Metronome

The metronome helps performing in correct tempo and time signature when recording. Musicians hear the metronome clicking with an optional emphasis on the first beat.

The button switching the metronome on and off is located to the left from the transport panel:

Metronome toggle

Launching and stopping the metronome

There are several ways to toggle the metronome:

  • You can click the button to the left of the transport panel.
  • You can press the ` shortcut.
  • For some control surfaces, you can press either the designated button or any button that is mapped to the metronome via a MIDI map.

Setting up the metronome

You can right-click on the metronome icon in the toolbar to open the Preferences dialog on the Metronome page. This gives you the following options:

  • Emphasis on the first beat: when enabled, the metronome will make a louder click on the first beat to help musicians with the time signature.
  • Use built-in default sounds: when this optiion is disabled, you can load your preferred audio files for the metronome. Otherwise, Ardour will use built-in audio files.
  • Gain level: you can set here how loud you want metronome clicks to be. You can also adjust this setting by hovering the metronome toggle button in the main window and scrolling the mouse wheel up or down. As you change the value, the tooltip will update to show the new gain level.
  • Enable metronome only while recording: when enabled, you will only hear metronome clicks while recording; there will be no metronome clicks while playing back the takes.

Routing metronome clicks

The metronome has separate outputs in Ardour, so you can route that signal in the Audio Connections dialog (Window > Audio Connections) however you like, e.g. to a foldback bus for each performer in the studio or on stage.

The Click Out port with L and R channels is located on the Ardour Misc tab on the left:

Click out ports

By default, the metronome omits the master bus entirely and connects directly to the first pair of hardware outputs in the output device you selected. This way the clicks don't get processed in the master bus and don't show up in the exported mix.