bar starts.
What is tap tempo?
You tap along with the music several times and the metronome works out the tempo in BPM from the time between taps. It is the quickest way to find the tempo of a song you want to play along to.
Can I change the tempo while the metronome runs?
Yes. The change applies at once without stopping, so you can raise the tempo in small steps in the middle of an exercise.
How do I practise tremolo picking with a metronome?
Set a tempo where the eighth notes feel relaxed and play sixteenth notes or triplets over each beat. Raise the tempo only when every stroke is even. Tremolo trainer does the same with tab and its own measurement.
Can I run the metronome in fullscreen?
Yes. Press the Fullscreen button or the F key. Esc exits. The screen stays on while the metronome runs, where the browser supports it, and the panel adapts to a phone in landscape.
What do the spectrum and meters show?
The spectrum shows which frequencies the metronome outputs, from 30 Hz to 16 kHz, and the dashed line marks the dominant frequency. The meter shows peak and RMS in dBFS, and the Clip box lights up if the signal reaches full scale.
Related tools
- Speed trainer: Raise the tempo step by step, with timed rounds or clean repetitions.
- Tremolo trainer: Practise tremolo picking with eighth notes, triplets or sixteenth notes on one or more strings.
- Alternate picking trainer: Alternate picking exercises: one string, several strings, scales, sequences and position shifts.
- Gallop trainer: Practice typical metal rhythms: gallop, reverse gallop, triplets and syncopation, at your own tempo.
- String skipping trainer: Practice jumps between strings with fixed patterns and interval jumps on a scale.
- Timing analyzer: Measure how close to the click your notes land, using a microphone or audio interface. The audio never leaves your device.