This program uses the MIDI protocol, so it is a good idea to to have some basic notions about MIDI in order to fully understand the concepts behind it. You can find here a good introduction: What is MIDI.

Drumstick Metronome produces MIDI events. If you want to hear the events translated into sounds you need to connect the MIDI OUT port from this program to the MIDI IN port of a MIDI synthesizer. It can be either a hardware MIDI synthesizer or a software one. If it is an external hardware synthesizer, you also need an ALSA supported MIDI interface installed in your computer, and a MIDI cable attached to both the computer's MIDI interface, and the synthesizer MIDI IN socket.

If you don't have an external MIDI synthesizer, you can still use the program with a MIDI software synthesizer supporting ALSA sequencer connections, like QSynth. Start your software synthesizer before Drumstick Metronome, and then make the connection between the two programs, either on Drumstick Metronome's configuration dialog or using an external connection manager like QJackCtl. Don't forget to install a good Sound Font into QSynth's "Setup..." dialog.

Drumstick Metronome has limited session management capabilities. It can remember one connection for the ALSA output port, and one connection for its input port. Connections are stored when the program exits and remembered at start-up. You don't need this feature if you prefer to make such connections by hand, using aconnect or any other equivalent utility, or if you use an external session manager like the patch-bay included in the program QJackCtl.

Drumstick Metronome uses an instrument definition file in .INS format, the same format as Qtractor, TSE3, Cakewalk and Sonar. The Output instrument drop-down list allows to choose one among the standard General MIDI, Roland GS and Yamaha XG drum maps. You can add more definitions creating a file named "drums.ins" at "$HOME/.local/share/net.sourceforge.kmetronome/Drumstick Metronome". The contents of Bank, Program, Weak and Strong note drop-down lists also depend on this definition.

Channel number is usually 10, meaning the percussion channel of a MIDI synthesizer. It must be a number between 1 and 16.

Resolution is the number of ticks (time units) for each quarter note. Value range from 48 to 960.

Note duration is the length (in number of ticks) of the time span between a NOTE ON and its corresponding NOTE OFF event. This control is enabled only when Send NOTE OFF events is also enabled. Very low values can cause muted clicks on some synthesizers.

Percussion sounds usually don't need NOTE OFF events to be sent after every NOTE ON. Select the Send NOTE OFF events check-box only if your synthesizer or instrument supports or requires this setting.

Bank and Program is used to change the drum set for instruments supporting several settings. Many synthesizers don't understand program changes for the percussion channel.

In Automatic pattern mode, Strong note is played as the first beat in every measure, while any other beat in the same measure is played using the Weak note. The numeric values 33 and 34 are the GM2 and XG sounds for metronome click and metronome bell.

Using this dialog box you may edit, test and select patterns. To create new patterns, you simply save the current definition under a new name. Patterns are represented by a table. The rows in the table correspond to the percussion sounds. You can remove and add rows from a list of sounds defined by the instrument settings in the configuration dialog. The number of columns in the table determine the length of the pattern, between 1 and 99 elements of any beat length.

Each table cell accepts values between N=1 and 9, corresponding to the MIDI velocity (N*127/9) of the notes, or 0 to cancel the sound. Valid values are also f (=forte) and p (=piano) corresponding to variable velocities defined by the rotary knobs (Strong/Weak) in the main window. The cell values can be selected and modified using either the keyboard or the mouse. There is no need to stop the playback before modifying the cells.

Drumstick Metronome understands some Universal System Exclusive messages. Because the device ID is not yet implemented, all the recogniced messages must be marked as broadcast (0x7F).

MTC Message: Time Signature Change Message

Format: 0xF0 0x7F 0x7F 0x03 Command Length Numerator Denominator ... 0xF7
                            0x02: TS change 
                            0x42: TS change 

Notes: both commands affect only the next scheduled patterns after receiving the command. Length is at least 2. Extra bytes following Numerator and Denominator are ignored.

MMC Messages

Format: 0xF0 0x7F 0x7F 0x06 Command 0xF7
                            0x01: Stop
                            0x02: Play
                            0x03: Deferred Play

You can use a MIDI device generating MIDI System Realtime messages to control Drumstick Metronome. System Realtime messages accepted are: Start (0xFA), Stop (0xFC) and Continue (0xFB).

Many master MIDI keyboards and MIDI buttons devices provide those three MIDI transport controls. You need to connect your external MIDI devices to the computer using MIDI (or USB) cables, and connect the corresponding ALSA port to the input port of Drumstick Metronome. This connection must be done by hand, or using a session management software like QJackCtl.