The B-Keeper (Beat Keeper) software developed by Dr Andrew Robertson at Queen Mary University isn’t just an academic project. This sophisticated form of the click track which drummers use to keep time came out of his love of music. ‘I was doing a lot of music stuff in London,’ says Robertson. ‘I do a lot of guitar playing in bands and I did a course at King’s College on neural networks, and that led to the group here at Queen Mary University, University of London, which houses the Centre for Digital Music.’ The backing track Robertson’s band had been using sounded a little soulless. The problem with the conventional click track is that it doesn’t allow for any variation in speed or spontaneity when using pre-programmed music.face ‘It didn’t feel like a proper gig, and I thought “Well, surely it could just follow us?”opinion That seemed to be a research question.’