Metrenome / Click Tracks

[dres]

Thanks people for your input, it's made for interesting reading. I can see most peoples point of view and certainly know what your talking about with disappearing clicks and playing around the click. Perhaps to summarise I might observe that most people have a farily strong preference for or against the click and there are valid reasons for going either way. I was a guy stuck in the middle, trying to do something the opposite way to what I'd learnt and thats the reason for all my grief.

To click or not to click ? That is the question.

From what I here people saying, if you a beginner, with little music history then if recording is important a click is a helpful way to train yourself as it will open up simple cut and paste arrangement options.

I guess if your like me however, you may be too old to reprogram 15+ years of musical training... if your competant, don't insist on the click just cause your recording. Besides, like most of us this is a *hobby*... lets not spend our spare time torturing ourselves. After all this is suppose to be fun !

Just my amateur opinion

 

[Downside Studio]

this is a *hobby*... lets not spend our spare time torturing ourselves. After all this is suppose to be fun !

and that's the attitude that makes you a pro.

 

[Henrik]

Dres,
here's a thing you might wanna try:

Listen to some recordings you have made without a click track. Try and analyze your own playing - find out approximately how much faster you play in the choruses, do you pull back after the chorus so verse two is equal in tempo to verse one, or is it a little faster, do you speed up when playing fills etc etc.

Then start programming your click tracks like you think you would have played it. Make slight tempo changes. Remember to program the tempo change a little ahead in time, so you react in time (IE if you want the chorus a bit faster than the verse, program that change a few seconds before the first beat of the chorus as your played tempo increase will lag a bit). Also, if you want to go from 120 to 122, then put in a few beats of 121 in between.

Keeping the same tempo throughout a song is as boring as using Autotune on the vocals if you ask me. I make (slight) tempo changes in all my songs, even the ones that are machines only. Just moving from 120 to 120.5 can give a chorus plenty of push (without eating up a single dB of your headroom!). I read an interview with Depeche Mode some time ago, and even THEY use tempo changes in their songs!

I've been working a lot with one particular drummer and I know his playing so well now that I can program a click track without him even being there. When he comes in a plays along with it, it just sounds like he does with no click. It should be even easier for you to program for yourself to play along with. And of course all the midi tags along perfectly, so you can have all the machines you want and still not lose the natural energy of a drummer that shifts tempo with the intensity of the song.

If you want to be able to edit your drum tracks (instead of saving time and just do it all over from the beginning) you can keep all song parts the same tempo, so the choruses have one tempo, the verses another etc.

For the drummer I play with, just a stiff click doesn't work, he wants a drum machine to play pretty much the same thing he plays. YMMV.


Hope this helps!

Cheers
/Henrik

PS You also might want to ask yourself if you really HAVE to use a click track. If you're not playing along with a lot of machines that can't be played by a musician, there is no reason whatsoever to use a click track.

 

[dres]

Thanks Henrik that sound quite workable. I guess at this stage I'm mainly into acoustic instruments.... however I know there's a world of midi toys to play with and even my own gear (eg Roland TD-8 electric drums) is not being used to it's full potential. This sounds like a great technique though that I might try in future when I want to experiment more... thanks.

 

[vintagedrive]

Good going Downside Studios for highlighting the quote from dres. That's cool he received alot of replies regarding tempo and groove. But unfortunately, there isn't a shortage of groove busting situations most of us encounter on a daily basis, (world news?). Don't let a click derail you, that's what your foot is for. Keep it fun and get your groove back on.