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

  • Thread starter Thread starter technominds
  • Start date Start date

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
TheChikenMaster said:
I personally don't use clicks. And I happen to believe that they aren't musical.
Click to expand...

I've had people say this to me before.

It usually has nothing to do with the click being musical or not and everything to do with lack of ability to play along with one.

I say learn to jam to a click and decide not to use it, don't brush it off just because you don't want to put in the effort.

That wasn't meant as an attack on you, just saying this is my experience with it.
 
ROFL!!!!

Of course a click isn't "musical". That's why you're not supposed to actually record it and make it part of the song. :D
 
I wouldn't record Metal without one personally, a good player who has practiced to it will groove just fine.
 
I hate clicks. I can play to them easily, but I hate them. Usually I'll load up a drum beat for whatever genre loop that a number of times for the length of a song and play against that. At least it has a groove. But recently I had this complicated timing where I needed to load a click OVER the drum pattern, because the drum pattern not being a rock pattern wasn't helping with hearing where the beats actually were. Click and all was good. It's just tool. I hate them because they remind me of beginner stage. Just psychological.
 
I have recorded groups who have refused the click track, and others have embraced it. I go with the flow, using it when I can. Those who use it have all been able to sync up their playing rhythm with it after a couple practice takes.

When a click track is called for, I can tell you that virtually EVERYONE prefers a pre-recorded drum machine track over the annoying click track found in most DAWs. A good solid chest-thumping kick (or should I say ear-thumping) with pleasant and familiar snare/hi-hat is much more pleasing for them to listen to, as almost everyone grew up with rock n roll beat. The click track is very grating, fatiguing, grueling, and unnatural to listen to by comparison.
 
gehauser said:
When a click track is called for, I can tell you that virtually EVERYONE prefers a pre-recorded drum machine track over the annoying click track found in most DAWs. .
Click to expand...

I don't. As a drummer, it's annoying playing over other drums. I'd rather track drums to the beep-beep. As a guitarist/bassist, I track to the drums anyway.
 
Greg_L said:
I don't. As a drummer, it's annoying playing over other drums. I'd rather track drums to the beep-beep. As a guitarist/bassist, I track to the drums anyway.
Click to expand...

I prefer either a snare side stick sound or a cowbell sound either way.
 
I use a groove track. Just a simple drum loop that helps me keep on time more than a regular click.
 
Unless your piece is some kind of strange tempo lacking song from a weird genre track it. If the song has a tempo, then click-track that shit. The only reason anyone why anyone ever says that a click track sterilizes or removes the heart of a song is because they are bad players. period. If you swear by never using one ever, you are a bad engineer/player. I'll go one step further and say if you can't write your music down onto sheet music, you have no business claiming to be anything but an amateur. If you can write it down onto real sheet music (not tabs noob) then one of the things you're gonna do is write down a tempo. period. None of the classical masters ever wrote a song without a tempo, neither should an amateur artist. If you want to be good you HAVE TO LEARN TO PLAY TO A CLICK. You don't become an airplane ace shooting down nazi's by ignoring what the aces before you did, every great player has learned to play to a click-track (metronome).

TL:DR
The only people who hate click-tracks are people who hate being shown they are wrong.
 
Personally I wont record any of my stuff without a click track. I use sequencing occasionally and cant sequence without good timing. But if someone i'm recording insists on recording without a click, I will try to persuade them to use a click but wont force them to.
 
I think the click is always the way to go, unless you are recording sounds of nature or something. There are genres that require less locked in playing, but to me it's like women. THE TIGHTER THE BETTER. Click tracks lock in that tightness. Most drummers that have issues playing to a click just need to practice at it. They will make every excuse as to why it is throwing them off. These things are just that... excuses. A good drummer will be able to play to a click. As will a good guitarist, or bass player. A good engineer can tempo map time changes in the click track so that tempo shifts should not be an issue, or reason not to click it. CLICKS FOR EVERYONE!
 
technominds said:
THAT is the question.

I have recently been recording a band where one of the artists insists that a click track is not the way to go. Of course, every producer and engineer will usually disagree as we all know that you cannot find a metronomic drummer.

So, here is the poll:

Do you use a click track, yes/no and explain why below!
Click to expand...


I usually try to get the band I'm recording to start with the drummer playing to a click. There are a million reasons to do this including time based effects, editing out certain parts that are slightly sloppy, and the overall tightness of the song. It dont always work but if a drummer can nail it then it really helps everyone involved in the recording process. I'm no expert but timing is crucial to producing a professional sounding song. No one can play in absolute time no matter how hard they try but thats rock and roll.
 
I have played in several bands, and we recorded a couple of demo's, like real demo's in a studio not your typical rehearsal but whith better mics demo...and we never used a click track for serveral reasons

1 we didn't knew they excisted or how to use it
2 our drummer never played with a metronome before.
3 the engineer didn't work with them as well

benefits
its keeps the music more human. although i love the mechanized 100% solid drumming (like fear factory) I also like the fact that it's a human process
so i dont mind if a song is in 120 bpm for 4 minutes that during that 4 minutes it goes from 120 to 118 and to 123 for example.
it's also depending on the music
i think with click traciks it removes the depth and dynamics from the music. sometimes is better to be a little before the beat of after to give it the desired groove...with click tracks...i dont think that's possible (but hey i'm a newbie/noob/nitwit etc).

the lows
you will not have 100% perfect track as the BPM can change so it's inconsistent.
parts can be recorded to quick/slow which makes it worse for the other bandmembers to record (like if you have a fast part which is recorded faster the guitar riff can come across way different than with a couple of bpm less).

ahh well. where can i buy it ;-)
 
C.Lowe said:
Unless your piece is some kind of strange tempo lacking song from a weird genre track it. If the song has a tempo, then click-track that shit. The only reason anyone why anyone ever says that a click track sterilizes or removes the heart of a song is because they are bad players. period. If you swear by never using one ever, you are a bad engineer/player. I'll go one step further and say if you can't write your music down onto sheet music, you have no business claiming to be anything but an amateur. If you can write it down onto real sheet music (not tabs noob) then one of the things you're gonna do is write down a tempo. period. None of the classical masters ever wrote a song without a tempo, neither should an amateur artist. If you want to be good you HAVE TO LEARN TO PLAY TO A CLICK. You don't become an airplane ace shooting down nazi's by ignoring what the aces before you did, every great player has learned to play to a click-track (metronome).

TL:DR
The only people who hate click-tracks are people who hate being shown they are wrong.
Click to expand...
This is the kind of post that is guaranteed to make someone who doesn't want to use a click/metronome/drum machine simply dig their heels in further.
Are we to believe that prior to the disco era of the late 70s that every band and song was populated by drummers and percussionists that couldn't keep time ? Get real. The musicians of Africa, Asia and South America would scoff at much of what C.Lowe has written here and many of them, who have mastered simple and complex time signatures would view click nazis as inferior for not being able to keep time without mechanical assisstance.
Yeah, none of the classical masters wrote without tempo, but you've contradicted your point bigtime, because they didn't and don't use clicks. In fact, being able to keep to the tempo and respond to the conductor was the minimum requirement of anyone worth their chops. As for the sheet music diatribe, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you were just being tongue in cheek because if that was a serious point, all I can politely say is that one is entitled to their opinion ! And that's all we're entitled to ! :D
I do think that clicks are important for whoever wants to use them though. And in many of our situations as home recorders, especially if the drums come last or if the initial tracking is done without drums, they make abundant sense. And let's face it, they just make life easier all round, especially if later on you want to retrack certain parts {especially the drums}.
 
To a click, definitely.

Also I think there needs to be a distinction made between recording to a click and quantizing a performance. Those are totally two different things and I think a few people may be confused on that.
 
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