To click-track or not to click-track..

Click track or no click track?

  • Yes, keep it locked on the beat please!

    Votes: 100 73.5%

  • No, use your own time to create live energy!

    Votes: 36 26.5%
  • Total voters
    136
Most stuff to a click. Most people don't have as good a sense of time as they care to admit. (Me included.)

There are exceptions. A one take solo/acoustic piece might have more life if just done as a performance - or if you're tracking the whole band live. Especially a jazz band going for an immediate feel. But if you're going to be assembling an arrangement it's probably smart to start with a click, because any looseness is only going to get looser and looser as you add parts - and probably not in a good way.

The drummer I work with has a great sense of time. He loves using a click. Basically he demands it. I know a few songwriters who have questionable time and they prefer no click. I think that says something right there. I know a few people who don't want to use a click, and I really think it's because their time isn't there and it's more difficult. But people will notice when your time is off, and I unfortunately have a couple of my own recordings to prove it.
 
I've long had a musically sound sense of time. But nothing demonstrated just how wavery it could be like a drum machine. You know, it only needs to be a few miliseconds off.
 
I couldn't imagine tracking without a click?! I've got pretty awesome timing, but I've heard myself without a click...not pretty

plus, it seems like I 'work' less when tracking with a click. notes are more even, attack is more even, no struggling to play 'catch up' when the really fast picking patterns come up. besides, the click seems to disappear when you play it right on time
 
flagstaffcharli said:
I know a few songwriters who have questionable time and they prefer no click. I think that says something right there. I know a few people who don't want to use a click, and I really think it's because their time isn't there and it's more difficult. But people will notice when your time is off, and I unfortunately have a couple of my own recordings to prove it.
Click to expand...

:laughings: I just caught this! why do the people with the WORST timing insist on NOT using a click. mind blowing
 
My timing is decent, but I still prefer not using a click. At least in 90% of all situations.
I think small changes in tempo can provide more dynamics or even "creative accidents" that makes a track really unique.
In my band we got a great drummer and do a lot of four-piece improvisation straight to tape and overdub on top of that. A click would be very misplaced.
If I should ever return to doing polished shoegaze stuff a click wouldn't be that bad.
 
I like all the people that think bad timing and sloppy shit playing creates groove and feel and happy accidents.
 
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Greg_L said:
I like all the people that think bad timing and sloppy shit playing creates groove and feel and happy accidents.
Click to expand...
Funnilly, once in a while it does. But we're talking once in a while like a certain comet that passes by every 86 years !
 
"Dude...you were off-tempo during the second chorus...listen to the playback."

"Mmmmm...you're right, but doesn't it kinda' sounds cool the way everyone "smears" the beat?"

"Ahh....yeah, I guess it's kinda' different.
Let's leave it in, we'll call it a "happy accident" when we do the interview for Rolling Stone magazine!"

"Yeah that's cool!
Why don't we do some backward-tape thing too...we can leave a secret message in-between the vocals."

"WAY COOL idea, dude!!!"



 
I think the simple question is do you want the tempo to vary AT ALL?

Doing the singer-songwriter thing, I find that I like little variations in tempo, and I figure them all out in a song before I go to my DAW anyway. I'm not going to say that click tracks are inorganic, because people who play to click tracks are still players, meaning the little variations come naturally due to the imperfect nature of human musicians. Now, straight, perfectly quantized MIDI. That's inorganic. :P
 
Back in the disco days, proof of a drummer's prowess was their ability to stick to 120 BPM. The tempo didn't really waver. But it was only anti disco critics that said the music had no soul. And that was mainly because they couldn't dance !
Poop the pow, girlfriend !!
 
Yes and Danny Carey is a phenomenal drummer. +1 for that reference

Playing without a click just makes it harder for sloppy bands to overdub...and it makes your job harder on the editing end, because things don't line up nice n easy on the grid.

I really love click tracks, but It is horrible that modern music software RELIES on the fact that most bands play in 4/4. Try recording Ravi Shankar that way.
 
mattjew24 said:
but It is horrible that modern music software RELIES on the fact that most bands play in 4/4. Try recording Ravi Shankar that way.
Click to expand...
On Cubase 5 you can set a number of different time signatures that are not at all 4/4. You can do 17/8 and other esoteric moves.
And try dancing to it !
 
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