How it works
The metronome sound on this page comes nine ways: click, tick, low tick, wood block, sticks, cowbell, shaker, beep or clave. None is a recording: each is built in your browser from a tone or a burst of noise.
Read the full guide
Start
Tap the pad, or press Space, and the plain click runs at 100 beats a minute. Tap again to stop. The number under the pad takes any whole tempo from 1 to 1000.
Pick a sound
Choose one from the Sound list under the tempo. A running click changes on its next beat and keeps its tempo; a stopped one plays the new sound once.
Questions and answers
What does the cowbell metronome sound like?
Choose Cowbell in the Sound list: a clank that rings longer than the other eight, made of two square-wave tones at 540 and 800 hertz. Wikipedia describes the instrument as hand percussion named after the herdsman's bell, heard in Latin and rock music.
Is there a woodblock metronome online?
Yes: choose Wood block. Wikipedia calls the instrument a small slit drum cut from a single piece of wood, which gives a sharp crack under a stick. Here it is a triangle-wave note at 880 hertz with a fainter one an octave above.
What is the shaker sound on a metronome?
A hiss with no hard edge: noise with the part below 5,000 hertz filtered down, faded in over eight thousandths of a second. Wikipedia's article on shakers says they often keep the ride pattern in rock and other popular styles.
Why does a metronome make a ticking sound?
In a wind-up metronome a mechanism inside the case clicks at every swing of the pendulum, as Wikipedia's Metronome article has it. Tick here is a sliver of noise narrowed to a band near 3,200 hertz, shorter than every sound but the sticks.
Why can't I hear the metronome?
On a phone, look at the ring switch, the volume and any Bluetooth headphones that may have taken the sound. If one sound alone seems faint, try another: Low tick is pitched far below Clave. The two dots keep time in silence.