How is 1/4 time signature said?

LOL.
I see where you're coming from. You're right, but reverse-recording a session where an acoustic solo guy wants a 'band' fabricated can need that.
If there was a real drummer on hand I'd probably work differently; Rehearse, record, love it!
But without that everything has to line up to a grid for me, whether the tempo is static or not.

Of course part of that is down to my musicianship too. I'm not especially good at any instrument so the grid and elastic time really is a safety net for me sometimes.

Probably the least natural way to make music but needs must man.

My process now is to get the singer/player round and capture a live set.
I'll use that as a template to construct a session then bin the original recording.
I end up with percussion/bass/rhythm and have the guy back to record over the top of it.

The benefit is two fold though. The second performance is always a lot more energetic, purely because the guy can hear the built up backing etc.

Sometimes I stick my nose into the arrangements and structures too. The original recording may not necessarily be true to what I create.
Had Pete round playing a 6 minute gentle acoustic song as an album closer. I ended up having this pretty massive build up towards the end with a bit of a tribal sound. It all went a bit Graceland/Lion King! lol.
His second performance is going to be totally different to the original because of that.

I will accept TL/DR as a response. ;)
 
Nah, the second 1 there is note value with reference to BPM.

1/1 would be one semibreve beat per bar, I think.

1/4, 2/4 and 4/4 metronomes will all sound exactly the same apart from the 1st beat emphasis, if the nome has that.,
because they're all a number of quarter beats the same bmp per bar.
I don't get the ref to BPM but I had to look up semibreve- didn't know there were English names for notes too. But the semibreve' turns out to be a whole note so... Beats me.
 
Oh,ok.
What I mean is, set a metronome to 4/4 and set your session at 120.
Click you fingers to the beat. It's two times per second.

If you set that metronome to 3/4, 2/4 or 1/4 and click along it's still two beats per second. but the bars/measures aren't the same length.
A bar = 3,2 or 1 click, but the clicking is still the same pace.
The only thing that chances is the accented click, if your metronome does that.

(OP set it to 1/4 so he hears the same pace of clicks, every click is accented.)

If you set it to 4/2 you'll be clicking once every second and a bar will be four seconds long.
4/1 would be a click every two seconds.....I think.

I hope I didn't make any mistakes there, but that's certainly the idea.
 
Yeah. Sometimes cutting the count in half or doubled is easier to follow.
The last click I devised for a slow song not to drive me nuts had a delay inserted doing a bit of triplet decay in there to take the edge off.
Like was said best just turn off the accent
 
Exactly so.
It's one of my nits with ProTools. You (seem to) have to do what the OP is suggesting to get an unaccented click.
Maybe I'm missing something.

We're not really on this topic anymore, but I felt it good to tell you that the way to do this would be to just insert a meter change in the song. Either go to "Event > Time Operations > Change Meter," or press Option/Alt+[1] (The one on your numeric keypad), and it'll bring up the meter change window. From there, do as you please with your time signatures.
Also, you say later how you can't really configure the click. You can do that in Pro Tools by going to "Setup > Click/Countoff Options," and then routing the output of the click to a plug-in like Kontakt or what have you that has a cowbell patch or something similar on it. =]
 
We're not really on this topic anymore, but I felt it good to tell you that the way to do this would be to just insert a meter change in the song. Either go to "Event > Time Operations > Change Meter," or press Option/Alt+[1] (The one on your numeric keypad), and it'll bring up the meter change window. From there, do as you please with your time signatures.
Also, you say later how you can't really configure the click. You can do that in Pro Tools by going to "Setup > Click/Countoff Options," and then routing the output of the click to a plug-in like Kontakt or what have you that has a cowbell patch or something similar on it. =]

Cheers for the info man.
I know those workarounds but my point is you shouldn't really need workarounds.

It's not a massive deal or anything; I wouldn't have mentioned it if the topic never came up. :p
 
Can you answer the question?

- No. It is a trick question.
:(
Why is it a trick question?

- Watch this.
:p

- Cos Chevy didn't make a 327 in '55. The 327 didn't come out till '62.

..However, if you had a note that is the full value of the measure..
It wouldn't be a quarter' note
 
Really? Well all along all I was trying to say is I don't think '1/4 is a time signature, it just doesn't add up.
If you write a measure that has only one note, and one count..
 

..However, if you had a note that is the full value of the measure..
It wouldn't be a quarter' note

I get what you're saying and I'm trying to get my head around how true it is. I can see how a note that takes up a whole bar can technically be considered a whole note. But I'm wodering if that symbol that we call a "quarter note" (which I wish I had a font for) is called a quarter note no matter what. If there are 3 of them in a bar (3/4), they're still called "quarter notes" even if they each take up one third of the bar. They're not called "third notes" or "one third notes".

Other than that, setting your metronome to 1/4 is one thing. But I can't see how a song can actually be in 1/4. It's the pulse of a song that determines the time signature. We don't just arbitrarilly count up to 3 or 4 and decide that's our time signature. So, if someone has a song that they think is 1/4, as soon as anything rythmic comes in, like a kik/snare beat, it will "change" it 2/4 or 3/4 or 4/4, etc....


Ewe pheel mee?
 
But I'm wodering if that symbol that we call a "quarter note" (which I wish I had a font for) is called a quarter note no matter what. If there are 3 of them in a bar (3/4), they're still called "quarter notes" even if they each take up one third of the bar. They're not called "third notes" or "one third notes".


That's exactly it.
A crotchet is a quarter note. I suppose traditionally it's a quarter of a bar or measure in 4/4. Maybe that's why it's called a quarter note.

Time signatures make sense as fractions though, don't they?
4/4 = four quarter notes = 1

3/4 = three quarter (crotchets) notes. Each bar is 3/4 as long as a bar of 4/4.
4/2 = 4 half notes (minims) per bar. Each bar is twice as long as a bar of 4/4.

1/4 = 1 quarter note per bar. Each bar is a quarter as long as a bar of 4/4.
 
Back
Top