Playing to a click on stage

The technology is the easy part. What makes a set with backing tracks feel safe is a handful of habits, most of them sorted before you leave the house.

Rehearse with the rig you will gig with

The same iPad, the same cable, the same in-ears, the same click level. Change one of them and the whole feel changes. Click Left's Soundcheck exists so the first time the rig is tested is not doors.

Count-ins you cannot miss

Put the count-in in the file, loud, with an accent on one. If a song starts with the band and the track comes in later, the note on the pad should say so: "wait for keys", "drums start alone". Click Left shows the armed song's note on the display panel before you count in, and the cue light blinks at the song's tempo so you can feel it before the first click.

Click level

Set the click so it sits over the kit at gig volume, not at rehearsal volume. Click Left has a click trim on the transport rail, in 1 dB steps, for the night; each song's own level is separate from it. Level matching brings every file's click to the same peak, so the trim you settle on in soundcheck holds for the whole set. If you play in more than one band, file the songs and setlists under each band. Each band has its own click level and click defaults.

Songs without tracks

Not every song needs a backing track. Add a Metronome song for the numbers the band plays live: a tempo, the beats in a bar, and a planned length for the set timer. It sits in the running order and the click comes through the same output at the same level as the file clicks. It runs until you stop it, because the click cannot know when the band has finished. The stage player starts LOCKED so a stick cannot retune the click from the stool. Unlock is a two-position slider, so a stick cannot flip it. Play locks it again. While the click plays you can nudge its tempo by 1 BPM, and the change lands on the same bar and beat. Time signature, subdivision, sound and count-in still need a stop.

If you only need a click and no set, open Metronome from the sidebar, from Open metronome on an empty library, or from the library menu. That does not add a library row and does not use a free-tier song slot. There is a short guide.

Reading the set

The time left in the song and in the whole set are on the display panel. The waveform shows the shape of the song, so the chorus and the drop are visible before they arrive. Use auto-advance for songs that run into each other and arm-next for everything else, so the next pad is lit and nothing plays until you hit it. In a setlist, any slot can carry its own note, its own tempo and a gap before auto-advance, and the stage counts that gap down so you know when the next song goes. The library song stays as it is. Share the running order with the band as text or a printable PDF, so everyone reads the same set. Long-press a song in the library to open it on the stage alone, armed. Nothing plays until you hit Play. A normal tap still opens the song record.

When something goes wrong

Stop is a dedicated control. It fades the track while cutting the click, so a song pulled short does not slam to silence. Turn the pad lock on and Next and Previous cannot end a playing song, so a stray tap or a pedal stamp mid-song does not cut it off. If your outputs go missing, click and track fall back to outputs 1 and 2 instead of going silent, and the stage tells you. If a call cuts in, playback stops and the screen says why, and the app never resumes on its own. If the app is force-quit, reopen it and it offers the setlist back where you were. Back the library up to a plain folder before the gig; restoring it does not overwrite anything already on the iPad. Agree a plan with the band for the night the track dies anyway: a hand signal, and a song you can play without one.