Contents
GTick is a metronome application written for GNU/Linux and other UN*X-like
operting systems supporting different meters (Even, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 and more) and
speeds ranging from 10 to 1000 bpm. It utilizes GTK+ and OSS (ALSA compatible). It is part of the GNU Project.
This program has been originally written by Alex Roberts, but since he didn't
have the time to develop and maintain it further, I (Roland Reichwein) took it
over (initially to package it for Debian, but there were too many "upstream"
issues, so I decided to maintain the whole package). Since then, the program
has been mainly rewritten (new DSP core, GTK+2 port, added features).
- 2020-05-17: gtick-0.5.5 release: Fixed build on GCC 10, Updated Translations
- 2014-07-27: gtick-0.5.4 release: Added Hungarian translation, desktop file location bugfix
- 2014-06-22: gtick-0.5.3 release: Translation updates, Build infrastructure update, API adjustments to new libraries
Have a first look at GTick with the screen shots. First, GTick in the most simple GUI mode:
GTick full flavored:
- Very easy handling
- Reliable timing
- Volume control
- Different meters (Even, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, more)
- Configurable speed (10 to 1000 BPM)
- Manual tapping input
- Customizable ticking sound
- Native language support for 20 languages: Afrikaans, Basque, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Irish, Italian, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese
- Separate audio thread for better realtime performance
- Customizable commands for metronome start / stop, e.g. for switching off the screensaver
- Options saved to rc file
- Customizable sound device
- Visual Tick
- Accent Attack Padding
- Configurable Accent Table
This software is delivered in different forms:
Please note that the Debian and Red Hat packages are sometimes a bit out of date.
After downloading the source tarball, just unpack it, build (compile) the executable and run it:
tar xfvz gtick-X.X.X.tar.gz
cd gtick-X.X.X
./configure
make
make install
gtick
(Further documentation is included in the tarball.)
This program is
Free Software
and is covered by the
GPL (GNU General Public License, Version 3).
Please read this little FAQ and have a look at the Mailing List Archives before reporting bugs. Be prepared that I can't answer questions appeating over and over again.
Q: How do I report a bug?
After reading this FAQ, please write me an email containing:
- A description of the bug so that I can reproduce it
- A debug output from the program, created with:
$ gtick --debug
- The kernel version number (and possibly the list of applied patches, if appropriate), e.g. 2.4.20
- The architecture you are running the program on, e.g. i386
- The name and driver of your sound card. Which audio driver suite do you use? Kernel-OSS? OSS? ALSA? Kernel-2.6-ALSA?
- The GTK+ version number working on your system
Q: Sound doesn't work, what can I do?
Some ideas:
- Make sure /dev/dsp* (e.g. /dev/dsp0) exists and GTick is configured to use it
- Set the following volume controls to a high value: Master and PCM in your Mixer (e.g. gnome-alsamixer), and also the volume control in GTick. Don't forget to connect and switch on your speakers
- Try another sound application that uses OSS (supported by ALSA in compatibility layer) to make sure your sound subsystem works
- Try using the stock kernel that was shipped with your OS, in contrast to a self compiled one
- Try using it with Debian (as I did when testing)
- On Debian like (including Ubuntu) Systems, you can emulate OSS with ALSA by installing the package alsa-oss and running gtick with e.g.:
$ aoss gtick
- Try on another machine, maybe the sound hardware/driver is broken
Q: I set volume to 100% but it is still quiet. What can I do?
GTick uses an internal volume control that has its maximum at the Sound
System's current "PCM" and "Master" setting. Try a common mixer application
(e.g. alsamixer, aumix, xmix) and set the "Master" and "PCM" controls
accordingly.
Q: How is the sound generated in GTick?
Sound generation in GTick is done in a separate thread which constantly
produces a continuous audio stream that makes sure the /dev/dsp (OSS) buffer is
filled enough to have a precise, sustainable clicking. Clicks are copied and
resampled from fixed samples. Between the "clicks", zeros are written to the
DSP. This way, the sound device's timer is used as (hopefully precise) single
time reference. The buffer fill routine is just called regularly to fill the
buffer. The timing of the latter doesn't matter much, as long as the buffer is
relatively far from running out of data. For buffer filling, double buffering
with multiple buffers is implemented.
Besides sponsoring :) there are some other ways to contribute to this project.
Here, I've got some points which I definitely can't do
myself in the near future for different reasons. If you like to take one,
please write me an email. Thanks!
- To help translating this program to languages which are still not supported, please register as translator at the Translation Project, http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/HTML/. There, you will get in contact with your local translation team and get support translating whatever famous software you want (including GTick, of course :).
(Alternatively, directly send in your translation file if you really don't want to become involved with the TP and the FSF but nevertheless want to contribute to GTick.)
- Design / enhancement / maintenance of this website
Any suggestions, comments and bug reports (which are highly appreciated) go to the GTick mailing list gtick-devel@gnu.org.
For discussion and announcements, you can subscribe to the list. You can also browse the Mailing List Archives.
If this fails or for non-public discussion, contact the maintainer directly: Roland Reichwein <rr at antcom.de>.
Created by rr at antcom.de
