Ball Metronome

A metronome with a falling ball instead of a pendulum or blinking light.

Since people began making music together, they have used visible signals: stamping feet, moving heads, hands, or sticks. This creates a shared pulse.

Mechanical metronomes use side-to-side pendulum movements, but these do not create a clear impulse. Many modern metronomes rely on flashing colors, which is not ideal when the beat is meant to be perceived only in peripheral vision. At the edge of our visual field, we perceive movement very well, but colors only poorly.

The Ball Metronome therefore uses a falling motion. A ball striking the ground is immediately understandable and highly predictable. The impact creates a clear visual impulse, similar to a conducting gesture.

The tempo is intentionally limited to 30–120 BPM. At very fast tempi, a falling movement becomes harder to perceive clearly. As in conducting, you can instead let the metronome indicate half notes or full measures.

Examples: If you want to maintain 160 BPM in 4/4 time, set the metronome to 80 BPM. The ball impulses will then fall on beats 1 and 3. If you need 180 BPM in 3/4 time, set the metronome to 60 BPM. The ball will then indicate the beginning of each measure.

Features:

• Visual metronome using a falling ball instead of a pendulum or flashing light • Clearly perceptible motion impulse, even in peripheral vision • Simple operation and quick start • Tempo adjustable from 30 to 120 BPM • Time signatures from 1 to 12 beats • Beat subdivisions: none, duplets, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, and sextuplets • Three freely assignable click sounds: high, medium, and low • Adjustable sound details: frequency and volume for each click sound • Individually configurable accent on beat 1 • Audio offset to compensate for audio/video latency • Tap Tempo for quickly determining a tempo • Presets for saving and recalling custom settings • Import and export of settings and presets • Light and dark screen mode • Adjustable ball size and falling height • Optional test mode for audio/video synchronization • Optional timing correction via microphone analysis • Microphone level meter for monitoring the input signal • Privacy-friendly: no audio recording, no tracking, no advertising