How to implement a click track?

By the way, for me 'click' and 'metronome' are interchangeable terms. And even 'drum machine pattern' ~ they all mean the same thing. Timing references that cannot waver because they are not human.
 
Ah - for me click can be fluid, while a metronome is fixed. Unless of course, the metronome is controlled by the tempo which makes the metronome a click ........... I think?
 
I use an Alesis S16 Drum Machine because it has real buttons and a knob; I have used it to record a drum track as a "click track" by starting the machine the way I wanted it to happen on my song and singing the track with no mike active (I just wanted the drum track with all the fills and transitions between the A and B patterns in the setting I was using. I have my S16 rigged with the two footswitches so that i can have the kind of control I want. One reason that S16 works well for me when I decide to use it for the "click" track is that it is well suited for the music of the 60s, 70s, and 80s that I play - nothing too complicated, and mostly with one tempo running throughout the song. I also admit that there is a learning curve for that machine, and it presents some issues for me without sight; but it is considerably more usable for me than would be some drum machines whose online manuals I studied before selecting the Alesis S16 unit.
I have on some occasions recorded a "dummy" performance on which I might sing the song and play the chords on a keyboard. That track will then serve to keep all of my tracks together as I record them in the DP24. Once I have finished the song, I can erase that "dummy"track or just turn its level fader all the way down, and it won't get into the final recording. The advantage I would have if I decide on this method of timing control is that I could vary the tempo at will (with my years of classical music training, I can hold a tempo quite well_. So the kind of "click" track I would make would depend on what I wanted to do in the song as a whole. Come to think of it, I did one recording in which I used the auto-accompaniment feature in my Casio Wk3700 to lay down a "pilot" or "click" track. Though I didn't want that track to appear on my final recording, it served me admirably while putting together enough parts that I could turn off that track because I didn't need it anymore. One thing I love about my home-recording setup is that I am in full control of the process and can even on the spur of the moment come up with a way to get what I want on the song.
 
Thanks!

Lots of things are screening me up! T the jest of which is that I’m an amateur!
I’m beginning to think I should always begin with the sheet music!
 
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