diff --git a/Programs/CosmOS/Apps/Play.asm b/Programs/CosmOS/Apps/Play.asm
index 4dcc871..709d08d 100644
--- a/Programs/CosmOS/Apps/Play.asm
+++ b/Programs/CosmOS/Apps/Play.asm
@@ -133,15 +133,15 @@ playReady:
 
   ; ---- The beat ----
   ;
-  ; 125,000 cycles is a sixteenth note at 120 beats a minute, which is the smallest thing
-  ; this piece divides a beat into. The period goes in before the control byte, because
-  ; writing control with the run bit set is what loads it.
-  INIA 0x01
-  OUTA 0x52
-  INIA 0xE8
-  OUTA 0x53
-  INIA 0x48
-  OUTA 0x54
+  ; ONLY THE CONTROL BYTE. The period was set by whoever supplied the tune, because a tick
+  ; belongs to the tune and not to this program: a file says what it wants in its header.
+  ;
+  ; It used to be written here as well, AFTER useTune had taken it out of the file - so every
+  ; tune played at a sixteenth note at 120 beats a minute whatever its header said. The only
+  ; reason nothing noticed is that the one fixture in the suite asks for exactly that.
+  ;
+  ; Writing control with the run bit set is what loads the period, which is why this comes
+  ; after whoever set it and not before.
   INIA 0x07
   OUTA 0x51                 ; Run, repeat, interrupt.
   SIF
@@ -220,6 +220,15 @@ playNotATune:
 ; three tables the player asks for, and an order list for each voice. Nothing is relocated,
 ; because the assembler already wrote the addresses.
 useBuiltIn:
+  ; The tick this tune wants. For a file it comes out of the header; for this one it is here,
+  ; so that both hand the player the same things.
+  INIA 0x01
+  OUTA 0x52
+  INIA 0xE8
+  OUTA 0x53
+  INIA 0x48
+  OUTA 0x54                 ; 0x01E848 is 125,000: a sixteenth note at 120.
+
   SETD.0 BuiltInPatches
   SETD.1 PatchTable
   STD.0.1
diff --git a/Tests/makedisks.sh b/Tests/makedisks.sh
index a1eb997..5fed4cf 100755
--- a/Tests/makedisks.sh
+++ b/Tests/makedisks.sh
@@ -736,6 +736,13 @@ open(sys.argv[1], "wb").write(blob(128))
 open(sys.argv[2], "wb").write(blob(129))
 FIXTURE
 "$ROOT/TuneC" -I "$WORK" "$ROOT/Programs/Tunes/two.tune.txt" "$WORK/compiled.tune" >/dev/null
+
+# The same tune at half the speed. A TICK BELONGS TO THE TUNE, and the only reason nothing
+# noticed that Play was ignoring it was that every fixture asked for the tick Play happened to
+# have written into itself. One that asks for something else is the whole check.
+sed 's/#Tick 0d125000/#Tick 0d250000/' "$ROOT/Programs/Tunes/two.tune.txt" > "$WORK/slow.tune.txt"
+"$ROOT/TuneC" -I "$WORK" "$WORK/slow.tune.txt" "$WORK/slow.tune" >/dev/null
+"$TOOL" put "$DISKS/quiet.img" "$WORK/slow.tune" slow.tune >/dev/null
 "$ROOT/Assembler" -I "$ROOT/Programs/Sounds" -I "$ROOT/Programs/Libraries" \
     -I "$ROOT/Programs/CosmOS/Source" \
     "$ROOT/Programs/CosmOS/Apps/Play.asm" -o "$WORK/Play.sbx" >/dev/null
diff --git a/Tests/sound.sh b/Tests/sound.sh
index 8aac3a7..cb2f7c6 100755
--- a/Tests/sound.sh
+++ b/Tests/sound.sh
@@ -817,6 +817,28 @@ PY2
             || result no "and a command in it loads a patch from it" "$SECOND hertz, wanted the octave"
     fi
 
+    # ---- A tune's tick is the tune's ----
+    #
+    # slow.tune is two.tune with twice the period and nothing else changed, so it has to last
+    # twice as long. Play used to write its own tick over the one useTune had just taken out
+    # of the header, and every tune played at a sixteenth note at 120 whatever it asked for -
+    # invisible for as long as every fixture asked for exactly that.
+    printf 'Play slow.tune\n\n\nexit\n' > "$BUILD/slow.in"
+    timeout 60 "$EMU" --fast --cycles 8000000 --sound "$BUILD/slow.raw" \
+        --disk "$ROOT/Tests/build/disks/quiet.img" "$BUILD/cosmos.bin" \
+        < "$BUILD/slow.in" > "$BUILD/slow.out" 2>&1
+    SPAN="$(python3 - "$BUILD/slow.raw" <<'PY2'
+import struct, sys
+d = open(sys.argv[1], "rb").read(); n = len(d) // 2
+v = struct.unpack("<%dh" % n, d)
+loud = [i for i, x in enumerate(v) if abs(x) > 500]
+print(loud[-1] - loud[0] if loud else 0)
+PY2
+)"
+    near "$SPAN" 96000 2 \
+        && result ok "a tune's tick is the tune's own" "$SPAN samples, and 8 ticks of 250,000 cycles is 96,000" \
+        || result no "a tune's tick is the tune's own" "$SPAN samples, wanted about 96,000"
+
     # ---- The compiler and the hex editor agree ----
     #
     # TWO IMPLEMENTATIONS OF ONE FORMAT, which is the discipline SplitDisk and sbfs.asm are