Hey Grotius - Long time no hear. So, after all the angst what did you end up getting/doing for gear? Are you remoting upstairs to the computer (Sonar?) or what?
Anyway, here's my version of "playing with yerself, you nasty boy" - I build a click track that is custom to the song structure, assuming I know what that is before I start - In the case of the 1/16 note bit, I would do a measure or two of click track with a drum patch, choosing something really obnoxious (cutting) like a clave for the accent beats, then something milder like a closed hihat for the inbetween beats - maybe add a kick drum, sorta overall just build a basic drum track, but without the fills, cymbals, etc - This way, you can get the feel of the song and put as high resolution of an intermediate (non-accented) click as you need to maintain accuracy when tracking. Then, when you're happy with the structure of your 1-2 measures, SAVE IT ! By that, I mean, start a separate folder with these custom "scratch tracks", maybe even going so far as to have separate sub-folders for different styles, etc)
Now, for the song at hand, copy the measure(s) as many times as it takes to be sure that the click track is longer than the song will be. The closer to your intended final drum track this "click" track is, the better feel you will achieve with other tracks. Just keep in mind that this track will eventually be thrown away.
Next, depending on the song structure, I usually record either a rhythm key part or bass. Any parts you do as MIDI can be easily replaced with other sounds, which can be handy for things like string parts (gee, it sounded good by itself...??!? )
In the case of original compositions, here's a trick I use to keep from forgetting what chord change comes next, and when - I use Samplitude for audio, Cake 9 for MIDI, running on the same machine - but the concept should work for any program that lets you scale the waveform view to your working screen area.
1. Get your click/drum track going as above.
2. Do either the keys/chordal track or bass. Keys with chord structure usually works better for me.
3. Truncate the click to about 4 measures past the end of the music.
4. scale the screen for maximum size of the waveform view while still showing the whole song on screen. The larger the monitor, the better.
5. Just above the click track, place a piece of 3M Videocassette Relabeling tape, or other removable (NOT masking tape) horizontally the full width of the waveform track. I usually fold a small tab under on one end of the tape, so it can be removed and stored stuck to the side of the monitor or wherever.
6. Play back the click and chord or bass track, making tic marks on the tape with a fine tip pen, precicely at the cursor, everywhere there is a chord change. It helps to make these alternately short, medium, and tall.
7. Play back again, as many times as necessary, noting chord names at each tic mark, until you have them all noted.
8. Now, you'll have advance notice of when/where/what chord is next just by watching the cursor as you play in the succeeding tracks.
9. Save this strip until you are finished with the song. If you work on other stuff inbetween, you can get back to scale by re-loading the song, maxing out the waveform view, putting the strip back on the monitor, and tweaking position/scale so the chord change marks line up. (I make LARGE tic marks at the exact start and end of the CLICK track to make this easier to line up.)
10. Replace any tracks you don't like, including re-doing the drum track to match the finished "vibe" of the song.
11. For classical, just do an accented click with as high a resolution as it takes to stay with the beat. Any drum tracks will likely be more orchestral in nature anyway, and can be recorded after the other tracks. (tymps, cymbal crashes, etc.)
Drums via MIDI can be a real bitch for non-drummers. I'm lucky in that I play everything I need for compositions, albeit some in a "songwriter" sort of quality... Here is my take on drum quality, from low to high (depending on your own rhythm capability)
1. program drums single step. Sounds like DEVO on Valium...
2. play drum patch from keyboard, first pass kick/snare, second pass tom fills, 3rd pass cymbals, etc, then edit out the "impossibles" - things that couldn't have been played by a real drummer unless he was
an octopus, such as hihat during fills, snare backbeat during fills, toms during cymbal crashes, etc - sounds better, especially if you DONT quantize and have some rhythm. You can at least, if you are using a velocity-sensitive keyboard, get some dynamics going.
3. get a set of decent drumpads and brain, and learn to play them. This sounds more real, and is light years FASTER than any of the above. If you have the cymbals and quiet room, recording cymbals live with condensers improves tremendously on this method.
4. Build a floated room, buy a drumkit (recording oriented, they are usually easier to set up for minimum buzz/rattle, etc) and learn to play real drums. (Most expensive way yet) This has the added advantage of stress relief - beating a set of skins is more socially acceptable than beating your boss/wife/dog/goldfish...
Hope this marathon helped - these are just some of the tricks I've found to be useful... Steve
. I would just play the main guitar part and some vocal pilot to a clicktrack. Afterwars you can drum along with those first tracks and still change them later on.
