Mechanical vs. Electronic Metronomes

[catalan]

Hello everyone,

   First post on this new board.

   I'd like to know if the BPM for all metronomes are equal? (Like universal SI measurements)

   I have a mechanic metronome and I am supposed to practice a 3/4 piece at (quarter note) 52 BPM. However, my piano teacher's electric metronome's 52 BPM is significantly faster than my mechanical 52 BPM.

Thanks for your attention.

[rappy]

52 BPM means 52 Beats per minute so if a metronome is faster or slower than that it must be a technical issue.

[Greta]

Those mechanical metronomes you have to make sure to keep wound up, or they will start to go slower. Hehe, they can be tricky to practice with, I think they gradually start to go slower after on only a few minutes of being on. 

That said, I have both, and for piano, I love the my old-fashioned brown Taktell, that resonant tick-tock is more comforting, and it to me it cuts through the sound of the piano better than my credit-card sized one. But for solo woodwinds, I like to use the little one.

[jochanaan]

It's most important that a metronome tick evenly.  I used to have an old Seth Thomas wind-up that, unfortunately, was a little like the clock in Leroy Anderson's "The Syncopated Clock." I now have a cheapo electronic metronome that works well enough.

But what would be really nice is to have a metronome that could count out a five-beat measure, or a seven or eleven! (I know they probably make them, but my budget is so extremely limited I just have to make do for the moment.)

[Michel Parent]

In my experience, electronic metronomes are more precise and even, but you have to be careful to select one that sounds loud enough. I find the "bip" of most cheap ones quickly irritating, whereas the "tak" of a mechanical metronome is much more pleasing to the ear. Then again, a quality electronic metronome should go "clock" or something like that.

[BachQ]

Welcome to the forum, catalan .......