Odd meters
A metronome that does odd time signatures properly
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.
Everything is included for a single $9.99 purchase. There is no pro tier and nothing is withheld.
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
Where it earns its place
Built for this exact job
- 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.
Build the bar you actually need.
One time. No subscription. No ads. Nothing behind a paywall.
Get AnyBeat for $9.99Related 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 by adding unequal cells together rather than dividing a bar equally. Here is how to read, count and programme groupings like 2+2+3 and 6-6-6-7.
TheoryPolyrhythm vs polymeter: the difference, with examples
Polyrhythm divides the same span of time in two different ways at once. Polymeter runs two different bar lengths over a shared pulse. Here is how to tell them apart and practise each.