Android Metronome
About 3 weeks ago, I bought a T-Mobile G1 (the Android-based “GooglePhone”). I’ve been working in my free time for the last 2 weeks on learning the Android SDK so I could write some programs for it. The first program decided to write was a program for musicians. Yesterday (November 15), I finally got the first feature–the metronome–in a working state. I uploaded by application to the Android Market (same idea as the iPhone’s App Store, but until Q1, everything has to be free). Now nearly 24 hours and 3 updates (suggested feature additions and bug fixes), my app has 2175 downloads (1638 active installs) and 110 reviews (with an average of 4/5 — there is not a single app with a 5/5, the highest so far is 4.5/5). I’ve already received 9 emails about the application.
Not bad for the first 24 hours of my first Android app (and first Java app in a very long time) 
In fact, in one day, this app has gotten more users than all my previous programming projects combined! And its not even close to done yet!
I’ll continue to post updates on this and my (hopefully many) future apps.
Hi Christopher,
I’m a newbie Android developer.
I couldn’t run your applications because I still don’t own a googlephone, but I have to say that your application’s graphical interface is very simple and intuitive. As I’m interested in learning how you get this result, can I ask you which is your preferred strategy in interface design? In particular: do you design your own icons, do you download them or do you pay someone for creating them? Thank you for your answer.
pierpaolo
@Pierpaolo: I did all the graphics for the application myself in Inkscape (open source equivalent of Adobe Illustrator), but only because I had no choice. When possible I try to find icons in Creative Commons that are already available, but there usually isn’t something that exactly meets my needs. I’m by no means a designer and would prefer not to have to put so much effort into figuring out how to make it look decent (since it doesn’t come naturally to me), but since I currently don’t make any money off this application, I can’t pay someone better to do the design work for me.
@Pierpaolo: I just looked at the screenshot you were looking at, and if you are referring to the icons used in the menu (enable metronome and main menu), I got those from the Android source repository (since Android is open source, any menu icon used in any program on the phone can be used for free)
Thank you very much, Christopher, very useful to me!
Thanks for the information Christopher. I am wondering if you called the media player to play back the “tick-tock” sound of the metronome or if you accessed core audio?
I use SoundPool, which is much lower level than media player
It just provides a convenient way to setup and trigger short sounds at the core level
I just bought the Pro version and I have to say I am quite impressed. In a future update (somewhere down the line obviously) I would love to see pitchable drums but other than that, I love the metronome, keyboard (tried your easy to learn stuff and can’t wait to download tons more). I am a pecussionist and percussion instructor and I love the functionality of this app. I am happy to help support programs like this, so please keep up the good work.
thanks again
Alex
oh and I am running on a Droid Eris w/Android 1.5
Hi, In future versions, would you be able to incorporate mixed meters?
I’m considering revamping the metronome this summer, but I don’t have any confirmed features yet
Please update the metronome. 1/4 time is simply not needed, but time sigs like 5/4 , 7/8 and others are.
Also please consider raising the upper limit of 200 BPM. I have needed much faster tempo ability for some straight ahead jazz stuff. Believe it or not, 200 can be too slow.
I’d be very grateful for added time sigs and faster tempos.
Thanks so much!
Hmmm. My comment never showed up. Anyway, I am hoping for more time sigs, such as 5/4, 7/8 etc. I see no uses for 1/4. I also need higher BPMs that the limit of 200 this app has. A lot of straight ahead jazz tunes really rip along and 200 is simply too slow.
Polyphony on keyboards would be useful. Only being able to play one note at a time was a bummer.
I have been satisfied with the free version. I see no use for drums that can only play one instrument at a time. Can’t have a snare hihat at the same time. Makes it kinda worthless to me.
Oh and don’t worry so much about GUI’s. Usefulness is a lot more important than ‘pretty’ is, in my viewpoint.
Thanks so much for your consideration.
JazzCat >^..^<
I’m considering revamping the metronome this summer, but I don’t have any confirmed features yet.
The Pro version has multitouch capabilities for drums and piano if your phone supports it. What device do you have?
I’m guitarist and I really do need a metronome. Android don’t seem to have very good metronomes available, your app looks brilliant but I can’t seem to find it. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good metronome or how to download Christopher’s metronome? All help would be appreciated.
I have a HTC Wildfire running Android version 2.2
You should be able to find it by searching for “Musical” in the Android Market.
Musical Pro (hopefully Musical Lite soon) is also available on the Amazon Appstore.