60 BPM Metronome

60 BPM Metronome

60 BPM (Beats per Minute) Metronome

I designed this metronome series to emulate the behavior of mechanical metronomes as accurately as possible.

Mechanical metronomes got some advantages over digital ones. The pendulum movement gives the musicians visual clues about the tempo which can be very useful, especially for slow tempos. Unfortunately, the timing of mechanical metronomes is often not very good at slow tempos resulting in uneven beats. Moreover, the loudness of mechanical metronomes is insufficient for drums practice and you can’t plug headphones on them.

My goal with this series was to create a metronome with an idealized behavior. keeping all the advantages of mechanical metronomes but at the same time getting rid of the downsides and inaccuracies. I kept the traditional range of tempos from real mechanical metronomes, which is from 40 to 208 BPM (Beats per minute).

Using After Effects expressions, I programmed the behavior of the pendulum very carefully, taking into account the non-linear and tempo-dependent effect of the weight of the needle on the movement amplitude and inertia.

I recorded the click sound of a real mechanical metronome, then process the sound in Ableton Live. My goal was to get a clear transient for precise time reference, but yet keep it soft and pleasant to avoid discomfort when using it for an extended period of time.

Once the behavior and the sound were correct, I approach the graphic design with minimalism in mind, to provide all the necessary information without clutter and distraction, in order to get a metronome both very useful and elegant.

This metronome is great for personal practice but can be used by teachers or schools providing a solution for classrooms, where the loudness and size of a real metronome are just not good enough.

That’s all, I hope you’ll enjoy this series.

The Complete Series – 40 to 208 BPM :

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