16. Playing and practising

Metronome and count-in

The metronome clicks along with the song while it plays. The count-in gives you a bar or more of clicks before the song starts, counted down on screen, so you come in on time.

The metronome and count-in

Available on every platform.

The metronome

Metronome (⌥⌘M)Metronome (Ctrl+Alt+M, Ctrl+Shift+M)Metronome (Ctrl+Alt+M, Ctrl+Shift+M (⌥⌘M, ⇧⌘M on a Mac)) turns the click on or off, also while the song plays, and says so for a moment at the foot of the pane: “Metronome On” or “Metronome Off”. In the Transport pane, the Metronome chip does the same, and its lamp blinks with the beat.

What the Editor shows

While the metronome is on, the Editor’s corner shows a ♩ On chip after the practice speed and the key. With only the count-in on, it reads Count-In: Play will wait. With both, ♩ On · Count-In. On a phone, when the corner is full, the chip comes before the speed and the key (the Transport strip’s ⋯ shows those), and reads ♩ On if there still isn’t room; the strip says the count-in when Play counts in. Click it for the metronome’s menu: Metronome On, Accent the First Beat, Count 6/8, 9/8, 12/8 in Dotted Beats, Hear the Count-In, the sounds, the clicks per beat and the count-in’s length. It stays open while you set them. With both turned off, the chip goes.

The clicks follow the song’s time signatures and tempo changes, at the practice speed. What they sound like is yours to set, from the Transport pane’s chips or from Settings:

• Sound: Click, Woodblock, Stick, Beep or Cowbell.
• Clicks per beat: the beats only, or two, three or four a beat (eighths, triplets, sixteenths).
• Accent the first beat of each bar (on at first).
• Count 6/8, 9/8, 12/8 in dotted beats: two clicks to a bar of 6/8 rather than six (on at first).

The count-in

Count-In (⌥⌘K)Count-In (Ctrl+Alt+K)Count-In (Ctrl+Alt+K (⌥⌘K on a Mac)) turns the count-in on or off, and says so for a moment (“Count-In: One Bar”, “Count-In: Off”). On, Play waits while the metronome counts in, then starts the song from the caret. The count-in uses the beat of the bar you start in, at its tempo and the practice speed.

Its length is one bar at first. In the Transport pane, the Count-In chip goes Off, 1, 2, 3 and 4 bars as you click it, and its menu offers one to four bars. Settings sets the length the command turns on.

In a Play Together session the count-in is everyone’s: each device counts down to the same start.

The count-down

While it counts in, a card in the middle of the pane you’re working in shows the clicks left, large, with the bar’s beats as dots under it; the first beat of each bar is in the accent colour. The card doesn’t block anything: you can keep working under it. In a Play Together session it says “Together”. The Editor’s corner chip counts too: “Count-In 3…”, “2…”, “1…”, lit until the song starts.

Turn off Hear the Count-In (in the Metronome chip’s menu, or in Settings) and the count-in is silent: you only see it.

When you record, a separate option counts in a bar even when the song’s count-in is off; see Playing and recording MIDI.

Settings › Playback

Flash the beat

With Flash the beat around the pane on, a frame around the pane you’re working in lights at every click and fades through the beat, the first beat of each bar in the accent colour. It flashes while the metronome plays and while counting in. It’s off at first.