beat counter - has this been done?

[ethrbunny]

Ive googled for this but cant find what Im thinking of:

I drum a fair amount and am thinking of a practice aid. This device would count the pulses from a trigger - either a microphone (el cheapo) or an electronic pad. After playing for a bit it could report the average beats/min and the variations from the mean. Similarly you could enter a count and then it would lite some LEDs to show when you were ahead or behind the tempo. Do the microcontrollers have timers built in or would that input need to be provided externally?

Granted, its not your average stomp-box. Im going to take another gander at the DIY guitar tuner spec. Seems like some of that could be nicked.

Justification? When the accusation between the bass player (usually my wife) and I begin on who is speeding up / slowing down I will have an answer.

[Jason Stout]

How about something simple? A flashing led would help the two of you keep time. It wouldn't let you know who was wavering, but do you really want to know? :wink:

Google will show countless pages.
555
led
pwm
Flasher

[puretube]

soon the PIC-scene will jump on this...  

[lovekraft0]

It's a great idea, but I don't think it'll help you - everybody knows it's always the drummer that speeds up and slows down!  :wink: Seriously, if somebody works this one out, I'll buy one!

[squidsquad]

If you go to analogx.com you can DL Tap Tempo (free).
You hit your keyboard's space bar to the beat & get a BPM read out.

[zachary vex]

wait a minute... if you both end up going faster, knowing that you went faster or how much faster you went isn't going to help.  if only one of you is rushing, it should be easy to tell who is... it's the person who's ahead.  how will this device analyze who started rushing?

[RDV]

Google "Beat-Bug".

RDV

[squidsquad]

Yeah well I sorta jumped in before even finishing the original post.  But it does help steady an idividual's timing...watching the numbers change to see if your speed goes up or down.  Ever try singing a long note into an auto guitar tuner?  Yeow...that'll shrink yer ego!

[RDV]

Beatbug site

RDV

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

There used to be a gadget called (I am not making this up) the ..Russian Dragon!! whihc showed (row of leds) which of two beats was leading (that is, 'rushin'..geddit?)
was advertised in Keyboard Magazine 20 years ago, the last time anything interesting was in it.

[Nasse]

Seen some simple interfaces or circuit snippets that try to detect and extract the beat from music signal. They were for disco light control if i remember. Think you need such anyway even if you go for PIC or something fancy.

It sure is easier to detect the beat from "full mix" or bass/drum track of  modern boringly beating "four stroke" signal than guitar track (might be impossible)

[ethrbunny]

Thank you RDV. I almost thought I had an original notion.

*Whew*