Tala Clock

The problem

A metronome clicks; a tala has structure — claps, waves, finger counts, and a sam that must be felt. Students practising alone lose the cycle, and existing tala apps are single-purpose native apps that stop at counting.

Constraints

• ·Timing must stay precise while a drone, konnakol, and the visual cycle all run together.
• ·Practice modes matter as much as playback: graded tempo ramps and silent cycles are how laya is actually built.
• ·Every configuration should be shareable — a teacher sets it, a student opens the link.
• ·It had to install to the home screen and work with the phone in a pocket.

The approach, in order

1. /01

   Built the clock on a shared, reference-counted audio transport so the tala and the tanpura drone can start and stop independently without fighting.

2. /02

   Modelled each tala as aksharas with kriya types — clap, wave, finger — and gave each its own timbre, with the sam bell on a parallel send so it always cuts through.

3. /03

   Added gati subdivisions (4, 3, 5, 7, 9), graha for phrases that start off sam, tap tempo, and tempo ramps for graded practice.

4. /04

   Layered konnakol syllables from samples with a synthesised fallback, and a Sa–Pa drone tuned to the student’s saved Sa.

5. /05

   Encoded every setting in the URL so a configuration is a link, and persisted the last session locally.

6. /06

   Added alankaram practice sessions and a fullscreen mode for the practice room.

What it does now

A student picks a tala and a gati, sets a ramp, and practises against the structure of the cycle rather than a click — and a teacher can send exactly that setup as a link.