SoundPlanet: Metronome Pedal

Most metronome apps look like a calculator. This one looks like the pedalboard you wish you owned. SoundPlanet is four pieces of hand-built vintage gear for iPhone and iPad — a cassette set list, a rotary metronome, a needle tuner and a practice looper — that you swipe between like pedals on a board. It was made for the night of the gig, not the afternoon before it. THE SET LIST — A SHOEBOX OF TAPES Your songs are hand-labelled cassettes stacked in a case. Every tape gets its own plastic tint, label paper, handwriting and ink — and it keeps them, so you find the song by sight instead of reading a list. Tap a tape to cue its tempo and meter straight into the metronome. In edit mode, drag a tape by its handle to reorder the night, or tap the red minus to drop it. A tape deck slides up with REW, PLAY and F.F. so you can walk the set without looking down. THE METRONOME — TURN IT, DON'T TYPE IT Take hold of the TEMPO knob and turn: 40 to 240. The METER knob steps through fourteen meters, from 2/4 to 12/8. Subdivide into eighths, triplets or sixteenths. Wood, bell, beep or tambourine. Hit TAP TEMPO a few times to catch the tempo of whatever the drummer just played. Amber LCD, a row of beat LEDs, and a chrome footswitch to start and stop the click. The click keeps running with the screen locked and the phone in your pocket. THE TUNER — A NEEDLE, NOT A NUMBER An analog meter with a needle that settles, the way a tuner should. Reference pitch from 430 to 450 Hz on its own knob. Pitch detection happens entirely on your iPhone: the tuner's audio is never recorded, stored or sent anywhere. THE LOOPER — PLAY OVER YOURSELF Pick 1, 2, 4 or 8 bars and tap the footswitch. You get a bar of count-in, even with the click off, then the loop records in time with the metronome and plays straight back. Tap again to add a layer, up to ten. Hold to undo the last one. Turn the tempo and the loop follows without changing pitch, and because the click and the loop share one clock, they stay together. LOOP LEVEL sets how loud it plays. Wired headphones work best: you keep hearing the loop while you record a layer. On the speaker the loop goes quiet while you record, so it doesn't bleed into the microphone. Bluetooth headphones add delay, so layers recorded through them may not line up. Your loop is saved on your device and is waiting the next time you open the app. PICK YOUR FINISH Atomic Teal, Diner Cream, Sunburst Maroon, Midnight Star, Stage Black, Studio White, Flamingo Pink and Amp Orange — plus Overdrive Green, Mustard Yellow and Moonlight Purple for the looper. Screws, pinstripes and honest wear come as standard. ON iPHONE DUO Unfold and turn to landscape: two pedals sit side by side, one on each half. Swipe either half to choose your pedal while the other stays put. Keep the metronome beside your set list, tuner or looper. Fold your Duo or turn it upright and the left pedal comes with you in the carousel. ON iPAD Turn it sideways and the pedals sit side by side on one board. On smaller iPads, the fourth slides into view. WHAT'S NOT IN IT No account. No ads. No tracking. No subscription. No cloud. Your sets and loops stay on your device and nothing leaves it. You pay once and it's yours — like a pedal. SoundPlanet doesn't do polyrhythms, charts or lyrics. It does four things, and it looks good doing them.