Using click tracks: pro's and con's?

I had a great idea (in the shower, of course). How about an adaptive, predictive click track generator? It would measure the tempo, say based on a kick trigger, then hold it until a significant variation was detected, which would be recognized as an intended tempo change. It would then predict the slowdown until the new tempo was established. Smaller, unintentional fluctuations would be ignored. That might save a lot of programming.

Of course, now somebody will tell me this already exists, and fame and fortune will elude me yet again.
 
I have some people who like it some who don't. For those who don't, I simply whip out a simple canned drum loop. I find that a few of the drummers I work with regularly were raised on a metranome so I like to get their tracks down first then let everyone else listen to the drum track afterwards.

Cons to the tick track...I don't know...if the musicians aren't well rehearsed, or real comfortable with the tune, they can sound a little mechanical, a little less loose. This especially true if I track each instrument individually. The drum track seems to loosen this up.

Just my spin on it.
 
mshilarious said:
I had a great idea (in the shower, of course). How about an adaptive, predictive click track generator? It would measure the tempo, say based on a kick trigger, then hold it until a significant variation was detected, which would be recognized as an intended tempo change. It would then predict the slowdown until the new tempo was established. Smaller, unintentional fluctuations would be ignored. That might save a lot of programming.

Of course, now somebody will tell me this already exists, and fame and fortune will elude me yet again.
Click to expand...

That would be a cool way to make a click. You play the song to make the click, then play the song to the click you made.

Def Lepards drummer has something like that. As he plays the drum module tracks his tempo so when he hits the pedal to do a roll, it is in time. (for those who don't know, the guy lost his left arm some years back)
 
Farview said:
Def Lepards drummer has something like that. As he plays the drum module tracks his tempo so when he hits the pedal to do a roll, it is in time. (for those who don't know, the guy lost his left arm some years back)
Click to expand...

That is very cool. I watched a show where he talked about his kit, which was interesting. He not only moved around the drums to maximize the use of his three limbs, he also totally rearranged the kit to make it much more ergonomic.

Four-limbed drummers should take note because he made some big improvements.
 
mshilarious said:
I had a great idea (in the shower, of course). How about an adaptive, predictive click track generator? It would measure the tempo, say based on a kick trigger, then hold it until a significant variation was detected, which would be recognized as an intended tempo change. It would then predict the slowdown until the new tempo was established. Smaller, unintentional fluctuations would be ignored. That might save a lot of programming.

Of course, now somebody will tell me this already exists, and fame and fortune will elude me yet again.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a great idea to me!
 
hahahahahaha

great idea mshilarious, you've lived up to your name!!!!

sssssike!

i've yet to see insightful discussion on this board.
 
luckily lanterns pointed this fact out to us so we can now go back and ponder on the next thread. we are looking for insights people!

isn't there a philosophy bbs somewhere? :rolleyes:
 
To summarize for those with insight, here are the possibilities discussed thus far:

Click-free:

- A good musician will stay relatively well on tempo. There will be minor variations, say if the intended tempo is 120, maybe there will be a few measures at 118, and a few at 122.

- An average musician will basically stay on tempo, but on occasion variations could become excessive.

- A bad musician will be unable to maintain tempo. Typically they tend to speed up.

- Tempo, tempo changes and rubato can happen organically.

Click:

- A good musician will be able to play on the click. This will eliminate minor variations, but not grooves, which is a different skill unrelated to clicks and tempo changes.

- An average musician will be able to play on the click with some rehearsal.

- A bad musician will grow confused and angry at their inability to play with the click. Use of the click will enable recordists to fix the musician's poor performance.

- Tempo, tempo changes and rubato need to be programmed into the click.


I would say those are generally agreed characteristics of the two approaches. You can decide what is 'pro' and 'con' about each.
 
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