Odd meters
Build odd time signatures beat by beat
Pick 7/8 from a list and you get seven identical clicks, which is not how 7/8 actually feels. You want the accents on 1, 3 and 5, and you want them without opening three settings screens.
The problem
What normally goes wrong
The time-signature list does not have your meter.
There is no list. You add beats until the bar is the length you need, anything from 1 to 300.
You can accent beat one, but not the internal groupings.
Every beat is independently set to accent, normal, soft or muted. Accent beats 1, 4, 7 and 10 and the grouping is audible immediately.
Mixed bars mean rebuilding the pattern every time it changes.
Build the whole cycle as one pattern. 6-6-6-7 is twenty-five beats with four accents, and it loops as a single unit.
Groupings and subdivisions sit behind a subscription.
The full pattern builder, group accents and quarter, eighth, triplet and sixteenth pulse divisions are free. Pro is one lifetime purchase for the repeatable practice workflow, never a subscription.
Try it
This is the editor. It works right here.
Tap blocks to change them, add beats, pick a preset, press play. The app is this, with your patterns saved and a lot more sound.
Stopped
Common uses
What you can practise
- Balkan and Turkish folk repertoire built from 2+2+3 and 3+3+3+2 cells
- Progressive rock and metal with bar-by-bar meter changes
- Jazz fusion in 5/4, 7/4 and 15/8
- Contemporary classical with additive rhythmic cells
- Carnatic tala practice with long repeating cycles
Questions
Can it handle a time signature like 13/8?
Yes, and it can handle the grouping too. Build a thirteen-beat bar and accent whichever beats define the shape, 4+4+5 and 3+3+3+2+2 sound completely different and both are two taps away.
Can I loop a sequence of different bars?
Yes. Build the entire cycle as one pattern and mark the phrase breaks. A 6-6-6-7 cycle is a single 25-beat pattern rather than four separate bars.
What is the longest pattern it supports?
300 beats in a single pattern, which is long enough for extended Carnatic cycles and full progressive song sections.
Complex rhythms are finally fun to build.
Free to download. AnyBeat Pro is one purchase. No subscription. No ads.
Download AnyBeat freeRelated reading
How to practise odd time signatures without losing the pulse
A practical method for counting and internalising 5/4, 7/8, 11/8 and other odd meters, by grouping them into small cells instead of counting to eleven.
TheoryAdditive meter: what 6-6-6-7 actually means
Additive meter builds a bar from unequal cells. Learn to read, count and programme groupings like 2+2+3 and 6-6-6-7, then hear how the cells lock together.
TheoryPolyrhythm vs polymeter: the difference, with examples
Polyrhythm divides one span of time in different ways. Polymeter runs different bar lengths over one pulse. Hear the difference and practise each one.