Time Guru Metronome vs Quartet 1
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Time Guru Metronome
This app strengthens your internal sense of rhythm by periodically going silent, testing your ability to maintain tempo. It offers random and patterned muting, complex meter sequences, and gradual tempo changes for comprehensive practice.
- Random and patterned muting
- Complex meter sequences
- Gradual tempo changes
- Practice timer
- Customizable sound sets
- Voice counting
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**Strengthen your internal sense of rhythm.** Time Guru is the only metronome that periodically goes silent—randomly, in patterns, or both—so you discover whether you rush, drag, or lose your place. **Random & Pattern Muting** Set any percentage of random muting to test your timekeeping. Or create sequenced muting patterns. Or combine both. You'll quickly learn where your time falls apart—and strengthen it. **Complex Meter Sequences** Build unlimited chains of shifting meters: 4/4 -> 7/8 -> 3/4 -> 11/16 -> 4/4 -> 3/8. Meters go up to 16/x, patterns have no length limit, and you can rearrange them with drag-and-drop. **Gradual Tempo Changes** Automatically speed up or slow down over time—perfect for building technique. **Practice Timer** Set the metronome to stop after a specified duration. **Also includes:** • 35 loud, clear sound sets • Drum machine-style rhythmic patterns • Voice counting in English, Chinese, French, German & Russian • Tap tempo (5–300 BPM) • iCloud backup and sync • Light and dark themes • Full VoiceOver accessibility • Rock-solid timing via custom audio engine Developed by Avi Bortnick and Adam Bellard
Quartet 1
Practice and perform jazz standards with high-quality backing tracks. Mute your instrument, change keys, adjust tempo, and loop sections. Features animated chord diagrams and playlist creation for an enhanced musical experience.
- Live jazz standards backing tracks
- Mute your instrument
- Change key and tempo
- Loop practice sections
- Animated chord diagrams
- Multi-app playlist creation
- Multitrack export
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Practice and perform jazz standards on another level with Quartet. And with a host of brand-new features plus an additional 50 new versions of the most played standards, the top-selling jazz play along apps just got even better. No subscriptions. No in-app purchases. Yours to keep! Volume 1 now includes 200 stunning jazz standards recorded exclusively by 8 of the world’s best jazz musicians. All ‘live’ studio recordings with intros, endings and top line solos. Whether you play jazz piano, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, bass, drums…simply mute your instrument from the Quartet for the ultimate jazz play along. And for jazz singers too, each edition of Quartet is an unrivalled collection of jazz backing tracks powerful enough to gig with. Change key on the fly. Speed up or slow down the audio seamlessly. Loop sections and slow them right down for practice. Select the number of repeats. Choose from preset mixes or create your own custom mix using the new onboard mixer. Arrange each song exactly the way you want it with the new automated ‘Arranger’ feature. Add a touch of reverb and you’re good to go. Improve your skills with full screen animated chord diagrams for Piano, Guitar and Ukulele. Search the entire Quartet song library (700 songs) by composer, style, BPM, associated artist and more. Build and share multi-app playlists and easily export PDF chord charts for every song. Export your stereo mix or export the multitrack if you want to develop the high quality separated parts in GarageBand or whatever DAW you use. Either way, all recordings are offered to you royalty-free giving you endless creative possibilities. The 200 jazz standards in Quartet Volume 1 include improvisations in the style of… ‘All Blues’, ‘All of Me’, ‘All The Things You Are’, ‘Autumn Leaves’, ‘Beautiful Love’, ‘Blue Bossa’, ‘Body and Soul’, ‘Caravan’, ‘Cherokee’, ‘Cry Me a River’, ‘Fever’, ‘Georgia on my Mind’, ‘Giant Steps’, ‘Girl From Ipanema’, ‘Have You Met Miss Jones?’, ‘Love for Sale’, ‘Rhythm Changes’, ‘Satin Doll’, ‘Someday My Prince Will Come’, ‘Summertime’…and 180 more! Install Quartet on all of your iOS devices plus your Mac devices (M series only) at no extra cost. Ready to take your jazz standards to another level? Hear lots more and see the full song lists at www.quartetapp.com Featured artists Saxophones and Flutes Andy Panayi Credits - Shirley Bassey, Paul McCartney, Seth MacFarlane, Elaine Paige, Salena Jones, Elvis Costello, Georgie Fame, Helen Shapiro, Madeline Bell, Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Lovano, Roy Hargrove Dave O’Higgins Credits - Joey Calderazzo, Joe Locke, Eric Alexander, Max Ionata, Joe Lovano, Phil Woods, Nancy Wilson, Peggy Lee, Kurt Elling, Wayne Shorter, Eddie Gomez, Jamie Cullum, Stéphane Grappelli, Michel Legrand Graeme Blevins Recording and performing credits include Phil Collins, Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue, Kyle Eastwood, Mark Knopfler, Quincy Jones, Mark Ronson, Tom Jones, Taylor Swift Guitar Nigel Price Credits - James Taylor Quartet, Van Morrison, Nigel Price Organ Trio. Voted ‘Best Guitarist’ in the 2016 British Jazz Awards Piano Graham Harvey Credits - Incognito (MD), Stacey Kent, George Benson, Hamish Stuart, Will Lee, Philip Bailey, Chaka Khan, The BBC Big Band, Madeline Bell, Jocelyn Brown, Mica Paris, Sir Cliff Richard Bass Geoff Gascoyne Credits - Jamie Cullum (MD), Sting, Van Morrison, Bill Bruford, Mari Wilson, Paloma Faith, Georgie Fame, Gloria Estefan, Guy Barker, Charlie Watts, Benny Golson, Jacqui Dankworth, Bob Dorough, John Martyn, Eartha Kitt Drums Sebastiaan de Krom Credits - Herbie Hancock, John Scofield, Phil Woods, Dave Holland, Jamie Cullum, Guy Barker, Wynton Marsalis, Clark Terry, Tim Garland Rod Youngs Credits - Gil Scott-Heron, Lee Konitz, Sia, Courtney Pine, Jon Hendricks, Hugh Masekela, Natalie Cole, Mica Paris, Juliet Roberts, BBC Concert Orchestra, Ronnie Laws, Jocelyn Brown
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Time Guru Metronome at $2.99 against Quartet 1's $19.99. Time Guru Metronome also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 5) and update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Time Guru Metronome costs $2.99 and Quartet 1 $19.99 up front. Quartet 1 sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Time Guru Metronome asks for nothing beyond the download.
Quartet 1 holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 455 and 196 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of Time Guru Metronome's written reviews are positive against 85% of Quartet 1's.
Time Guru Metronome ships an update weekly, Quartet 1 every 2 months. Both last shipped on November 7, 2026.
| Parameter | Time Guru Metronome | Quartet 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 — better | $19.99 |
| Rating | 4.5 (455 ratings) | 4.7 (196 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.2% of reviews | 84.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 455 — better | 196 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 16.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 706 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Avi Bortnick | UK Music Apps Ltd |
Customer experience
Time Guru Metronome
Quartet 1
User reviews
Time Guru Metronome
From 455 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Excellent metronome app
- 👍 Highly customizable and flexible
- 🎼 Helpful for developing internal rhythm
- 🎯 Effective for practicing odd time signatures
- 💡 Innovative random mute feature
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
- 🔋 High battery consumption
- 🤔 Not very intuitive interface
- 🔊 Could use better volume control
Quartet 1
From 196 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎶 Excellent sound quality
- 🎸 Real musicians' performance
- 👍 Great value for money
- 🚀 Flexible tempo and key changes
- 🎵 Inspiring for practice
Room to improve
- 🐛 Clunky UI
- 😵 Fiddly tempo adjustment
- 🎚️ Limited mixer options
- 🎛️ No individual instrument volume control
- 🎚️ Sound quality degradation with tempo/key changes
Bugs and requests
Time Guru Metronome
Reported bugs
3 issues- Skipping beats and glitching
- Unable to delete saved rhythms
- Incompatibility with newer devices
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to rearrange rhythm patterns
- Option to assign different sounds to beats
- Gradual tempo increase/decrease
- Higher quality sound options
- More time signature options beyond 7 beats
Quartet 1
Reported bugs
12 issues- Playlists disappear
- Playlists replaced by old ones
- Looping parts not saved
- Edits wiped out
- Cannot put song into desired key
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- Abrupt endings with no turnarounds
- Out of tune bass
- Crash when making playlist changes
- Doesn't remember key/tempo from last session
- Clicks when using iPad OS
- Double charge for app
- No actual endings found
Requested features
29 requests- Dark mode option
- Tap tempo button
- Ability to create own charts
- Export to WAV and MP3
- Export chord chart in different ways
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- Drum-only option
- Two versions of songs at different tempos
- Metronome/click track
- Pan tracks to left/right channel
- Type in tempo directly
- Slider for tempo change
- Search within playlists
- Cloud-based sync
- iReal-type portrait display
- Real Jazz Guitar chords
- Global default for chord transpose
- More variations in chorus repeats
- Actual song endings with variations
- MIDI out function
- Split screen on tablet
- Add tags to ends of tunes
- Fix pitch shifting on drums
- Lower price for stem export
- Adjustable font size for chords
- Vertical mode
- AUV3 version
- Edit tunes at bar level
- Create new tunes within the app
- More standards/tunes
In-app purchases
Time Guru Metronome
No in-app purchases
Quartet 1
- Upgrade song$0.99
- Buy 10 tokens$8.99
- Buy 20 tokens$14.99
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Buy 50 tokens$22.99
- Upgrade all songs$49.99
Questions
Is Time Guru Metronome free?
Is Quartet 1 free?
Which has better reviews, Time Guru Metronome or Quartet 1?
Do Time Guru Metronome or Quartet 1 have ads?
Which is updated more often, Time Guru Metronome or Quartet 1?
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