Bounce Metronome Blog

01/03/12

More Pygmie Music

You might like these too :)

Efe People's Rhythms and Polyrhythms

It's a playlist of an hour and a half of Pygmie music with lots nicie rhythms including many polyrhythms - they are noted for their polyrhythms. The tuning of the music is also interesting for those interested in microtonal music.

See Efe People and Efe People of the Ituri forest for more about the people who make this music ]

22/11/11

A curious connection between the golden ratio rhythms and the golden ratio pitch interval

Youtube Video

Golden ratio polyrhythm with golden ratio pitch interval

Notice how the beats nearly coincide when they reach successive Fibonacci numbers 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377,

Nate DeBelle recently asked on the Xenharmonic alliance on facebook, what''s special about the golden ratio pitch interval, as a musical interval. "I know some people have done it, but I don''t really understand it. Why actually use the ratio of phi in your tunings? What is the point?" - here is the original post

So anyway that intrigued me, and as a result of following that up have found an intriguing connection between the beating partials of harmonic notes played at the golden ratio interval and the golden ratio polyrhhythm.

Read More »

02/11/11

Fibonacci rhythms, sonified pendulum waves, options of interest to instrument tuners, and other new options and bug fixes

Youtube Video

This brings together ideas from Theremin's Rhythmicon and the lovely pendulum waves.

A pendulum wave has pendulums with strings of varying length, which swing back and forth each at a different rate to make these beautiful patterns.

This video uses bouncing balls instead, bouncing at 52, up to 66 beats per measure. Each ball plays one of the harmonics of the harmonic series.

The Fibonacci rhythms are of interest as a new type of rhythm you probably haven't encountered before, a new idea you might find useful.

The harmonic interval trainer / tester and pitch sensitivity tester are of interest for instrument tuners. The interval tester helps you listen to the beats you get when you play two notes together as a chord - with an option to boost selected partials to help you hear the beats more clearly.

The sonified pendulum waves are just fun and cool. You can also play them like the rhythmicon sounding or muting individual parts using the PC Keyboard. So it's an extension of the rhythmicon idea but starting with e.g. 52 beats to a measure instead of 1 beat to a measure.

Also added some new tempo script options, and some other minor features. For details of all this read on.

Read More »

24/09/11

Fibonacci Rhythm - no bar pattern, highly structured but never repeats - played on harmonics

"What's the best tuning for consonance, beauty, relaxation and peace. I don't want dissonance or tension that needs to resolve.". 

That was Jesse Thom's interesting question recently over at the Xenharmonic Alliance in facebook,

Youtube Video

This rhythmic pattern has no fixed measure size of any description - but it isn't free time either - it's highly structured.

 My idea was to take any very restful unchanging harmony - there are lots of possible choices, including the unison, but one natural choice is the harmonic series - and then use rhythms to maintain the interest.

My first thought was to use polyrhythms for the rhythmic interest, as in the harmonic polyrhythms of Bounce Metronome and the Lambdoma music therapy. But then thought, what about the Fibonacci rhythms? So this is the result.

These fascinating rhythmic patterns never repeat exactly at any time scale - but yet are highly structured. There must be a million different ways to approach her question, this is just one idea :)

Read More »

18/09/11

3D bounce now auto sizes like 2D Bounce. New rhythm cycle feature

This is a minor update, 18th September 2011. Also a bunch of minor bug fixes uploaded on the 19th and 23rd. For earlier updates, see Change Log

First, a new feature to let you use the rhythm cycles manually as well as automatically.

Also now the 3D bounce auto resizes to fit the window - particularly useful for conducting patterns.

Then there's a bug fix for a visual flicker effect you may sometimes get with fast rhythms.

Also a new "Change to Pro Metronome" option in the rhythms drop menu for Bounce Metronome Lite,

Read More »

05/08/11

Tweaks and Improvements for Netbooks, Touch Screens, integrated graphics, and Windows 7 Starter

Netbooks are of especial interest for a metronome since they are so portable - much like a mobile device.

Touch screens are a wave of the future, I think. I expect more and more people will use them, in iPad like devices. Musicians will find them especially useful as the technology matures - as control surfaces, instruments etc - and will also want to run metronomes on them because they are so portable.

Some of these run Windows 7 so will be able to run Bounce Metronome fine.

So when I got a new netbook recently it was a great opportunity to test Bounce Metronome on it thoroughly - with this in mind - I got a touch screen one as well, with integrated graphics (which slows down 3D animations), so lots of things to work on.

This upload should help you if you have any of those types of device.

Read More »

15/07/11

Renamed "Super Simple Mode" to "Newbie Mode" and very minor bug fixes (New Upload, Friday 15th July 2011)

Renamed "Super Simple Mode" to "Newbie Mode" -  Newbie mode gives a more accurate idea - all the usual features there but leaves out the more advanced tweaks to give an interface more useful for newbies to the program.

Added Lissajous icon buttons to the Harmonic polyrhythm and harmonic polyrhythm cycle windows.

Read More »

08/07/11

New "Super Simple" mode for newbies (Update: Friday 8th July 2011)

New "Super Simple" option in the Options drop menu - now also the default for new installs.

You still have the full range of rhythms of the advanced interface, and tempo features, and you can easily swap to the advanced mode if you want to. 

It hides all the advanced tweaks and rarely used options completely, to create a much simpler interface, especially for newbies to the program.

  • Simpler menus
  • Fewer windows
  • Simplest versions of the windows only (no "More" buttons).

Leaves out some rarely used features especially for midi and sound

Read More »

30/06/11

Why does the bounce work so well?

Youtube Video

“Its secret is ... a ‘gravity bounce’ that feels like having your own conductor to help you keep in time...” Martin Walker, PC Notes, Sound On Sound Mag., 2010

 
Many musicians have told me how much easier they find it to learn new rhythms with this metronome.

So - why is that? Think about that familiar moment when an orchestral conductor comes onto the stage at the start of a performance, silent and motionless for a moment or two.

Then he raises and drops the baton, and you hear a single chord with all the instruments wonderfully in time with each other. This simple visual cue is enough for all the players to come in, synchronised to within a millisecond or two.

Read More »

29/06/11

Polyrhythm videos

Thought I'd start a thread about polyrhythm videos on youtube and elsewhere. Added this one also to the Polyrhythms video resources page.

Efe People's Polyrhythms

Youtube Video

Efe Peoples Music, Indigenous Africa, Likembe (thumb piano) Song
Links: See Efe People and Efe People of the Ituri forest for more about the people who make this music