Does this gizmo (or app) exist? If so what's it called?

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by hubcapsc

I want something real-time

I'm having a hard time imagining how something like that could
work without some latency...

-Mike

Hi Mike
When I set compression on our church digital mixing board, the delay time for it to engage can be set to under 3ms (3/1000 of a second). Undetectable by audience members (or the player themselves).

I'd think in a similarly designed tool to reflect my tempo while playing should be able to respond this quickly. The trick is what it's going to use to read the 'pulse' when we play.

If I'm only strumming on the beat it would probably be fine, but when I'm fingerpicking and subdividing the beat by 2 or 4 it would need to be able to discriminate that.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by BlueStarfish

Thanks for all the suggestions so far! I frequently use a metronome as part of my practice routine. However, once I turn the metronome off, it’s a lot harder to keep the tempo steady. I’ll often speed up. Especially on a slower song, I might end up 20 BPM higher by the time a song ends. I find it’s hard to keep a steady tempo for 3 or 4 minutes straight, playing all by yourself. I started this thread hoping to find a different practice tool that might help my brain get this dialed in.

Anyways … it seems that the term “BPM Detector” has a little bit of critical mass, that turned up four different apps on the iOS App Store that all claim to do what I want. They are mostly long-abandoned indie apps, but they are there. Thanks for that suggestion!

So far I’ve tried two of the “BPM Detector” apps. Unfortunately they didn’t work well for me. I guess maybe they were written assuming there are drums in the mix? An acoustic guitar boom-chucking or fingerpicking away just confused them. The tempos they showed me had no relationship to the tempo I was playing.

Shoot. Two more to try, we’ll see if I can find a winner. If I find a winner, I’ll post it back here.

Hi BlueStarfish
I have a little pocket metronome which has two modes - one that counts out loud (not appropriate for live performances) and another with a 'needle' which sweeps back and forth and changes colors - and the animation emphasizes the 'strike' point at each end of the sweeping display.

It's sweeping 'needle' arc is programmed to its switch direction visually with a definite 'beat' at each end of the sweep. And those are also reinforced with red LEDs at the top which flash on the beats.

I just turn the sound down which is in lieu of a sound mute (which it lacks). And I only rehearse with it. This is not designed for live-play use (it's too slow to change tempos).

Good for figuring out tempo if I'm listening to recordings. Good for 'feeling' the starting tempo of a piece.

The thing I would have liked would have been to pre-set up a list of tempos which I could play in order. But I'm only using it to establish tempos as I'm learning pieces.

For what you are asking, I think this could do it when you practice.

Cheap - $18.95 by Lekato (?) and it's rechargeable…Amazon purchase.

Also has a ¼" output jack for headphones or input into a mixer or headphones…or amp.