Musical Time is an interactive laboratory for hearing how pulse becomes metre, syncopation, polyrhythm and phase. It simplifies some musical details so the underlying relationships remain visible.
Start the pulse, move through the guided sections, then combine the controls in the Laboratory. Headphones can make layered rhythms easier to separate.
The visualisations show structural relationships, not full musical notation. Real musical performance also depends on articulation, dynamics, microtiming, phrasing and context.
Build a rhythm, one idea at a time. Listen, change something, and watch how the pieces fit.
Follow the steps, or jump to any experiment. No music theory needed.
Step 1 of 7 · Feel the pulse
Press Play. Follow the dot for a few turns, then slow the tempo and tap along.
Before rhythm has a shape, it has a pulse: a regular point of reference moving through time.
Tap the stage, press T, or use the button below on each beat. Early and late land gently around the pulse — no score.
The cycle stays the same length. What changes is how we divide it.
Select markers on the ring to silence or restore individual attacks.
One circle was one pulse. Now we zoom out: one circle becomes a whole bar.
Equal subdivisions can feel different when their accents imply different larger beats. Compare 3/4 and 6/8 on the same grid.
3/4 · 6 eighth-note positions · beat: quarter note
Advanced: keep the eighth-note grid, or keep the labelled main-beat BPM when switching metre.
The grid may be similar. The hierarchy is not.
A metre creates expectations. A rhythm can follow them, lean against them, or avoid them altogether.
The pulse stayed where it was. The rhythm stopped obeying it.
Click ring positions to toggle attacks. Shift+click cycles strength: soft → medium → strong. Or use Edit steps below.
Two rhythms can divide the same span of time differently and still return to the same beginning.
Ratio A:B — outer ring divides the cycle into A equal parts; inner ring into B. Coincidences glow where both strike.
Now begin with two identical rhythms—and let one of them move very slightly faster.
Offset 0° · reunion —
Gradual rhythmic phasing is a general phenomenon — useful in composition, not tied to one work.
Choose one engine mode. Settings are kept when you switch; only the active mode is heard.
Mode: Pattern · 96 BPM
Tempo basis applies when Pattern mode uses a metre. Polyrhythm and Phase use a shared pulse cycle.
Offset 0° · reunion —
Arrow keys move between steps. Space toggles. Plus cycles strength.
Each guided step sets up a focused experiment. The Laboratory carries your current rhythm forward.
Something went wrong initialising the instrument.