NOMN

The metronome is a nineteenth-century machine, not far from a wind-up toy, that we still hand to children as the authority on time over their own bodies. Johann Maelzel patented his design in London in December 1815, and his early London advertisements promised that it would “render the pupil a steady timeist.” A child who drifts from the click is corrected toward the machine, and the correction runs one way, since the machine cannot hear the child.

The two ears compare the arrival of a sound to about ten microseconds. Rendered as tempo, that is six million beats per minute. A metronome tops out around two hundred and forty, subject to the jitter of a spring or low-grade quartz. We ask children to treat this instrument as the measure of their timing, while the organ they bring to the lesson resolves time far more finely than the instrument can represent it. A student who learns that the click is right also learns that every other timing they produce is a fault, including the timing of speech, breath and dance, none of which repeats.

The NOMN Metronome is a hardware metronome that places clicks at the resolution of the body: 10 µs accuracy and it does not repeat.

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## How It Works

At Juiciness zero it plays a straight click. As Juiciness rises, each click moves off the grid under a generative model of organic temporal behavior derived from eighty spoken languages. The model runs on the device, with no phone or computer. Its timing is structured, follows no loop, and appears on the display against the grid as each click sounds. The timing engine is patent pending in Japan.

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## Parameters

Five wheels set the controls. The neural model runs live and generates the timing of each click, and the wheels steer it. Hold a wheel and turn it for fine adjustment.

- Tempo: 40 to 240 BPM, shown to 0.001 BPM.
- Subdivisions: 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16.
- Juiciness: How much of the model’s deviation reaches the click.
- Push: Steers the live model toward playing ahead of or behind the grid.
- Looseness: Steers how freely the live model’s timing moves.
- Volume: Output level.

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## Features & Formats

- Custom Clicks: Design your own clicks with FOAM’s bubble synthesis in a web interface and send them to the metronome.
- Display: 256 x 64 white OLED.
- Beat Light: Blinks with the beat. Touch it to power on.
- Audio: Built-in speaker and 3.5 mm headphone output.
- MIDI Clock: 3.5 mm TRS MIDI out (Type A). Standard MIDI at 31.25 kbaud, with 24 pulses per quarter note and start/stop messages.
- Analog Clock: The same jack sends a 0 to 3.3 V pulse on each click or subdivision, and is safe with mono cables.
- Power: 2 x AA batteries or USB-C.
- Placement: Sits flat on a desk or upright on a music stand.