Stroke Pacer — a free BPM metronome built for edging
Distraction-free pacer with six synthesised sounds, tap-tempo, three visual modes, mobile vibration and an optional voice coach. The BPM auto-syncs to each clip's intensity, or you can lock a manual pace. Browser-only, no signup, no tracking.
What you get
- Six sounds: click, tick, wood, beep, heartbeat, whoosh — all generated in the browser, zero downloads
- Tap-tempo: tap a few times to set the BPM to your music or your own rhythm
- Three visual modes: pulse ring, radial flash, breathing orb
- Mobile haptic feedback on every tick (toggleable)
- Optional voice coach with stroke / edge / rest cues in 7 languages
- BPM auto-syncs to each clip's intensity, or lock a manual pace
- All preferences persisted locally — no account, no server-side data
What is a stroke pacer?
A stroke pacer is a metronome that gives you a visual and audio rhythm to follow during a session. Each beat is one stroke. Most apps that try to do this either lock the feature behind a paywall, force you to sign up, or only ship a static BPM that never changes. Edge takes the opposite approach: the pacer is free, runs entirely in your browser, and the BPM auto-syncs to the *intensity* tag of whatever clip is playing — slow clips run at 45-65 BPM, intense ones push 110-150 BPM.
Six sounds, tap-tempo, voice coach: the full toolkit
The pacer ships with six tick voices synthesised on the fly via the Web Audio API — a sharp click, a metronome tick, a wood-block, a soft beep, a heartbeat lub-dub, and a downward whoosh. There is no MP3 to download because everything is generated locally, so there's zero latency and no extra bandwidth. On top of that you get tap-tempo (tap the button two to six times and the BPM locks to your rhythm — useful if you want to follow a song), an optional voice coach using the Web Speech API that whispers cues like "hold" or "breathe" every 15 to 120 seconds, and mobile haptic feedback on every tick if you enable it.
Pulse, flash, breath: three visual modes
Pick the visual that fits your environment. **Pulse** (default) is a glowing ring that pulses at the BPM, perfect when you keep the phone in view. **Flash** lights up the whole card in a radial gradient at each tick — great for sessions where you want a peripheral signal without staring at the screen. **Breath** swaps the tick visual for a slowly expanding orb behind the timer, tuned to a 4-7 second cycle depending on phase, ideal when you pair the pacer with a breath pattern.
Why use Edge's stroke pacer instead of a generic metronome
A regular metronome doesn't know what you're watching. Edge's pacer is integrated with the reels player: every clip in our library is tagged with an intensity (slow, medium, fast, intense), so the rhythm shifts in real time with the content. You can also override it manually if you want to lock to a specific BPM — useful if you're learning to extend sessions and need to hold a pace for longer than the clip suggests. There's no account creation: open the page, the pacer plus a randomized clip queue are running in seconds.
Privacy and the no-signup promise
Edge does not require an account, does not collect personal information, and stores all of your preferences (BPM, sound, visual mode, vibration, voice) in your browser's local storage — nothing leaves your device. The tool pages themselves stay ad-free; the site is supported by carefully scoped sponsorship slots on the reels feed and the footer, never inside an active session.
How to use a stroke pacer
- Open the reels player
Go to /reels — the pacer pill is anchored at the bottom of the screen, always visible while you scroll clips.
- Pick a sound
Tap the pacer pill to open the settings sheet, then choose one of six tick voices (click, tick, wood, beep, heartbeat, whoosh). Heartbeat works best for trance, click for high-BPM work.
- Set the BPM with tap-tempo
Tap the Tap-tempo button two to six times at the rhythm you want — the pacer locks the BPM to your average interval. Or drag the BPM slider for a manual value.
- Choose a visual mode
Pulse (default ring), Flash (full-card radial gradient), or Breath (slow orb tuned to a 4-7s cycle). Pick what fits the room you're in.
- Enable haptic and voice cues (optional)
On Android, haptic adds a tactile pulse to each tick. The voice coach whispers stroke/edge/rest cues in your language every 15-120 seconds — useful for eyes-closed sessions.
- Start the session
Just scroll. The BPM auto-syncs to each clip's intensity, or stays locked at your manual value. Settings persist for next time.
Frequently asked questions
Is the stroke pacer really free?+
Yes. The pacer, the six sounds, tap-tempo, the voice coach, haptic feedback, the visual modes, the reels player and the BPM controls are 100% free with no signup. Some optional features (custom sound upload, edge ladders, cross-device sync) may become premium in the future, but the core pacer will stay free.
Does the haptic feedback work on iPhone?+
The Vibration API used for haptic ticks is supported on Android browsers and recent Chrome on iOS. iOS Safari currently ignores it. If you're on iPhone, leave haptic off and rely on the audio + visual cues instead.
How does tap-tempo work?+
Tap the Tap-tempo button two to six times at the rhythm you want. The pacer calculates a rolling average of the intervals between taps and locks the BPM to that. If your auto-sync was on, it switches to manual lock so the BPM doesn't get overridden by the next clip.
Can I use the voice coach in my language?+
Yes — voice cues are translated into French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Portuguese. The cues are spoken by your device's built-in text-to-speech engine, so the available voices depend on the OS. iOS and modern Android usually ship a high-quality voice per locale.
Does the pacer work on mobile?+
Yes — Edge is a responsive web app. The pacer runs equally well on iOS Safari, Android Chrome, and desktop browsers. There's no native app to install; just save the page to your home screen for a fullscreen experience.
Can I use the pacer without watching clips?+
Yes. Open the /session page and pick 'Timer only' — you'll get the pacer plus a breathing/edging timer without any video, useful for low-stim training.
What BPM should I start at?+
If you're new to BPM-paced edging, start around 60-70 BPM (one stroke per second) and let the auto-intensity nudge you up. Most users settle in the 70-100 BPM range for general sessions and push 110-140 BPM for intense edges.
Why intensity-based pacing?+
Pure metronome apps force you to manually crank the BPM up and down to match what's on screen. By tagging every clip with an intensity and binding the pacer to it, you stay in flow instead of fiddling with controls. It's the difference between a metronome and an actual pacing partner.
Is there a stroke pacer app for iOS or Android?+
Edge runs as a Progressive Web App, so you can install it from your browser's "Add to Home Screen" menu and it behaves like a native app — fullscreen, icon on your launcher, offline-friendly cache. We don't ship a separate native binary, mostly because the App Store and Play Store have strict policies against adult content. The PWA experience is identical and you skip the gatekeepers.
Can I sync the pacer to music I'm playing?+
Yes — use tap-tempo. Play your track, tap the pacer button on the beats, and the BPM will lock to whatever you tapped. As long as the song stays close to that tempo, the pacer follows. For DJ mixes that drift in tempo, you'll need to re-tap occasionally.
Does the pacer drain my phone battery?+
No. The tick sounds are tiny Web Audio events and the visual rings are CSS animations — none of it requires significant CPU. The main battery drain on a session is the video playback in /reels, not the pacer.