Metro
The Metro is a controller that runs a tempo clock and fires its pads on a beat grid. Drop modules onto it and the metronome triggers them in time — as a click, a drum pattern, an arpeggiated pulse, or a fully hand-drawn sequence.
Each module you drop in is one pad and gets one row of the Metro's grid. The columns are steps: a lit cell means "fire this pad on this step". How the grid gets filled depends on the Output mode.
By default a new Metro follows the session's tempo, so it starts and stops with the tempo bar and plays at the global tempo. See Clock Sync to give it a clock of its own.
Clock
On/Off
Starts and stops the Metro's clock. Starting always re-anchors to the downbeat (step 1 of bar 1). Greyed out while the Metro follows the global tempo or a MIDI clock, since that clock owns start and stop.
Tempo
The tempo of the Metro in beats per minute (BPM). It accepts any number from 30 to 3,000. You can drag the value or type a number in the field.
Tap
Tap repeatedly to set the tempo by ear.
Meter
Beats
Beats per bar (1–16) — the top number of a time signature.
Bars
How many bars the pattern spans (1–16). Raise it to write longer custom patterns.
Subdivision
The rate the grid ticks at, as a note value relative to the beat.
Subdivision values
Subdivision values, slowest to fastest:
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
1/2. | dotted half |
1/2 | half notes |
1/4. | dotted quarter |
1/4 | quarter notes — one tick on each beat, no in-between steps (shown as 1/4 (beat); the default) |
1/8 | eighths (two ticks per beat) |
1/8T | eighth-note triplets |
1/16 | sixteenths |
Odd subdivisions (triplets, dotted values) need more than one bar to line back up with the beat. The Metro raises Bars automatically to the smallest span where the full cycle fits, so the pattern always repeats cleanly.
Velocity
The downbeat always fires at full velocity. The two knobs set the rest:
Pulse
Velocity of the beats after the downbeat (70% by default).
Subdivision
Velocity of the off-beat subdivision ticks. Greyed out when every tick lands on a beat (1/4, 1/2, 1/2.) — except in Layers mode, whose subdivision row always uses it.
Each tick uses the strongest position it lands on: downbeat over beat, beat over subdivision. With 1/8, the downbeat is full velocity, the other beats use Pulse, and the up-beats use Subdivision.
Output Mode
The Output selector sets how pads (rows) map onto the grid. Pads are numbered top to bottom.
Beat
The downbeat fires pad 1, and every other tick fires pad 2. Exclusive — only one pad sounds per step. This is the default.
Layers
Pads fire independently and can overlap: pad 1 = downbeat, pad 2 = every beat, pad 3 = every subdivision. With fewer than three pads, layers collapse onto the pads available.
Cycle
Each step advances to the next pad in turn and wraps around — a rotating pulse.
Pulse
Every step fires pad 1 only.
All
Every pad fires on every step (all pads sound together). This is the classic metronome / original Metro behavior.
Custom
The grid is whatever you drew by hand.
Custom is special: it is not regenerated. You switch to Custom by picking it from the menu, by editing any cell in the grid, or by raising Bars past what the current mode needs — the Metro switches to Custom automatically (undoable). Once in Custom, adding, removing, or reordering pads keeps your drawn pattern aligned to each pad; a newly added pad starts blank. In every other mode, changing the pads re-derives the grid for that mode without leaving the mode.
Clock Sync
The Clock Sync selector, in the settings panel above Output, sets where the Metro gets its clock:
| Setting | Behavior |
|---|---|
| global | Follow the session's tempo. Three buttons under the selector choose how much to follow (see below). |
| local | Run the Metro's own clock at its own tempo, with no outside sync. |
| midi | Follow an external MIDI clock (start/stop and tempo). Choose the bus under Bus; none accepts clock from any MIDI bus. In the plugin, Bus also offers host to follow your DAW, and none accepts the DAW's clock too. |
With global, the three buttons choose how much of the global tempo the Metro follows:
| Button | Follows |
|---|---|
| start | Start/stop only. The Metro keeps its own tempo and meter. |
| tempo | Start/stop and the global tempo. The Metro keeps its own beats and subdivision. |
| meter | Start/stop, tempo, beats, and subdivision. This is the default. |
The controls the clock owns are outlined and greyed out, with a tag naming the owner: a purple Global tag or a white MIDI tag. The outlined values still update live as the clock changes them. To edit them on the Metro itself, change Clock Sync.
- global / start
- global / tempo
- global / meter
- midi
Following the global tempo
- A new Metro starts on global / meter.
- Metros in sessions and presets from before 2.8 open on local (or midi, if they followed a MIDI clock), so they keep playing the way they were built. Switch any of them to global to bring them under the session tempo.
- A Metro on global ignores its own saved On/Off state when a session loads or a set is selected. It comes up stopped and starts when you start the tempo bar.
- Switching Clock Sync to global or midi hands start and stop to that clock. A Metro that was running on its own stops, then comes in with the global tempo if it's running, or waits for the next MIDI start.
- Picking a preset follows the same rule. A preset on global or midi leaves alone whatever its clock owns, so choosing a new preset while the tempo is running neither stops the Metro nor pulls it off the global tempo.
Switching sets
Switching sets doesn't restart a Metro on global / tempo or global / meter. It lines up with the running clock and comes in where the beat already is, on the right bar of a multi-bar pattern. On global / start the Metro has its own tempo, so there's no shared beat to line up with and it restarts from beat 1. To make a set always start the clock from beat 1, use Restart clock on select — see Tempo.
When you switch away from a set, every Metro in it stops, whatever the set's cutoff mode. It stays silent until you select the set again: its own clock doesn't tick, and it ignores the global tempo and MIDI clock. The cutoff mode only decides what happens to the sounds the Metro was triggering.
Stopping
A stop — the Metro's own stop button, the Global Stop button, or a choke — halts the Metro's clock in every Control Mode and with every clock source, and passes the stop on to its pads. A Metro on global starts again with the tempo bar; one on midi waits for the next MIDI start.
Input (Control Mode & Block hits)
The Metro can also react to incoming hits, not just its own clock.
Control Mode — how an incoming hit affects the Metro's clock:
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| None | Hits don't affect the clock. |
| Start | The first hit starts the clock; later hits pass through. |
| Restart | Every hit restarts the clock from the downbeat. |
| Toggle | Each hit toggles the clock on/off. |
Block hits — the button to the right of Control Mode. It lights up blue when on, which is the default. Incoming hits still drive the clock (and any assignments and modulators), but they don't reach the pads. Turn it off to let your hits play the pads as well. The Metro's own clock always plays the pads either way.
While the Metro follows the global tempo or a MIDI clock, Control Mode is greyed out: that clock owns start and stop.
Block hits only applies to the Metro. Every module, the Metro included, also has a Block all input button in its header, which blocks hits from reaching the module at all. See Block all input.
The quickest click is the built-in metronome on the tempo bar. It plays only to your monitoring outputs, with no setup.
For a click with your own sounds or patterns, use a Metro. Start from the Classic Click preset, or drop in your own samples, then turn on the Monitor Mix button in the header row. This sends the Metro layer to any outputs with Monitor Mix enabled and keeps it out of the Main Mix.
If you're looking for a good sample to use as a click sound, check out the cross-stick from the Sol Seco kit. You can find it in the library under:
Percussion Section > Detailed > Sol Seco > muted brass snare > cross stick > muted brass snare_cross-stick_v3-1
