Introducing iTap, an interactive metronome for Macintosh OSX

You know the situation. You are sitting in a rehearsal and someone asks for a tempo. They sing a short phrase or clap their hands in time. Everyone tries to guess what tempo it is and then someone produces a metronome where they either dial frantically to get to the right one (which it almost never is) or they use the tap function. By the time they have tapped the tempo in, the original phrase has been forgotten and the tempo that comes out is almost always way off. But what if you could sing directly into the Metronome? iTap is the answer…

INTRODUCING iTAP

iTap includes a Listen Feature that lets you clap a rhythm into your computer’s microphone while iTap turns it into a tempo. You can also sing or play an instrument, or interact with the microphone in any way you wish: and iTap will help you turn the beat into a tempo that you can listen to or use later on. You can also Tap the regular way…

iTap also has the standard Tap Button, allowing you to tap a tempo into the device using your mouse. Clicking the Tap button in rhythm will allow iTap to return a tempo for you. You can also use the Return key as a keyboard shortcut. It can be a good idea to turn the machine off while tapping a tempo so you are not bothered by the current beat, though many people find that they can successfully tap “on the fly”, without stopping the metronome at all.

Global muting

Sometimes it’s best to be quiet, and iTap allows you to mute all sound from the metronome. While in mute mode, you can still see visual outputs. iTap has an appealing visual interface to allow you to use it in quiet situations.

Decisions, decisions

There are lots and lots of freeware metronomes on the “market” today. (It’s not really a market, since they are free…) They feature all sorts of functions and complicated beat counting and division capabilities. Some allow you to subdivide into dotted rhythms and to type in polyrhythms. These are useful for teaching rhythm, but aren’t something that I feel are necessary in a metronome. A good metronome has a useful tap function, a pleasing beat sound, and includes the parameters you need to practice while eliminating bloated functions that get in the way. iTap is all of this, and we think it is a pretty useful little device.

Made with Max/MSP

iTap is made with Cycling ’74’s Max/MSP software, which means it will work for most systems without any problems at all. Give Feedback iTap is a Beta release, which means that your feedback is welcome. You can download iTap here and give feedback either to this post, or through the Feedback menu item in iTap.

Requirements: Macintosh OSX

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