Online Metronome
A metronome timed on the Web Audio clock, so it does not drift. 20 to 300 BPM, odd time signatures, subdivisions and a practice mode that raises the tempo for you.
Space starts and stops. Escape stops.
Practice mode
Raises the tempo automatically as you play. The increase always lands on a bar line, never in the middle of a bar.
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Hearing nothing? Check your output with the sound test.
Why the timing is different here
Most browser metronomes are built on a repeating JavaScript timer. That timer is not accurate and, worse, it is inaccurate in a way that gets worse exactly when you need it not to: while the page is scrolling, while something else on the machine is busy, while the tab is in the background. The result wanders audibly over a minute, which for practice is useless.
This one schedules every beat at an exact time on the Web Audio clock, which is driven by the sound card. A cheap timer wakes a few dozen times a second and does nothing but ask which beats are due soon; those get placed precisely. The timer can fire late or raggedly and the beats still land where they should.
The moving beat dots and pendulum follow the same schedule rather than driving it. An animation that sets the beat is an animation that stutters the beat.
Compound time is handled properly
In 6/8 the beat unit is an eighth note, so at the same BPM the pulse is twice as fast as in 4/4. A metronome that ignores the lower number is wrong for every piece in 6/8, 7/8, 9/8 or 12/8. This one uses it.
Practice mode
Set a starting tempo, a target, how much to add and how often. The metronome raises the tempo for you and always does it on a bar line - a tempo that changes in the middle of a bar is impossible to play against. It is the standard way to take a passage from "slow enough to be accurate" to speed without practising your mistakes.
Keyboard
Space starts and stops, escape stops. Neither fires while you are typing in a field.
Related tools
Quick answer
Set your tempo with the slider, the number field or by tapping, choose a time signature and press start. Space starts and stops. Practice mode raises the tempo by a set amount every few bars up to a target.
Key facts
- 20 to 300 BPM
- 1/4 through 12/8 including 5/4, 7/8 and 9/8
- Quarter, eighth, triplet and sixteenth subdivisions
- Accented first beat
- Practice mode increases tempo on bar lines
- Timed on the Web Audio clock, so it does not drift