A friend asked me to help him lay down some scratch tracks before his band hits the studio. Click tracks are one of those things I havent mastered yet but is probably the first thing I should have learned, LOL. I can set a basic click up but how do I set it up if theres a time/tempo change in the song ? Im using Cubase 5LE
need help with click tracks
- Thread starter AdamR
- Start date
BroKen_H
Re-member
Remember to count your intro. If you're working at 80 BPM till the 60th measure, then changing to 60 over a 2 bar period, you'd start at 60+intro (the time you're going to need to let pass by after you hit record). If that's no measures, then 60, but if you let 2 bars count out before you begin to play, make the start at 62 and end at 64. Hope that's not too confusing. Where I work you can slow it down immediately (I'm sure that's available in any DAW) or straight line decrease/increase, and several curves.
Farview
Well-known member
I absolutely hate having the '1' accented.Yeah, put a midi stick click at each 1/4 note in a measure. Make sure the first beat is 127 and the others are like 90 (do one measure and paste through the whole song. Then bounce (or render or whatever your DAW calls it) to audio.
your best bet with the click is to use the midi click and have it trigger a drum VST instrument. Then, just make sure the click is audible during the mixdown.
jimmys69
MOODerator
Not the actual Cubase 'pong' click.
As mentioned by others, it is usually best to create a Instrument track and create a MIDI file with whatever drum sample you like. Sidestick seems to be the favorite for most drummers I record. Myself included.
Then you also have control over volume level and eq of the click. You can then save that file a a wav and free up your systems resources.
I saved a wav file with only click of a SSD4 sidestick sample. Then you can import it to any project. Create tempo track and place the click track in musical mode. It will follow when any adjustment is made to the tempo track. You can export or edit as you wish from there.
jimmys69
MOODerator
obsoleteman
New member
If you go to the metronome editor you can that the "1" high pitch out of it. I have different problems with the click track, I recorded the bass with the click and it is perfect. Go back and record a guitar part and off the timing goes between the two track. Never had that problem until I updated to the AI 8. I thought I had a compression release issue so I took the compression out of the bass track and that fixed it. I am spending a lot of time trying to find a cure for these glitches and not much in any useful production. The bells and whistles seem to be tailored toward stuff I may never use so I may have something out of whack.
Obsoleteman
obsoleteman
New member
I think you are right about the delay compensation. I'm trying to learn this stuff as quick as I can but you know what they say about old dogs. Someone asked me how I got a certain sound on a recording once and what I did is use a digital delay along with an old Roland Space Echo. I had to explain what a tape echo was to him. But I also had to admit that some of the old school charm in the recording was a little tape hiss. That started another 30 min. explanation. Did I confess to still owning an old Yamaha CP-70B Electric Baby Grand? I just need to sell some of this old stuff off and replace it with some modern equipment. And then learn to USE IT!
What is funny is my two grandsons and granddaughter are following in my footsteps. They are part of the reason the 1956 Les Paul Jr. I stole from my old man has come out of the mothballs. They are all insisting I get some of my unrecorded work down on something that I can leave them. Talk about "Generation Loss"! But I guess digital recording has made that a thing of the past too. I have to admit I am impressed with modern technology. A lot of old guys like me aren't impressed with it. I am.
rob aylestone
Moderator
I find the louder (and in mine, a more aggressive side stick sound) annoying but indispensable - especially like yesterday, 4/4 time followed by a bar of 2/4, then into 3/4 and I even went to the trouble of making the 2/4 bar's clicks both loud - so CRACK, crack, crack, crack, CRACK, CRACK, CRACK, crack, crack, CRACK - looks horrible in print, but makes the transition much easier to follow. In the rehearsals with just single constant click some band members missed this each time - especially those playing repetitive lines for quite a few bars who lost the count.
BroKen_H
Re-member
Pretty sure we're not talking Artificial Insemination, but then I like the first click accented, so what do I know...
Maybe Artificial Intelligence...like mine!
obsoleteman
New member
Ok, here we go again with the click track. When I record with the click when it plays back after the track is down, the recording is early. On the down beat of 1 in the first measure, the guitar comes in early. The sliding adjustment in the inspector is at zero when it is recorded and played back but it is as if the metronome is delayed.
If any of you have any idea I am all ears. I friend of mine who is well acquainted with Cubase and spends most of his time in studios says it has got to be something simple that we have over looked. So the Constrain Delay Compensation isn't the problem, I am recording dry with no inserts or rack effects. Any advice is appreciated.
If any of you have any idea I am all ears. I friend of mine who is well acquainted with Cubase and spends most of his time in studios says it has got to be something simple that we have over looked. So the Constrain Delay Compensation isn't the problem, I am recording dry with no inserts or rack effects. Any advice is appreciated.
rob aylestone
Moderator
You'd better explain how exactly you created it - so many alternative methods, so it could be a stack of things - all I can assure you about is that Cubase is solid for me!