Metronome software followup

[Richard Steinfeld]

Thanks for the replies to my recent request for metronome software.
Here's what happened:

Metronome Timer
-- tp://www.programming.de/download/metrotimer.zip
DaMetronome
http://www.harmony-central.com/Software/Windows/DaMetro.html
MetroMon
http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?500000002868

These three programs are unsuited for use by a musician or in music
study. DaMetronome plays a Latin rhythm, and only that. MetroMon
produces a poorly-defined tick, and has a bouncing ball display that
bears little relevance to real music use; it also has poor adjustability.
Metronome Timer is essentially a countdown timer that plays dull beats
in the form of a tone until it stops. Adjustability is poor. The tone is
hard to hear and the fact that it's a tone rather than a tick will drive
a musician crazy. One saving grace is that the tone may be replaced with
any .wav file.

Weird Metronome
http://www.pinkandaint.com/weirdmet.shtml

This program was the only one that I tried that actually has a
relationship to what a real musician needs. It comes with a variety of
sharply-defined standard MIDI sounds, as well as a flashing light (which
needs a little work before it shines at its task). Many adjustments are
possible. It was developed to be able to duplicate the complicated
rhythms of Bulgarian peasant music.

Unfortunately, an incompatibility developed between this program and my
computer -- which resulted in many crashes. I wrote to the programmer,
but he hasn't replied (perhaps he's soaking up some great music in
Bulgaria). The failures were inconsistent -- with any one or two of
three error messages. I think that one possiblity was a compatibility
problem involving the program with my MIDI processing. Or, it works
great under XP, and I'm using Windows ME.

I wound up having to do a manual uninstall, which included much
detective work to pull lines out of my registry (hint: the programmer
uses three different phrases for identification). This was like pulling
some very stubborn corn silk from between my teeth -- it took a couple
of hours to uninstall this thing.

This brings up another issue about freeware posts and download site
notices. In many cases, when we download a program, we've been told
nothing about whether the program is a stand-alone or an installation.
Either can lurk within the confines of a file suffixed ".exe." This can
be a serious issue, especially to a person who isn't very computer literate.

In a rather nasty commercial illustration of this at its worst, I just
bought a Wigo MP3 player. It came with a disk that should have been
labeled "Drink Me." I idly inserted this CD in my drive just to examine
its directories, and it proceeded to, all by itself, go right ahead and
install some silly undocumented software -- something, I think, that
allows the user to design an icon for the player's screen. But there was
no confirmation step, no "are you sure: nothing. Just slam-bam: we're
written all over your registry. It's good to know this stuff in advance, no?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
So, does anyone have any more metronome programs?

Richard

 

[Susan Bugher]

Metronome Timer
-- tp://www.programming.de/download/metrotimer.zip
DaMetronome
http://www.harmony-central.com/Software/Windows/DaMetro.html
MetroMon
http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?500000002868
Weird Metronome
http://www.pinkandaint.com/weirdmet.shtml

So, does anyone have any more metronome programs?

Yup.

Program: E-Metronome
Author: (Amar GUERFI)
Ware: Freeware
http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?17000000037825

</q>
Version/File 1.1 metronome-usa.exe
Date 08 Jul 03
Runs on Win 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
File Size 809K
</q>


This app has a metronome *accessory* (might work as a stand alone:

Program: EchoView Pro
Author: Mirage Audio Visual Media
Ware: (Liteware)
http://www.mirage1.u-net.com/echoview.htm

Susan
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[Richard Steinfeld]

Thank you, Susan!
I'll try these out. Looks like samples of larger applications that may
be useful

Richard

 

[Little Girl]

Hey there,

So, does anyone have any more metronome programs?

Have you tried Metronom? It's in German, but it's a very simple
program, so if you don't speak German, you should be able to work it
without worrying that you'll do something horrible <g>. It's a
no-install program, 146kb, and it comes with a wav file that you could
easily replace with another, simply by renaming it to the same name
and copying it over the original.

The program has three tabs.

It opens on the Metronom tab. Here you can change the beats per
minute. There's a milliseconds per minute converter at the bottom of
this tab, so if you work in milliseconds, you'll know how many bpm to
select. Press the Start button and the sound file will be played at
the bpm you specified until you press the Stop button.

The middle tab is called Intervallmesung. Press the Start button and
then click on the conductor's wand over and over and the program tells
you each time how many bpm apart your clicks are. When you press the
Stop button, it tells you what your average clicking rate was.

The last tab is the Info tab, which tells about the author and the
code for the program. There's a link on that tab to:

http://www.thoha.de/meybohm/

This page says the author got his own page at:

http://www.meybohm.de/

I tried going to that page with Firefox and IE and was refused access
both times. You might have better luck. In any event, since the
documentation says I'm allowed to distribute the program freely, I
uploaded it to You Send It. It's at:

Metronom
http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2NMDDPPB4AGJE0FUKCI5H6FT11

 

[Richard Steinfeld]

Hey there,

Have you tried Metronom? It's in German, but it's a very simple
program, so if you don't speak German, you should be able to work it
without worrying that you'll do something horrible <g>. It's a
no-install program, 146kb,

That's more like it!

and it comes with a wav file that you could

easily replace with another, simply by renaming it to the same name
and copying it over the original.

The sound is fine out-of-the-box. I could be a sharper click, but for
the time being, it will do.

The program has three tabs.

It opens on the Metronom tab. Here you can change the beats per
minute. There's a milliseconds per minute converter at the bottom of
this tab, so if you work in milliseconds, you'll know how many bpm to
select. Press the Start button and the sound file will be played at
the bpm you specified until you press the Stop button.

The middle tab is called Intervallmesung. Press the Start button and
then click on the conductor's wand over and over and the program tells
you each time how many bpm apart your clicks are. When you press the
Stop button, it tells you what your average clicking rate was.

Thanks for this pointer. At first, I clicked in the wrong part of the
window and got a "divide by zero" message (in German).

The last tab is the Info tab, which tells about the author and the
code for the program. There's a link on that tab to:

http://www.thoha.de/meybohm/

This page says the author got his own page at:

http://www.meybohm.de/

I tried going to that page with Firefox and IE and was refused access
both times. You might have better luck.

I did not.

In any event, since the

documentation says I'm allowed to distribute the program freely, I
uploaded it to You Send It. It's at:

Metronom
http://s50.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2NMDDPPB4AGJE0FUKCI5H6FT11

And that's where I got it from.
It's a nice little program that does what it should. Here's what I like:
- It's a free-standing program (why does everyone think that they've got
to make their programs installable???!!! It creates all manner of
unnecessary complexity on the user's system).
- The user can adjust the tempo in mid-stream (most of the other
metronome players I tried had to be stopped to change the speed,
interrupting the musician's process).
- The "learning mode" is nice to have -- it could come in handy.

There's one omission: it could use a "light" that flashes. I like to use
this because the clicking sound can get tiresome.

And there was one interesting problem. Metronom can get synchopated and
lose a beat now and then if there are other processes running on the
computer at the same time -- they're competing for processor time slices
with each other. However, if the music student/musician is working only
with this program at the time, it will probably work out fine. In my own
case, I'm using a Windows ME system with a 720mhz processor.

For security, I've got Avast antivirus and Sygate firewall running.
These run a large number of processes repeatedly at a furious rate.
Metronom seemed to be able to coexist with these programs OK (at least
as far as I could determine with my ears). Perhaps a metronome program
needs fancier coding to take more priority over the processor.

Thanks, Girl, for making this available!

I'd also like to get feedback from others if this investigation proves
useful.

Richard

 

[Little Girl]

Hey there,

That's more like it!

Glad you like it.

The sound is fine out-of-the-box. I could be a sharper click, but for
the time being, it will do.

And luckily that should be rather easy to alter.

Thanks for this pointer. At first, I clicked in the wrong part of the
window and got a "divide by zero" message (in German).

That hasn't happened to me, but maybe it depends on where in the
window you click. I had first tried clicking on the hand instead of
the wand, and nothing at all happened.

I did not.

Well, unless we're both using the same HOSTS file (I use the one from
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm ), then the page is most
likely gone.

And that's where I got it from.
It's a nice little program that does what it should. Here's what I like:
- It's a free-standing program (why does everyone think that they've got
to make their programs installable???!!! It creates all manner of
unnecessary complexity on the user's system).

I agree, and I go to great lengths to find no-install programs if at
all possible.

- The user can adjust the tempo in mid-stream (most of the other
metronome players I tried had to be stopped to change the speed,
interrupting the musician's process).

I hadn't tried that. Thanks for the info.

- The "learning mode" is nice to have -- it could come in handy.

I imagine a music teacher would probably get the most use out of it,
but I had fun attempting to click to a regular rhythm. Needless to
say, I didn't succeed.

There's one omission: it could use a "light" that flashes. I like to use
this because the clicking sound can get tiresome.

Now it would be very nice if the author were available. I believe his
email address is on the Info tab. It might be worth a try.

And there was one interesting problem. Metronom can get synchopated and
lose a beat now and then if there are other processes running on the
computer at the same time -- they're competing for processor time slices
with each other. However, if the music student/musician is working only
with this program at the time, it will probably work out fine. In my own
case, I'm using a Windows ME system with a 720mhz processor.

Ah, I've got WinXP Pro running on a 2.40 GHz processor, and haven't
experienced that. But then I tend to run as few programs as possible
(a lingering after-effect of always having a slower/smaller/weaker
computer than everyone else I knew).

For security, I've got Avast antivirus and Sygate firewall running.
These run a large number of processes repeatedly at a furious rate.
Metronom seemed to be able to coexist with these programs OK (at least
as far as I could determine with my ears). Perhaps a metronome program
needs fancier coding to take more priority over the processor.

Ah, that might be it. I use all of my antivirus software on demand
only, and use dial-up, so only use the firewall when online, in which
case Metronom wouldn't be running.

Thanks, Girl, for making this available!

You're welcome. I'm sorry I missed your earlier post about it, or I
would have sent it sooner.

I'd also like to get feedback from others if this investigation proves
useful.

I hope my input above helped a little. I haven't stress-tested the
program, but I put it through a few paces.

By the way, the one change I'd like to see is for the graphic to be
like a real metronome - you know, the wooden pyramid-shaped one with a
gold ticker. It's what I see when I think of a metronome.

 

[Susan Bugher]

Thank you, Susan!
I'll try these out. Looks like samples of larger applications that may
be useful

I look forward to your report. re any earlier comment you made:

This brings up another issue about freeware posts and download site notices. In many cases, when we
download a program, we've been told nothing about whether the program is a stand-alone or an
installation. Either can lurk within the confines of a file suffixed ".exe." This can be a serious
issue, especially to a person who isn't very computer literate.

A *lot* of ACF participants are interested in no install apps. The ACF program info pages have a
column that notes "no install" and/or "no entries in the registry" using the abbreviations "n.i."
and/or "n.r." (when I have that info). See:

http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/acf/P_ProgramIndex.php

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
http://groups.google.no/groups?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware&hl=en
Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)

 

[M.L.]

And there was one interesting problem. Metronom can get synchopated and
lose a beat now and then if there are other processes running on the
computer at the same time -- they're competing for processor time slices
with each other. However, if the music student/musician is working only
with this program at the time, it will probably work out fine. In my own
case, I'm using a Windows ME system with a 720mhz processor.

For security, I've got Avast antivirus and Sygate firewall running.
These run a large number of processes repeatedly at a furious rate.
Metronom seemed to be able to coexist with these programs OK (at least
as far as I could determine with my ears). Perhaps a metronome program
needs fancier coding to take more priority over the processor.

I don't know if it works the same for Windows ME, but for WinXP,
within the Processes tab of the Task Manager you can rt-click on the
running software app and set its processing priority: Real Time, High,
Above Normal, Normal, Below Normal, Low.