Click Track

[digitalmikey]

Who uses them when recording and who doesn't?

I've never used it because I never knew the importance of it. I'm curious as to who on these forums use a click during there sessions. If you do, do you find it difficult to have clients play to it? Do you use it on just the drum session or the entire arrangement?

 

[botus99]

Most people record to a click religiously (assuming the drummer can play to it). This makes quantizing, editing, copy/pasting, etc. kind of stuff MUCH easier!

If the drummer's good enough, I like to track without a click and get that human vibe going. Many timeless rock songs (probably the majority) were done without a click

 

[digitalmikey]

So how do most go about setting up the click? I assume you listen to the track and try and figure out the tempo? How do you go about finding the tempo? Trial and error?

 

[DestroyTheColossus]

It would be nice if bands would come in with a little pre-production demo that you could get the tempos from, or an accurate Guitar Pro file, etc. But for me, at the local band level, that never happens.

So what I do is sit down with the band, and have the drummer and guitarist start playing the song. The drummer just tapping his hands on his lap and such, and the guitarist playing without an amp. Then I tap to the beat on a metronome and look at the average speed it is registering. Then I stop them, start the metronome on the chosen speed and have them start playing again so they can get a feel if the tempo is correct. Normally it wont need a change and if it does its not more than 5-10 bpm. Repeat for each tempo change throughout a song if theres more than 1 tempo.

 

[Melodeath]

It would be nice if bands would come in with a little pre-production demo that you could get the tempos from, or an accurate Guitar Pro file, etc. But for me, at the local band level, that never happens.

So what I do is sit down with the band, and have the drummer and guitarist start playing the song. The drummer just tapping his hands on his lap and such, and the guitarist playing without an amp. Then I tap to the beat on a metronome and look at the average speed it is registering. Then I stop them, start the metronome on the chosen speed and have them start playing again so they can get a feel if the tempo is correct. Normally it wont need a change and if it does its not more than 5-10 bpm. Repeat for each tempo change throughout a song if theres more than 1 tempo.

+1

 

[BeneGuitar01]

So how do most go about setting up the click? I assume you listen to the track and try and figure out the tempo? How do you go about finding the tempo? Trial and error?

The way we're doing it with my band is by tabbing our guitar parts in Powertab, you are able to not only input proper tempo, but you can actually record the metronome track to disc and play it through the headphones.

 

[PhilR]

The way we're doing it with my band is by tabbing our guitar parts in Powertab, you are able to not only input proper tempo, but you can actually record the metronome track to disc and play it through the headphones.

Exactly what I did for my band.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

When I record my songs, I record to either a click or to programmed drums. The most realistic way to record is to have the drummer record to the click, the bassist then comes to record to the drummer, the guitarist(s) record to the drums and bass, and the vocalist sings over the mix. Be sure to have a click track active for just when you have moments that lack in percission and contain longer duration notes just to keep everything in time. If you have prog like music with wierd time signatures a click is a must.

For finding the tempo of a song, just listen to the band jam the song, establish the heartbeat of the song and use the tap tempo on your DAW and use the average. Set that and move up or down in +/- 5bpm until you have the right tempo.

 

[scorpio01169]

i prefer not using one and using human timing, but in some cases you have no choice

 

[TheWinterSnow]

The human time is a good thing but, its kind of easy to drift tempo which is never a good thing and makes editing a pain in the ass. You can still get the human timing by having everyone pay to the drummer who is playing to a click, becuase the other memebers won't hear the click, they are playing off the vibes that the drummer is giving, which will never be 100% on to the click, you are just using the click to establish the tempo that way and keep it from drifiting.

 

[KKuff]

Hey what are you guys doing with bands that the drummer can't play to a click? Do you record without it or just program the drums instead?

 

[Machinated]

click is very important imo

if you want to use any copy/pasting or bring in loops or stuff like that, you are pretty stuffed if you arent doing things to a click. let alone the benefits of it keeping in time, being easier to edit etc.

the benefits FAR outweigh any negatives IMO

and with drummers that cant do click; I'll either track in small sections and beat detective, or program.

 

[KKuff]

Do you ever get opposition to programming from the drummers when they can't play to a click?

 

[Machinated]

well it depends really. for me its really important to play to the click, so if a bad performance is going to comprimise the whole recording they are usually happy to program.

the way I see it, is its about doing whats best for the quality of the recording. programming drums is far from ideal but can sometimes save a project if the drummer is having that much difficulty.

 

[KKuff]

I definitely agree with you on the importance of using a click, but knowing how hard it can be to work with drummers, I thought it might be a pain in the ass to convince them to program.

 

[chdrummer]

i always use a click for anything metal or semi technical. the only time i don't if im recording acoustic shit or something like that. if the band hasn't already mapped out the songs when they come in, i just have them play the riff and in pro tools you can tap t on the keyboard along with it to find the tempo!

 

[madbutcher]

Since working on my band's newest album, we started doing everything to a click and will never go back. Didn't realize the tempo changes that happens in a lot of our songs. And after you get used to it, it becomes so much easier with a click. Hell my singer even uses a click now. I write everything to a click, but then after everyone else lays their parts down, we figure out what needs to be changed, fine tune it, and retrack. A little time consuming, but we get exactly what we want.

 

[scorpio01169]

sometimes a click kills the vibe. if a band can play fine without one then yeah, a little slowing or speeding never kills a recording.....has been that way for many many years. I'm not saying don't ever use one...I'm just saying it shouldn't be studio law.

 

[greyskull]

click it out or get out.

 

[006]

sometimes a click kills the vibe

Something I've always disagreed with 100%. If the band thinks being in time kills the vibe then I'm sorry but that reeks of amateur to me. Let me put it another way, out of alllllll the bands I have tracked in my experience, the ones that complain the most about a click track "killing the vibe" have been the ones with the worst timing and feel. I'm sorry, I didn't realize sounding professional and cohesive was detracting from your out-of-sync groovage buddy. I seriously hate musicians these days. I was just telling my friend online about this, had a project where a band complained and said the same shit, it "kills the vibe dude" and I asked him to show me something he thought had lots of vibe, I don't remember the band/album but we found out from some interview they did use a click. I love owning noobs.

If a band is genuinely tight without one, I might be inclined to just let them go for it. Otherwise, for anything metal/heavy/whatever, I'm going to insist on using a click track. If it's lighter music I can be way more lenient, but for heavier styles it's a must, IMO.