Acoustic demo and a metronome?

S

stratmansblues

New member
I finally got my recording gear together and ready to go. I am now wondering if I should record an acoustic guitar and a voice with or without a metronome? Not looking to add drums or any other instrumentation to these tracks. I know if I record the guitar first to a click and record the voice I will have a cleaner recording with better isolation. I am basically recording a few cover tunes that I do with my solo acoustic show to have a demo for potential venues. I have a few condenser mics where I could record guitar and voice together or individually. Thanks in advance.
 
To me people have got way too anal about tempo needing to be consistent. It doesn't need to be. It just needs to flow and not have hiccups.

Generally, if you can't play it without hiccups without a click then adding a click won't make them go away.

If you go back in history, most great songs are faster at the end than at the start. So I'd try it without and not get stuck on if it's perfect time-wise and more look at the big picture.

But if it works better with a click, use one, it really doesn't matter in the end if it feels ok.
 
If it's to get gigs with, why don't you record them together, doing exactly what you'd do on stage? Or record your live shows as a matter of course. That would be the most accurate and honest representation of what you are selling.

Back when I was gigging full time, I got the best responses from cassette tapes straight off the board from the previous weekend's gig. They weren't pretty mixes, or particularly balanced mixes, but the ability to tell the club owner, "here's exactly what you're getting" seemed to be more appreciated than a pretty sounding demo.

Remember, it's for someone who wants to sell drinks and food, not a bunch of audio critics. If you can demonstrate good crowd interaction, and even the fact that there's a good crowd, that's a huge bonus. They really don't care if you're the hottest recording engineer, mixing engineer or producer, or even the best musician out there. They care about the bottom line. How will you positively influence sales?
 
If you're recording just guitar and voice and you want to show venue managers what you can do and what they're going to be getting, I would say absolutely don't go near the metronome. Don't even think about it. Play and record your songs as they are. I'm by no means against clicks but I do think that sometimes there's just too much stock put by them. And especially in your scenario, unless your timing is really wayward. But, well, you know what I'm going to say next...........so I won't say it !
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top