Synch Step

One of the applications that people seem to find most impressive is SynchStep which really is pretty damn cool. This iPod application runs while you are out on a walk, and will select songs that are in synch with the pace of your walking, so that each step you take is on beat with the music! It's like having your own movie sound track.

The application looks like this; pretty simple:




and that's about what you do, just put it in your front pocket, and start walking. Within a few seconds a metronome will tick on beat with your steps, and a song will be chosen from your library that matches - neat!

SynchStep does take a bit of setup though; your songs need to be tagged with a BPM for it to work correctly. Simple, though! Just download a 'made specially for synchstep' version of beaTunes (available on their site), let it analyze your iTunes library for, um, a few hours or so, and you're ready to go! Your own movie soundtrack follows you on your way.

It's a pretty interesting feeling when all of your songs are in step with your stride; I end up walking a bit differently, more smoothly, putting a little effort to keep an even stride. I also use it for some exercise at lunch; I simply take up a pretty upbeat step to get started, and then SynchStep keeps me walking on that beat

If your stride falls out of synch with the pace of music SynchStep is playing, the music slowly fades out. Sometimes it's annoying when I'm trying to get more upbeat music to get a new stride going, and the songs start to fade out as the new song is about to come on, and then bam! I'm accidentally back in my original stride, the same song goes back to full volume, and I'm filled with anxiety; it's kinda weird, like almost sneezing.

The one thing I didn't expect is that when I get used to using SynchStep, when I try to listen to other music normally that isn't in synch with my step, there's more anxiety as I habitually try and match my stride, but am still fighting it. Hmm.

Overall, this app rocks. I think it's pretty interesting that some of my favorite songs in my Library are the ones that match the speed which I typically walk; music is a funny thing.