What do people use as a click track with analogue set ups?

[grimtraveller]

A drummer or percussionist !
I know this is late to this thread and possibly out of date, but I find it intriguing. On the rare occasions I've begun a track by myself, I've relied on the time keeping inside my head and hopefully, it comes across in the way I'd play guitar. I would sometimes get elaborate and waver in time.......now, I just play it straight, few frills. I can always add a more esoteric rhythm guitar later.
But I record with drummers. I'm fortunate that I know a few and we set the tone, tempo and direction. I either do guitar/drums, bass/drums, guitar/percussion or bass/percussion. We become our own click track.
Some years ago, I took to using a Zoom drum machine live in a church setting and it was a while before I got used to it. It was then that I realized how much my timing wavered during a song. But that's human and the variations were miniscule in reality. They only seemed noticeable set against something that never wavers. Life just ain't like that !

 

[dodgeaspen]

It's never too late to post in an open thread. I don't use click tracks.

 

[FALKEN]

drum machine

 

[grimtraveller]

But I record with drummers. I'm fortunate that I know a few and we set the tone, tempo and direction. I either do guitar/drums, bass/drums, guitar/percussion or bass/percussion. We become our own click track.

A Reel Person>> Back in the old days,...
they just put all their confidence and faith in reliability of the human performers. Some people can keep rhythm & beats down very well, as case in point, Ringo's beat is as solid as a rock. No gimmickry necessary.

Playing to a click just gained popularity as drum machines matured and gained their predominance in music, to the point that now people think you need a programmed click and can't do without it. In many cases a programmed drum beat has replaced a live drummer altogether, tho' I'm not sure if that's an evolutionary improvement in music or not.

I'll admit that playing a solid beat as the basis of the recording can help tighten it up overall as the tracks are built up, but I'll take the human rhythm track over the mechanistic beat any day. YMMV.

Back last summer, my friend and I recorded a piece that went through about six movements. It was just the basic, upon which everything gets built and the piece had come to me pretty much that day or a few days before and I was hot to trot and didn't want to think about it so I asked if we could just record it when he came round to visit. He was playing the congas, I was playing the guitar. Because he didn't know the piece well and I'd not really rehearsed it, it came together in a tight but loose way but I liked it for what it was worth. We've played music together nearly 30 years so we know many of each other's likely quirks and even where we surprize one another, we accomodate and adjust.
Anyway, last saturday, another friend of mine that's a drummer came by to lay drums on a few sections of the song and I was quite proud of how tight that original guitar/conga bit was. Except for one 16 bar phrase. It took him ages to fit in with it because the timing was not regular though he was expecting it to be. He got a little agitated as he was regular but I said on those bits, he'd need to listen and adjust as the timing wanders slightly. Well, he did in the end and it turned out well.
It did get me thinking though, I can see why the use of clicks and metronomes have become so prevalent although they are not new. It does make it easier for a following musician. But at the same time, having to continually listen, think and adjust is a great skill that shouldn't die out.