klick - User Manual

Table of Contents

• Basics
• Command Line Options
• Interactive Mode
• Tempo Map File Format
  • Example Tempo Map
• Click Track Export
• OSC Commands

Basics

klick [options] [bars] [meter] tempo[-tempo2/accel] [pattern]

Plays a simple metronome with the given meter and tempo. To play a 3/4 beat at 120 bpm:

klick 3/4 120

You can also specify a "target" tempo and acceleration rate, to use klick as a speed trainer. To play a 4/4 beat starting at 80 bpm, gradually increasing the tempo by 1 bpm every 10 measures until reaching 120 bpm:

klick 80-120/10

Once the final tempo is reached, klick will continue playing at a constant tempo.

klick [options] -f filename

Loads a tempo map from a file. This allows for more complex setups including meter and tempo changes etc.
See Tempo Map File Format.

klick [options] -i

Runs klick in interactive mode, allowing you to change tempo and meter while klick is running.
The keyboard commands available in this mode are described in Interactive Mode.

klick [options] -j

In this mode, klick gets all tempo information from JACK. Just run a sequencer as JACK transport master, and klick will play a simple metronome pattern in sync with JACK transport.

Command Line Options

-f filename       load tempo map from file
-j                no tempo map, just follow jack transport
-n name           set jack client name
-p port,..        jack port(s) to connect to
-P                automatically connect to hardware ports
-o port           OSC port to listen on
-i                interactive mode
-W filename       export click track to audio file
-r samplerate     sample rate of export (default: 48000)
-s number         use built-in sounds:
                    0: square wave (default)
                    1: sine wave
                    2: noise
                    3: acoustic bell/click
-S file[,file]    load sounds from file(s)
-e                no emphasized beats
-E                emphasized beats only
-v mult[,mult]    adjust playback volume (default: 1.0)
-w mult[,mult]    adjust playback pitch (default: 1.0)
-t                enable jack transport
-T                become transport master (implies -t)
-d seconds        delay before starting playback
-c bars           pre-roll. use -c 0 for 2 beats
-l label          start playback at the given label
-x multiplier     multiply tempo by the given factor
-h                show this help

Interactive Mode

The following keyboard commands are available in interactive mode:

Tempo Map File Format

A tempo map is a plain text file, consisting of an arbitrary number of lines which will be played sequentially. Each line must have the following format:

[label:] bars [meter] tempo [pattern] [volume]

Everything in brackets is optional, and can be omitted to use the default. '#' indicates the start of a comment, empty lines are ignored.

Example Tempo Map

intro:    8 120           # play 8 measures at 120 bpm (4/4)
verse1:   12 120 X.x.     # 12 measures at 120 bpm, playing only the 1st and 3rd beat
          4 120-140 X.x.  # gradually increase tempo to 140 bpm
chorus1:  16 140
bridge:   8 3/4 140 0.5   # change to 3/4 time, reduce volume
          8 3/4 140       # normal volume again
verse2:   12 120          # back to 4/4 (implied)
chorus2:  16 140          # jump to 140 bpm
outro:    6 140
          2 140-80        # ritardando over the last 2 bars

Click Track Export

By default, klick connects to JACK for audio output. To export a click track to an audio file instead, use the -W parameter to specify an output filename. The file type is determined by extension, supported formats are WAV, AIFF, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis (with libsndfile >= 1.0.18).
The -r parameter can be used to set the sample rate of the exported audio, default is 48000 Hz.

OSC Commands

klick understands the following OSC messages: