Read The Bleepin’ Manual
Groovy Timing (Or Bust)
ZOMG y'all, music is basically impossible without a beat. Like seriously — metronomes, drums, delay slaps, tremolo pulses, arpeggios, the whole shebang. OnSong's got your back with this magical beat clock that's always watching tempo, time signature, & where you are in the bar like some kinda creepy musical stalker. Beat Sync is what keeps all the bleepin' components in OnSong from drifting all over the place so you can actually stay in the pocket instead of faceplanting in the dirt.
One Tempo, One Overlord Clock
There's literally ONE clock runnin' the whole app, & it's not messin' around. It knows three things & three things only: the tempo, the time signature, & exactly where you are in the bar — which beat, which subdivision, the whole deal. Usually the beat clock takes its marching orders from whatever song you're playin', but it can also get pushed around by other weird internal & external stuff. Check it:
- Song Tempo is like, the obvious way to set all this junk. It's the default because, y'know, we're lazy.
- Ableton Link lets you plug OnSong into other apps & gear so everything stays locked together & doesn't drift like your focus in a 3-hour setlist.
- MIDI Clock can now hear the difference between regular beats & downbeats & flex the tempo based on that info.
- Backing Tracks get processed when you play 'em through the AuxDock so the app figures out the beat grid & adjusts tempo on the fly if the track's doin' weird stuff.
Keepin' Time Like Your Life Depends On It
Everything in the OnSong® app now bows down to the beat clock. Whichever component starts first gets to set the downbeat & everything else salutes & falls in line. Like, if you fire up the metronome first, the downbeat hits immediately & everything else says "yes sir, metronome sir!" If you're gettin' beat & phase info from Ableton Link or MIDI Clock, the metronome waits politely for the next beat but makes dang sure the downbeats line up. First one in wins; everyone else follows. That's the law.
Metronome
Yeah, this is the most in-your-face use of the beat clock, count-in & all.
AuxDock Atmosphere
This plays a whole canvas of ambient sounds that start, stop, & change in lockstep with the beat. Synchronized vibes, my peeps.
AuxDock Pedalboard
What if your guitar effects could actually sync with EVERY part of the song like they were supposed to? The AuxDock's got timed pedals that lock their parameters to musical subdivisions. Quarters, dotted eighths, whatever — & they follow tempo changes in real-time on: - Delay - Tremolo - Phaser - Wah
AuxDock Chordboard
Lets literally anyone play chords in the song without bein' completely terrible. It's got an arpeggiator & strum system. Beat sync makes sure each chord lands exactly when it's supposed to instead of whenever your fingers decide to cooperate.
AuxDock Drum Rack
A full bleepin' drum machine that makes sure grooves, fills, & endings land where your brain expects them instead of where you frantically tapped.
AuxDock Virtual Instrument
A guitar that can strum or pick along with your chords. Beat sync keeps it tight & on time instead of doing whatever it wants whenever you touch it.
The clock only ticks when somethin' is actually listenin'. It's not runnin' in the background wastin' battery like some kinda creepy ghost metronome.
Dynamic Tempo & Meter (aka Tempo Chaos, But Make It Musical)
Songs don't gotta be locked into one boring tempo anymore. Each section can have its own commands & the beat clock updates when you switch sections:
- {tempo: 72} yeets the tempo to a new BPM. Boom. Done.
- {time: 6/8} changes the time signature to 6/8. The new meter starts on a proper downbeat instead of halfway through a measure like a freakin' amateur.
- {ramp: 4} glides from your current tempo to the new one over a number of measures, beats, or seconds instead of bein' all jerky & weird. Just a number? That's beats. Want measure & two beats? Use 1,2. Want seconds? Slap an "s" on the end like 2s & it's independent of tempo, baby.
These are LIVE tweaks, not edits! They shift the tempo of everything without actually rewritin' the song's core tempo. Magic.
Turninʼ On Beat Sync
Beat Sync shows up wherever it matters, as a teeny tiny pulsing LED with the BPM right next to it. The LED blinks on the beat so you can see at a glance that sync is actually on & what tempo we're rollinʼ at.
Tap it & that surface's sync toggles. When you do, a chip floats in the dock real quick — if it's armed, it shows Ableton Link… as your way to share tempo with other gear, or if it's disarmed, it confirms beat sync is officially off.
Where It Actually Matters
When the metronome counts you in, beat-synced instruments shut their traps through the count & start on the first actual downbeat. They don't tag along with the count like needy puppies & they don't come in late — the first beat's scheduled ahead of time so it lands exactly right.
Why It Doesn't Sound Like Garbage
Two nerdy details do the heavy liftin' & they're worth knowin' because they explain why beat-synced audio in OnSong® stays tight while other apps drift like a leaf in a hurricane.
The clock's grid is anchored to your device's monotonic hardware clock, not some janky repeatin' timer. A timer picks up teensy errors on every tick; an anchored grid calculates when each beat should happen mathematically, so beat ten thousand is just as locked as beat one.
Beat-synced audio gets scheduled ahead of time instead of playin' when the tick shows up. The clock knows exactly when an upcoming beat will hit, so a drum sound gets handed to the audio engine in advance with a timestamp stuck to it. If the app's busy for a sec, the audio's already scheduled & still lands on the beat like it's got a homing missile.
If somethin' sounds like it's driftin', double-check whether Sync is actually ON — an effect with Sync off is runnin' on its own rate knob, which is totally legit & looks identical from the back of the venue.
