Drift: Random Metronome

Most metronomes give you one tempo and hold it there. Music does not work that way, and neither does getting better at it.

This one changes tempo while you play.

RANDOM TEMPO

Set a range — 70 to 140 BPM, say — and the tempo moves inside it. Every 30 seconds, every 8 bars, or at intervals it picks for itself. Cap how far it may jump for a gentle drift, or leave it uncapped and hold on.

GAP TRAINER

The click plays for a few bars, then goes silent while you keep the tempo yourself. When it comes back, you hear whether you drifted. The beat indicators go dark during the silence, so there is nothing to lean on. Tempo changes wait until the click returns, because a change you cannot hear would make the exercise meaningless.

GLIDE

Instead of jumping, the tempo can slide gradually into each new value over a few seconds. Good for practising a controlled accelerando.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Time signatures from 2/4 to 12/8, with the accent on beat one — or switch that accent off so every beat sounds identical
Eighths, triplets and sixteenths
Three click sounds, from a dry tick to a woodblock
Tap tempo
Shuffle straight to a new tempo, from the app or from your headphones
Save your practice setups as presets
Lock screen and headphone controls
Keeps playing with the screen off, and can mix with a backing track

BUILT AROUND THE TIMING

Every click is scheduled ahead of time on the audio clock rather than fired by a timer. That is why the beat stays where it should be instead of slowly sliding, even at high tempos with sixteenths running.