Riding with music: Any attempt to sync cadence with beat or vice versa?

[Jeremy McCreary]

Tap BPM Finder is the android app I downloaded yesterday after I got frustrated at the wildly divergent BPMs various websites listed when I tried to check the songs that came to mind. Free, no ads, keeps a running average as long as you tap, doesnt use any data.

The tempo app of my dreams! All I need for this project and nothing more.

Like you, I've found it best to tap out my own tempos. You really can't count on Song X being the cadence claimed online.

I can think of technical reasons why that might be common, but what matters in the end is the pulse — the tempo you tap out for yourself without thinking about it. Rare for a tune to have an ambiguous or multiple pulse.

I think we have fairly different musical tastes so I probably won't be much help.

Au contraire! Building the cycling playlist I'm after will clearly be a long, slow process. That app's gonna be a very important screening tool.

I'm pretty much in the same gen as @mschwett . Sad, but true - my senior class song was on his list (no, not Sad but True. I grew up in mullet-land so Def Leppard's hit was our anthem!).

I'm guessing ska is not your thing, but I bet a lot are around 170-180bpm and are at least nominally 'groovy' . Sound System by Op Ivy comes to mind.

Thanks! Promising tune. Put it on the cycling playlist for testing in the saddle.

Yes, musical taste seems to have a huge impact on the number of tunes making the final cut for a given cadence or walking pace. With my tastes, no end to the ~120 bpm material perfect for synchronous walking at ~120 ♧steps/min.

And I think this would be true for many different musical tastes. Seems 120 a minute is a magic rate in both auditory processing and the physical act of walking.

Very different story for cycling at 80-100 rpm.