You’re the only one who is rigid in their stance here dude - you are claiming metronomes are the only way to develop a good sense of timing and that comes off as both ridiculous and arrogant - especially considering you can’t seem to understand how we can use drum loops to literally do the exact same thing you suggest.
Delete this thread
Yeah probably the best plan at this point
I wouldn’t buy a metronome in 2025 (TE Tuner app has a solid one though), but I’ve had this since I think middle school and it is kind of nice to just turn the knob and not have to do any other fiddling. Physical buttons also have their charms.
Man, to emphasize the point of why everyone is here:
Nothing else matters. Not which bass/amp/pedal/strap/pick/artist/genre someone thinks is “the best.” Equally irrelevant is a blanket statement positing that a particular method of practice is the most beneficial.
Personally speaking, I admire that you’re trying to help. But what works for you (or me or someone else) might not work for others. After all, players here range from total newbies to intermediates all the way to musicians with a lifetime of experience. Let’s give everyone some grace and credit for independent thought and preferences. Peace.
@Billn is that Bakelite? 
I hope so, I love Bakelite!
We had a radio made from one. Heavier than a black hole.
Ok this explains a lot actually.
Check out Module 14, it’s essentially a training exercise to work into practice with a progressive backoff of beat information to train keeping the groove going.
What the rest of us are saying is that the tools you use to get there are immaterial, and it can as easily be done with drum programming, for those of us that prefer it. The important part is picking a tool you will use, and for a lot of us that ain’t gonna be a metronome.
That’s just the burden of being so damn cool
I doubt it, only like 25 years old
Exactly correct. When I started piano lessons in 1959 at the ripe old age of 8, this is what I used: a classic mechanical, wind up metronome.
Today, I have Superior Drummer 3, EZDrummer 3, MODO Drum, and Addictive Drums VIs. I also have NI’s Battery and several other drum VIs. What I’m starting to use now is Cherry Audio’s new release, the KR-55C Drum Machine, a software recreation of the Rhythm 55. It’s my new favorite for practice. 49 € (and worth it!).
Cherry Audio KR-55C Drum Machine
So many great options for drum machine plugins. I just grabbed Geforce’s DMX, and d16’s Drumazon is a great 909. Steven Slate’s is great for realistic analog drums too.
Most DAWs also have solid drum samplers now too, builtin. Sadly Reaper doesn’t have any samples but ReaSample would work with normal sample packs.
You use the tool that you have. The first telephone in my life was a crank phone on a party line. The bakelite, pulse dial phones came later. And you could take out an intruder with one, easy peasy.
Totally. Bakelite just has amazing heft for a plastic - I basically love it.
I have their Oberheim DMX as well. It’s a good one. I like that the Cherry Audio and GForce drum machines (and some of the others) are also available standalone, so you don’t have to load them in a DAW or Gig Performer to use.
I really like some of Cherry’s synths. PS-20 is the best MS-20 I have tried, and Atomika is just outstanding. Dreamsynth is good too.
For Geforce in addition to the DMX I also have OB-1, which is a truly great implementation of the original Oberheim.
Before we go, I think some of the misunderstandings arose because the thread quickly started to compare “apples to oranges”, i.e., two different types of tools and, actually, for (at least) two different jobs.
Yes, the range of tools mentioned can cover a lot of common ground between them, but there are cases where a certain tool just is the best for the job (just like in every other area of life).
E.g., I don’t think I would want to train my sense of groove or pocket to a metronome; that just wouldn’t feel right. But, what I think the OP was stressing, was the importance of training your internal metronome and hearing/feeling (not counting!) subdivisions, even when none are provided by any other instrument or click track etc. If this is what you want to practice, a metronome might indeed be the best tool for that. This is especially important for stuff like Tower of Power tunes, but even also for fast(er) Motown lines.
None of the gizmos mentioned can do it all, but some certainly get close to being rhythm’s version of a Swiss Army knife. Choose the tool you feel most comfortable with and that which brings you the results you seek 
Thanks Joerg! I am going to have to slightly disagree though. There is nothing that a metronome can do that you cannot do with a drum machine, either by direct usage through its interface or by MIDI sequencing of it, both of which are primary use cases for drum machines, with the latter outweighing the former for a lot of work.
I agree completely with the core suggestion you are making though, pick the best tool you like for you.
Yes, I totally understand where you’re coming from, and this seems to have become the focus of the thread (looking in from the outside, as a late-to-the-party crasher)
I could provide a few “arguments” (like convenience/no programming, having functions where bpm increases stepwise after x bars, etc.), but they would all be fairly “weak” and, anyway, beside the point.
I think the originally described exercise (essentially: going to slower and slower bpms and filling in the gaps by utilizing an internal metronome and staying in sync to the external “time keeper”) is an essential exercise to look into. Whether one does it using an old-fashioned metronome, a newer metronome app, a drum loop or a drum machine and so on, is probably secondary.
Personally I like to use the metronome over the drum machine I have. Why? Because for the purpose I need it for, it’s more suited. Is it mind numbingly boring to listen to the click? Yes it is.
Now, I’m doing several exercises (chromatic work, spider exercises, fretting hand exercises) as a part of my warmup routine and for me I need as little distraction as possible to get into the mindset that works for me. There the metronome is perfect; it’s boring and forces me (again personal preference) to focus very hard on my exercises.
That’s why I use a metronome for that. Do I use a drum machine for other things, sure do, it’s a fantastic tool that is great for developing timing and gives you an immense feeling of freedom that you won’t have in a live setting. Can both help you develop timing, yes absolutely. For me, both have their worth.
