Going on the grid is way more interesting when you compose the grid. Click Tracker, João Pais‘ free and open-source click track generation for tons of platforms (even Max and Pd), keeps getting more functionality.
Who is Click Tracker for? You might be a composer, a musician, a conductor – or even a combination. You might just have a complex patch you want to play along with with some precise rhythms. Click Tracker handles sound and now interactive visualizations, complete with external MIDI controller support (like pedals). As João puts it:
Click Tracker is a program designed for composers, conductors and instrumentalists working with modern music. The main goal of the software is to prepare a click track of a score, even when great complexity is involved. It can also be used as a programmable metronome.
Supported platforms:
- macOS (not yet M1 native, but Rosetta 2 will do just fine)
- Windows
- Android (no iOS)
- Pure Data (Pd) patch
- Max patch
Finally, a tool that lets you truck through Ferneyhough. (Google him.)
There’s an extensive tutorial. This is definitely western-focused in terms of how it represents time, though if you ignore the western notation in the tutorial, it’s open-ended enough that you could still represent a lot of rhythmic structures. There are also commands for tempo changes, in case you are worried this would mean you have to play at a fixed tempo (you don’t).
The visual representation itself looks more like a ruler / meterstick / yardstick with vertical lines than it does any particular notation system, so this also means some adaptability. (I’d be interested to hear who this works and doesn’t work for, and why.)
There’s also a growing library of prepared click tracks, including Morton Feldman, Carola Bauckholt, Anne Lebaron, Chaya Czernowin, Elliot Carter, José Manuel López López, and others.
https://jmmmp.github.io/clicktracker/index-library
Download all versions:
https://jmmmp.github.io/clicktracker/