 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: bmcgar ★2017
Date: 2009-05-28 04:53
Having dropped the latest of my metronomes from my music stand, and pitched it on the dead metronome midden at the back of the outhouse where all the other metronomes I've killed await some future archaeomusicologist, I've started searching for a battery powered metronome that's reasonably robust, but is loud enough to be heard over two clarinets.
I've gone through small Seiko, Sabine, and QWIK TIME models, but none of them have been able to survive my careless ways, and two of those are just too quiet to work for me. (Yes, I tried to train myself to use an old plug-in Franz, but it just isn't portable enough, and apparently I'm not trainable enough, either.)
I'm thinking of tryng the Yamaha QT because it's big enough that I won't be tempted to prop it on my music stand, but portable because there's no cord. But is it reasonably loud? (No place to check it out here locally.)
I'd appreciate an assessment of this metronome or recommendations for any other models that can stand some handling, are a bit portable, and don't need to be amplified to be heard.
(If I get the QT, I'll report back on how many times I will have put it on the floor next to my chair and then stepped on it before it stopped working.)
B.
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Author: oliver sudden
Date: 2009-05-28 11:00
I know a chap with the Intelli IMT-301 - that goes really very loud indeed, is reasonably cheap and has plenty of what I believe the youth of today call functionalities. Including a thermometer and hygrometer.
And I speak from experience in saying that it can be heard over two pretty boisterous clarinets.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2009-05-28 11:39
I used to work for GD. As far as I know they make fairly robust tanks and other armored vehicles, but no metronomes. I'm sure that, for approximately one million dollars (give or take), they will take your trusty but fragile Franz and battle-harden it. As long as you give them a contract through GSA.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2009-05-28 12:33
And then there's the good old Seth Thomas wind-up metronome, in the shape of a fat wooden obelisk. Mine's about fifty years old. My husband's is probably about the same age. No batteries to run down. No power cord necessary when a thunderstorm knocks out the electric grid. At the house of the pianist who also uses this low-tech, reliable metronome, the group can hear the click over the last movement of the Brahms piano quintet *and* the thunderstorm.
This old-fashioned metronome is still being made and most music stores still sell it. I think the design may date back to at least the 19th century. I have a photo of one of my uncles playing the piano in the early 1920s with one of these metronomes visible in the photo. No, it won't do the fancy-schmancy subdivided beat stuff (I've got a Dr. Beat for that and when I'm playing my Yamaha Clavinova, I do sometimes turn on the beat box in there), but our metronomes have survived all manner of upheavals, including falling on the floor several times and, back in starving student days, nine household moves in five years.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: bmcgar ★2017
Date: 2009-09-21 22:00
Just wanted to chime in to say that I bought the Intelli IMT-301 metronome/tuner a few months ago, and I like it very much.
- Uncomplicated, and with basic features (thank heavens).
- Controls are simple.
- Display is large, clear, and uncomplicated.
- It's sturdy. (I've dropped it four or five times so far, and it still works.)
- Beats and reference tuning pitches are loud enough to be heard over a clarinet playing FFF or a trumpet playing what most trumpet players consider ppp (the same thing, actually).
- Tuner "settles in" quickly.
- Great price ($45 at Johnson Strings) for the value.
I even like the thermometer and humidity indicators, which alert me that things have changed, and my reeds are really going south for the season; that it's not all in my head.
Two minor downsides, though:
- The speaker is on the back of the unit, so if you need volume, you have to lay it down on its face.
- The tempo control is a thumb wheel, like on a mouse, so getting from molto vivace to largo tempos takes a few seconds.
(Nope, I'm not getting anything in return for these comments.)
Cheers.
B.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2009-09-21 22:09
But, most importantly, what does your outhouse say to this new apparatus? Is it compatible with the other 'nomes there? Would they tick in unison?
--
Ben
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Author: bmcgar ★2017
Date: 2009-09-22 04:03
Ben,
Check your cork grease. I think someone may have slipped some mind-altering substance into it. :-)
B.
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Author: xarkon
Date: 2009-09-22 12:56
This is the one I use:
http://www.amazon.com/Seiko-Metronome-SQ100-88/dp/B000HMQXVG
It's taken a few falls to the hardwood floor in my studio, no damage, functions perfectly afterward. So perhaps it's GD-spec. ;-)
Unfortunately - no longer made by Seiko, but some retailers may have back stock, or try the auction sites.
Dave
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2009-09-22 14:11
Lelia -
Nine household moves is nothing. The real question is whether it survives nine household cats, swatting at anything that moves. ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif)
Ken Shaw
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2009-09-23 12:33
>>Nine household moves is nothing. The real question is whether it survives nine household cats, swatting at anything that moves.>>
I'd worry about the clarinets with nine cats, too! Never had nine cats at once, but those non-electrical mouse tails, oops, I mean metronomes did survive a cat quartet for several years -- and did get dumped on the floor a few times. An otherwise stolid gray flannel feline named Budge used to lie down right in front of a metronome and stare at it as if hypnotized, his head bobbing back and forth as his big green eyes followed the stick. Sometimes, he'd just fall asleep. Other times, all of a sudden -- WHOMP! The old boy could jab like Rocky Marciano when the impulse struck.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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