accelerating tempo (tempi?) (tempa?)

[dobro]

I have a problem and a question.

The problem: when I record the same cut again and again, the tempo gradually increases. And it does no good trying to slow it down with the next take, because the tempo creeps up throughout the song. If there's anything worse than a song that's done too fast, it's a song that speeds up by the end. It's no good laying down a scratch track or rhythm track first in my case, because I'm not using rhythm instruments on this project, and I *am* the scratch track - it's just me and guitar.

The question: anybody heard of a flashing light metronome?

 

[Recording Engineer]

Yeah-hate it myself, but... If it works for you...

For those who absolutely need it, I just put a metronome into a channel and route it only to the headphone mix, but don't track it.

 

[The Green Hornet]

Yo DoBRO:]

Well, you could hook up your dentist's drill to your toe and let it run at 444 RPM and that might help keep your tempo even Steven;

OR, you could lay down the guitar on a track and mumble the count; then, you could do the voice on another track. Sometimes when you are just ALONE doing it all, your emotional input to the lyrics will cause fluctuations in tempo, kind of ad-libbing?

OR, you could have a girlfriend tap you on the head with a feather as you do the tune or toon!

Well, experimentation is the mother of frustration.

Green Hornet

 

[Layth]

My daughter takes piano lessons so I got her an eltronic metronome which makes a loud click but she can also plug in headphones which disables the audio click. I believe it also has a red flashing light.

Layth

 

[Emeric]

I'm not sure what style of music you play Dobro, but what I found helps me the most, being the one who puts down the scratch tracks.

Is to put down a fairly realistic facsmile of what the drums might sound like. I find it much easier to play along to, then a beep beep beep.. or click click click..


But it all depends on what your doing.

 

[drstawl]

I'll go with Emeric 200% on this one. The more the click track sounds like your final tune the easier it will be to play along.
I also like the bass line in there too.
Don't worry if you have no rhythm tracks on the final product. Like forms when you pour concrete. They serve their purpose and then you yank them out. If you absolutely need a click track that will vary in tempo throughout the piece, then you'll have to wait for one of those "on" nights to get a reasonable facsimile of what you want to do timing-wise. This is a different technique than one used to produce a final take.
Don't worry about any flubs. KEEP GOING!
Concentrate on the tempo.
Then you've leveraged yourself one step closer to the final take.