How CLOCKstep:MULTI Flips the Script on Sync
For as long as there have been clicks and sequencers, musicians have had to adapt to the machine. The grid was the law. The only choice was to obey.
But music doesn’t always work like that. It breathes. It leans forward, pulls back, and finds life in the tension between precision and feel.
The Follow Beat feature in CLOCKstep:MULTI re-frames that relationship. It lets your groove become the influence on machine timing.
How it Works
Follow Beat continuously measures the space between any hit interval, using either MIDI triggers or audio inputs to listen to the drums, and interprets that data as tempo.
It's not like using a basic Envelope Follower. There's no need to change your playing style or rely on planned patterns. You won't throw the mechanics off because you missed a "necessary" beat.
Follow Beat tracks your musical intent. It senses the flow of your performance, even when you improvise, blending immediacy with stability.
Short-term micro-adjustments keep the feel tight and the continuity strong; longer-term analysis captures natural tempo shifts across phrases.
It's Not Tap Tempo
If you’ve ever tried to ride a traditional Tap Tempo system mid-song, you know how fragile that relationship can be.
By the time a system averages your taps over three or four beats, the moment you were trying to catch has already passed.
Follow Beat works on another level. It's always listening, analyzing and adapting. It's an algorithm that knows the difference between an 8th Note and an 8th Note Triplet as you play them, any time you play them. It's not bound to tapping Quarter Note intervals or the latency that Tap Tempo is known for.
Why It Matters
You can lead the performance again. Pushing, pulling, or drifting naturally without the constant concern of falling out of sync.
Follow Beat isn’t about turning performances into computed perfection. It’s about rediscovering that perfect imperfection and having permission for timing to breathe again.
For anyone who’s spent years obeying the click, this is the moment when the click finally listens to you.
Learn More
Follow Beat is part of the CLOCKstep:MULTI master clock system.
Here's a quick look at a MIDI sequencer following the drummers feel through CLOCKstep:MULTI:
This one is a bit more extreme:
And here is a full introduction of the Follow Beat feature and how it works: