Metronome Light

Command Location: View Menu / Metronome Light

The Metronome Light flashes in time with each beat of the music to give you a visual representation of the time signature of the piece.  The Accented Beat will flash in a different color to the normal beat, and the default settings are dark blue for the Accented Beat and pale blue for the Normal Beat.  The color settings may be changed using the Program Colors tab of Program Options, and the length of time that the colors are displayed for on each beat can be changed in the Metronome tab of Setup, Program Options.

The Metronome Light also displays the beat count to help with counting and rhythm exercises.

The Metronome Light is turned on by default and works independently from the Metronome audio. The sound and light of the metronome are independent so that you can use either one at a time, or both as you choose. If you do not wish to use the Metronome Light simply hide it using the Show/Hide command.

The Dock/Undock command allows you to choose between having the Metronome Light floating on the screen or docked in a position of your choice. If the Metronome Light is floating on the page, it can be moved to any part of the screen with a simple click anywhere on the Metronome Light and by dragging it to the required location. The Metronome Light can also be resized by clicking on and dragging any of its edges (MidiIllustrator will automatically ensure that the size of the Metronome Light will be kept proportional to its original height and width).

As well as being available via the View menu, the Show/Hide and Dock/Undock commands may also be accessed by right clicking on the Metronome Light.

For the most part you will probably want to have the Metronome Light docked on the toolbar or somewhere similar on the page, but sometimes it may be useful to have it floating on the screen. For example, you may be playing along to a piece some distance from the computer screen in which case you may want the Metronome Light floating in the centre of the screen and as large as possible so that you can see it clearly from where you are sitting.