Pulse - Metronome & Tap Tempo Reviews

Pulse itself is great. 5 stars on the iPhone. I give it only 1 star however because I think the Apple Watch implementation is a great idea, however when you move your wrist down to play guitar for example, the watch screen shuts off, and the haptics stop, and as a guitar player in a band, it is better to have a quiet haptic metronome when warming up than to have to take out headphones in order to hear the metronome. Pulse addresses this issue by saying to go into your watch settings and go to wake screen, but there is no option to keep the watch screen from turning off, only an option to keep it from turning on when your raise your watch. This may be a development limitation, and maybe Apple needs to make a way to keep the watch screen from going dark when using a certain app, but nonetheless Pulse advertises that it can give you haptic feedback to give you your tempo, and it delivers, however for many instrument players, this feature is useless because many of them lower their wrist to play, thus shutting the screen off and rendering this feature useless. Hopefully there is a workaround eventually, I really like the idea of Pulse , but it needs to fix this critical issue before it is given a full 5 stats from me.

Pulse i good. It’s very simple and the design is nice. I will say that there was a slight hurdle that I had to overcome when I first got Pulse . When I opened Pulse for the first time it asked me what instrument I play. Being the Harpist that I am, I spent a little while scrolling through the list trying to find my instrument. I thought maybe I was missing it. Nope, didn’t miss it. They just don’t have a harp option… so I clicked piano instead. It was a very humbling experience. I’m not saying that this is something super important that the creators should fix immediately, but it would be nice to have the option :)

I don’t use Pulse very often; however, when I do, it is a very nice to use as it has a clean interface. Sometimes I need a metronome to get a beat, after that, I am okay. I like how you can sync a tempo with another device. I also like the countdown when synced with another iPhone (if this could be done even when not synced, it would be great). I do not have an Apple Watch and therefore cannot say anything about that.

ISSUES THAT I HAVE:
When you first open Pulse , you are asked what you will use Pulse for, and what instrument you play. I Don’t mind this, but I don’t understand why it matters. Also if you could change this setting later.
Also haptic feedback does not happen on iPhone 7.

SUGGESTIONS:
If you could set a separate sound for the down and upbeats, that would be nice.

CONCLUSION:
Very good and I would recommend it to someone who wants a metronome. Four not five stars because of the aforementioned issues and some other problems to insignificant to mention here.

I absolutely love the idea - but it sounds like the WatchOS basically makes the watch app completely useless. Seeing as the haptics through the watch is the reason I downloaded, that would be a deal breaker. I say “would” because my watch app wouldn’t even launch properly - just a loading screen imposed on another loading screen that never launches anything.

That being said, the phone app is absolutely beautiful and minimalistic. Definitely raises it up another star just for the sheer ease of use and gorgeous UI.

After reading the other reviews and the Dev’s responses to the critiques about the watch, I totally understand why it doesn’t work, and until the OS changes I don’t think anyone will be able to get a haptic metronome working at full functionally.

i’m a beginner-intermediate guitarist. i know my pentatonics and handful of punk songs. now that you know my skill level, let’s get into the review.

this is perfect. you can set the time signature, the click sound (or haptic if you prefer that), how many clicks per beat, and the color for up- and down-beats separately. it also works seamlessly whether or not you have Pulse open.

i can connect my phone to my amp, start this app, pull up a tab in ultimate guitar, and have the metronome sound coming out of my amp speakers the whole time i’m practicing the song.

also good if you’re trying to figure out something by ear. if you tap your screen in time with the kick drum, this app will set the metronome to that tempo, so once you figure out the notes you have the speed reference w/o hearing the rest of the band.

bottom line: i would absolutely recommend Pulse.

Dev should take the language out of Pulse stating how to make it always stay on with the watch, it’s misleading. Obviously this is false as these options in the steps stated to take to enable, simply do not exist. It seems the developer is aware of this from reading their responses to some reviews.

Apple Watch capability is the only reason I tried Pulse. It works as advertised on the phone. Honestly the haptics are too weak for me to really feel the beat on the watch anyway. I mean it’s there, but you really have to focus on it. The other haptics for notifications seem to be stronger than what you get from Pulse, maybe it’s just me though.

Pulse seems great and it's very useful to have a haptic metronome on my wrist, but the watch version is not working for me! When I open it on my watch, a set of rotating dots appears and then it duplicates; it's like there's two sets of dots rotating and that's it!!! I tried installing it directly from app store on Apple Watch and also installing the iOS version with WatchOS version installing automatically but it didn't work! My Watch is Apple Watch Series 3 running WatchOS 7.0.1. I think it's not compatible with the new WatchOS version; since the last update was a year ago🤔
UPDATE: Got an Apple Watch Series 6 and Pulse still NOT WORKING for me! The same issue! WatchOS 7.2

Pulse keeps a beat just like you need it to and does nothing else. It is simple and intuitive to use as well as easy to look at with no distracting features or ads. For that, i would donate to the company myself. Features that could be nice might include the beethoven metronome presets or alternative sounds. Im fine without them, although occassionally i do require the beethoven presets and must use a different metronome. That being said, i prefer this over any when practicing to a click

I usually don't bother reviewing apps but I just felt so inclined. Pulse is phenomenal. I absolutely love it and have spread it to all my friends who have an Apple Watch. As a music student Pulse is fantastic. Virtually a requirement for any musician who owns an Apple Watch. I sincerely hope to see this app become the gold standard for metronome apps. I use it more than my actual metronome and I greatly appreciate how you can also physically feel the beat as opposed to just hearing it. I can't wait to see how they expand and improve!

I liked this metronome a lot, it's aesthetically pleasing and does what it says it's going to do. I downloaded it because of the "haptic vibrations" feature, however, because a friend of mine has PTSD and is triggered by repetitive sounds, so she can't use a metronome. I was hoping that you could set this to only vibrate on the click instead of just when it starts and then continuing with clicks. Perhaps the developers could add this feature!

The best tools are invisible, and Pulse is no different. If you look at the other metronome apps on Pulse store, you'll quickly be inundated with freemium, bloat, and *shudder* in-app purchases.

Not this one. Pulse features a simple, no-nonsense interface that takes care of all my rhythmic needs. It's fast, frictionless, and free of any mental overhead. Life changing as a musician, I've stopped smoking, curbed my drinking, and started talking to my family again.

A gorgeous metronome that easily lets me set a bpm and just go. No overly confusing interface or weird dials. Just set the speed and go. One suggestion I’d have, however, is due to the only way to change the bpm is through the circle, fine tuning it can be tedious at times. As in from 101 bpm, to 100 bpm for example. A simple ability to tap the right side of the screen to make it go up one and the left to go down instead of setting the tempo through tap would be a nice option available. Incredible app none the less

Great app for a drummer to stay focused on accurate tempos, while practicing techniques. Not just for beginners. The wide range of tempo settings and time signature variety makes this a very useful tool, even for the advanced percussionist.
There was just one small humorous glitch in the questions after opening Pulse . The “bot” asked “what instruments are played?” I had to check vocalist in order to get out of the menu.
Seriously, they did not include percussion as a choice?
Shame on you!

Super sleek and simple. Just what I need and nothing more. We have been suffering with a free metronome app that constantly displayed annoying distracting ads - even popping up with video ads in the middle of my daughter’s lesson- and constantly badgered us to upgrade to their premium service for $9 a week for stuff I didn’t want. How I wish I’d discovered this ap sooner. Thank you, this app!

I love that Pulse is easy to see while playing. I also appreciate the ability to share the tempo with others. My one desire is that there was an easier way to advance songs on the playlist. I play keyboard and to quickly roll to the next song with no break requires quite a bit of movement, long side glances, and a dose of anxiety. If there were an update that allowed for an option to have a single button advance on the tempo screen, that would pretty much make Pulse perfect.

I’ve used the phone version of Pulse for a while, and was delighted to see a haptic-capable watch app.
I purchased my series 6 Apple Watch about a week ago and when I opened Pulse , it showed a loading symbol on a black screen with a second tab at the bottom, and then a second loading symbol showed up, darkening the screen slightly. It remains like this, unchanging, rendering Pulse useless. I would love some help, but I can’t seem to find support or other reports of this issue online...

I professionally play cello, and my analog metronome finally broke (lol I’ve used it for 6 years now), so I got this metronome. In the beginning, it worked perfectly, but not so much for any extremely fast pieces like the Wagner Flying Dutchman Overture. Also, I think there should be some subdivision possible. I would recommend this to any starting musician, but not so much anyone with extremely fast tempos. As a final suggestion, how about an acceleration feature to act for accelerandos?

Pulse is phenominal. Incredibly simple to use- all the options are cleanly and stylishly displayed.

I tried two other metronome apps, and both were complicated as heck. Their menus were in hidden places with useless options, and the only useful option, subdivisions, required an in-app purchase.

this app has subdivisions built in. Pulse is great if you want a metronome with necessary options and no extra confusion.

As several others have commented, the Watch app doesn’t really work. Stops as soon as the screen goes off, and there doesn’t appear to be any way to disable that. Even worse, it’ll start and stop as you turn your wrist, which messes up the tempo and completely defeats the purpose.

Not sure why the dev submitted this as a Watch app. Should probably remove it unless they find a workaround or provide detailed instructions on how to set the Watch not to turn off the screen.

I see this becoming a great metronome, just now it is amazing and really easy to use. However if you try to put in a tempo like say 100 bpm when you lift off your finger it moves to 99 bpm or so. It also isn’t clear on all the features from the beginning, maybe a small tutorial from new users would be great. I use it for percussion and will use it on piano too, works really well!

I really like Pulse. I’m a violinist and i use it almost every day when I practice. One issue though is that when you click the little quarter note though to choose your tempo the is only the choice of a quarter note an eighth note or a sixteenth note. There is no half or dotted half not option ☹️. This is disappointing because many pieces’ are for example : Dotted half note=100 or whatever. But overall very good app!

I got this thinking wow this has some promise as feeling the metronome would be more enjoyable than listening to a tick track or looking for a flashing light. Haptic this app isn't strong enough to feel if your moving around so that kinda defeats the purpose. Also if your wrist turns away it shuts off with the watch, though it continues once the watch is turned to face you again. I attempted to change my watch settings to see if this could be corrected but the asnwer is no. Until those two flaws are corrected Pulse just isn't worth your time.

Pulse is pretty useful for all kinds of musicians. The very customizable tempo helps for doing all sorts of things more easily than with a store bought metronome. I find that it is especially useful for playing fast, metal-oriented solos on guitar. However, if you plan on fine tuning your playing at normal volume and settings, it’s best to use something a bit louder later on.