Click-only gigs: running a metronome-only set from an iPad

On a click-only gig the band plays the songs and the iPad gives you a tempo. Front of house should hear nothing from you. The usual mistake is the track side of the cable, still plugged into a DI from the last gig, so the click comes out of the PA as soon as someone opens that channel.

Cabling a small mixer so the click stays in your ears is insending a click to your in-ears through a small mixer. Interface routing, and what to do when a lead gets pulled, is inrunning backing tracks and a click from an iPad at gigs. For one tempo and no running order, see Metronome on its own.

A tempo for each song

Add a Metronome song, with no audio file. Set the tempo with the dial, tap tempo or a typed BPM, and choose the time signature. It sits in the setlist like any other song. Hit the pad and you get a bar and beat count instead of a waveform. The click keeps going until you stop it, because it cannot know when the band has finished. You can give the song a planned length for the set timer.

The band's list usually arrives as a message. Open the setlist, tap Paste setlist, put one song per line, then Preview and Add. A line with no tempo assumes 120 BPM and marks it as assumed, and that row becomes a Metronome song, so fix those tempos before you add the set.Paste a setlist from the band covers the line format, including a time signature, a length in bars and a note in square brackets. When you add a click track you can tap Look up song to fetch a title, artist and tempo from Apple Music, plus cover art stored on the iPad. It stays off until you tap it.

Each slot in a setlist can carry its own tempo, its own note and a gap before auto-advance. The library song stays as it is, so a tune you play at 118 with one band can sit at 124 in another set. Share the running order as text or a printable PDF so the singer's paper matches the pads.

The free version holds six songs and one setlist. A Metronome song in a setlist counts toward the six, the same as a track. Opening Metronome with no set does not count, and it does not add a row to the library. If you play in more than one band, file each band's songs and setlists under that band. Each band has its own click level and click defaults, and bands are in the free version.

Count-ins

The count-in sits on the metronome stage with the time signature, the subdivision and the sound. Set it before you hit Play. Changing the count-in needs a stop, as do the time signature, the subdivision and the sound.

Agree the count in the rehearsal room and write the odd ones on the slot note, such as two bars, or drums in alone. The armed song's note shows on the display panel before you count the band in, and the cue light blinks at the song's tempo so you can feel it before the first click. Start each song the way the band already does, whether that is a shouted count or a nod.

Click to your ears, nothing to the PA

A Metronome song, and Metronome opened with no set, send the click to the same output as the click in your files, at the same level. On a headphone socket or a two-output interface, that is output 1, and the track is output 2. On a Y-cable, output 1 is the left jack. Plug it into a headphone amp or the line input of a wired in-ear pack. Keep the right-hand jack, the track side, out of the DI and out of every desk channel, because a lead left plugged in tends to get opened.

Do not use Bluetooth for the click. The delay and the dropouts make it useless. A Bluetooth page-turner pedal is fine.

A small mixer beside the kit gives you a fader for the click.Sending a click to your in-ears through a small mixercovers the cabling, the pan on a desk with no aux, and the checks for hum, charging and a locked iPad. For this gig, connect the click side and leave the front of house lead out. Then check the room is quiet: have someone stand out front, or ask the engineer to listen, while the click plays. If they can hear it, a jack is in the wrong socket or a channel is still routed to the main mix.

Set the iPad's volume and leave it there for the night. There is a click trim on the transport rail, in 1 dB steps, and each song's own level is separate from that trim. How loud the click sits over the kit is still set on the amp or the mixer, with the in-ears in and the band at gig volume. Set it in a quiet side room and you will set it too low, and the cymbals will bury it once the set starts.

Run Soundcheck with the real lead connected. It checks the output route, the battery, the storage and Low Power Mode, warns you if the click is about to come out of the iPad's own speaker, and reminds you about Focus. If the outputs you chose go missing, click and track fall back to outputs 1 and 2 instead of going silent, and the stage tells you the audio output was disconnected. Those are the iPad's own outputs, so what you hear depends on what is plugged into that socket.Running backing tracks and a click from an iPad at gigscovers that warning, and interfaces with more than two outputs.

Moving between songs

Sixteen songs sit on a page, in type you can read from the stool. The song you are playing is lit and the next pad is armed. With arm-next, that pad waits and nothing plays until you hit it. A Metronome song keeps going until you stop it, so the change is Stop, then the next pad. Auto-advance is for songs that run into each other, and a slot's gap before auto-advance counts down on the stage.

On the pads, a set with any click track keeps the beat lamps in the display panel for the whole set, including between songs.

A page-turner pedal such as an AirTurn or a PageFlip sends play, stop, previous and next. Pedal keys act on key-down only, so a held or bouncing pedal does not skip a song. With the pad lock on, Next and Previous cannot end a playing song, from the pedal or the screen, so a stray stamp in a chorus leaves the click running. Stop the song, then go to the next pad. The stage player starts LOCKED, so a stick cannot change the click settings from the stool. Unlock is a two-position slider, and Play locks it again.

When the click and the band drift

It tends to happen in the chorus, or after a breakdown when the count back in was late and everyone followed the singer. Agree at rehearsal what you will do about it, and do the same thing all night.

A few bars of push is normal. Stay on the click and let the band come back to it. If the whole song is sitting a little fast or a little slow, nudge the tempo by 1 BPM while the click plays. Live tempo works on click tracks, which includes every Metronome song. The change lands on the same bar and beat, so the bar you are in carries on, and you can nudge again for another 1 BPM. Time signature, subdivision, sound and count-in still need a stop. If a bridge changes the time signature, stop in a gap the band already expects, change it, and hit Play again.

If the song has fallen apart, stop. Restart on the next downbeat you can all hear, or leave the click off for the rest of that song and pick it up on the next pad. Agree a hand signal for this before the gig, the same one you would use if a lead got pulled.

Rehearse to it first

Play it in the rehearsal room before anyone hears it at a venue, with the same iPad, lead, in-ears and click level you will gig with. Run the real setlist. Count the songs in the way you will on the night, stop them and go to the next pad until that move is boring.

To work on one song, tap the green play button on its row in the library. A click track asks whether to open in the Metronome view or on the pads. The Edit button opens the song record. Long-press any song and it opens on the stage alone, armed, and nothing plays until you hit Play. A normal tap still opens the song record.

Set the click level with the band playing at gig volume, and run Soundcheck once the lead is the one you will use on the night. Turn on a Focus so a call or an alert cannot cut the audio, then Guided Access so a stick cannot leave the app. If there is a mixer, do this after the mixer is set, so you are not leaving Guided Access to chase a knob.

A short checklist

The night before

• Tempo and time signature on each Metronome song, count-in set, and anything unusual on the slot note.
• Running order pasted or typed, then sent to the band as text or a printable PDF.
• Any song you are unsure of practised from the library, in the in-ears.
• iPad charged, and the in-ear pack if it uses batteries. Low Power Mode off.

At the venue

• Click lead into the ears. Track lead out of the PA and out of any desk channel.
• Someone out front listens while the click plays and confirms the PA is quiet.
• Soundcheck on that lead, with no warning that the click is coming out of the iPad's speaker.
• Click level set with the band playing. iPad volume set, then left alone.
• If you use a pedal, check that Stop then Next moves one song, and that with the pad lock on a press during a song leaves it running.

Just before you walk on

• Focus on, Guided Access on, stage locked.
• Setlist open, first song armed, in-ears in and turned up.