Soundbrenner Pulse Wearable Metronome Review

The Soundbrenner Pulse is the world’s first wearable metronome, sending both strong vibrations (the ‘pulse’) as well as using more traditional audio and visuals cues to set the tempo for the user. 

The product itself looks classy; more like a high-end smart watch instead of a traditional metronome. Whilst made of hard plastic, the Pulse feels like it is manufactured to a very high standard and designed to survive the rigours of use at home or on a gig.

The Pulse is charged via the circular magnetic charging station which is powered by the provided micro USB cable. When fully charged the metronome will offer around 8 hours of constant use. The box also contains two rubber straps of different lengths that allow for the wearer to place it on their wrist, around their arm or their ankle of they so desire. 

The Pulse can be used as a stand-alone metronome if so desired, but the associated app adds a lot more functionality to the unit. To turn it on you touch the face with two fingers for a few seconds and with a double-tap a basic 4/4 rhythm starts up. The outer wheel is turned to increase or decrease the tempo, or can be set by tapping on the face of the Pulse three or more times to what you need. While this is good, the aforementioned app, called The Metronome and available for both iOS and Android, unlocks so much more.

Communication between the Pulse and app is established via Bluetooth. Up to five units can be controlled from the app, so conceivably every member of the band could wear one. Within the app you can customise the Pulse by varying the level off physical vibrations, colour of the lights or to turn them off, and time signatures. You can also create and save set lists in the app’s library, which makes it very useable for live playing.

In all it is a great concept and opens up so many possibilities for use in both practice and performance. It does take some getting used to. When playing along with the Pulse I found that it was easy to lose the sensation of the vibration with the unit set to silence. I am very accustomed to playing to a click and missed the sound of that. But after 20 or 30 minutes I had found the Pulse to be an excellent time keeping tool.