Recording without the click

MikeConde

New member
Ive been demoing some songs via 1 mic in cubase ..ive gotten some great performances.heres my issue. if i want to put midi drums or keys to that performance.. im having trouble working out the tempo map in cubase. its not synching up very well.. or im not doing it right..

i have cubase 7 and ive used the tempo detection as well as set tempo from tap via midi.. im not getting the results id like.. so if anyone has any thoughts or ideas it would greatly be appreciated
 
The easiest way is to play it to a click in the first place. Then you know what tempo it is and that it stays in tempo the whole time.

Since it is too late for that, you are going to have to hand place each beat on the grid.

Or, look up hitpoints and use elastic audio to bring the performance to the grid so the drum machine will sync with it.
 
See the sticky on the topic HERE. You are in for some time doing it, but it is possible.

Well, maybe. Depends on how off the recordings are.


This is a video series that one of the members here put together for me because I asked and wished for a tutorial. Great guy!
 
What they ^^^ said! Chances are your timing fluctuated the entire time you were playing, so you would need to go back and place beat marks to match up with your variations.
Much easier to start afresh, use a click track and re-record your demo tracks.
 
I recorded a song, or songs rather, without a click. I wanted to fix some timing issues. I use cubase le by the way. Farview and jimmys69 explained how to cut and move a small passage like a guitar strum or a bass guitar note..or drum beats.
So, since it was going to be complicated to create a grid after the fact I decided to try this...
I set up a mic and recorded me hitting a snare drum on every down beat of the song. The first take had timing issues of its own lol. I did it again and really concentrated on keeping perfect time.
That take was pretty damn good. Then I drug the solo snare "click" track next to each of my recorded tracks one by one and using the scrub feature visually lined everything up.
The result was very good. I fixed my timing issues and it was a pretty simple process.
Not to hijack the thread but thanks Farview and jimmys69.
 
I know Ableton does this by default. Detects the peaks and lets you "fix" the issues. However, if the tracks are really off, fixing it really starts to sound pretty bad.

Drum tracks, usually pretty easy (or at least sounds OK) as they usually have quick attack and release. Sustained instruments don't do as well as you line up the attack to hit on the mark, but the sustain has to be stretched between the two attacks and that is where is starts to sound funky, and not is a good way. Unless you like that funky music white boy.
 
That snare on the downbeat idea is awesome! But so much better to just record with a click. Takes too many hours to go beat by beat and if there is any kind of sustain that adds hours too and sounds funny. Tempo mapping doesn't work to well with free time songs because many people don't really play on time and the program gives the avg. tempo but when lined up most of the notes are off the mark to varying degrees. IMO the fastest and best sound quality way is to re-record with a click.
 
Build your MIDI drum track first, then play to it. That's what we did when we had to use looped drums. Use your demo as a guide to tempo and arrangement, then re-track your real instruments to the MIDI drums.
 
Build your MIDI drum track first, then play to it. That's what we did when we had to use looped drums. Use your demo as a guide to tempo and arrangement, then re-track your real instruments to the MIDI drums.
Wouldn't it be easier to record the real instruments to start with using a click track?
 
Wouldn't it be easier to record the real instruments to start with using a click track?

I think people play better to a drum track than to a click. You can use the original no-click recording as a guide to tempo and arrangement.

If I'm recording a full band with click I'll start with drums. Only the drummer ever gets click in his mix. Everyone else can track to the drums without having to hear click.
 
I think people play better to a drum track than to a click. You can use the original no-click recording as a guide to tempo and arrangement.

If I'm recording a full band with click I'll start with drums. Only the drummer ever gets click in his mix. Everyone else can track to the drums without having to hear click.

Oh ok. I totally agree with that. I always record drums along with a scratch track of a room mic picking up either guitar and vocals or bass and vocals (depending on the tune)..that gives the drummer his cues for dynamics and where in the song arangement he is at any given point. I scrap the room mic track and then overdub the other instruments.
I was talking about using a click on the initial drum/room mic tracks only.
I thought you were talking about doing midi instruments on the entire song and then replacing the with real instruments one by one. I misunderstood what you were talking about.
 
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