Drummer cannot play with the click

U

Ungratefuldead

New Metal Member
Jun 5, 2010
5
0
1
Hi guys,

I'm new to the forum (not really it’s one year that I lurk) I decided to open an account in order to ask what you guys do when the drummer cannot play with a click track.

I always had the fortune to record drummers that can play with a click track, sometimes on the spot and other times

a bit out (nothing that elastic audio or beat detective can't repair).

Last week I was ready to record a death band, I’ve done guide tracks a month before for the drummer in order to practice.

I spoke with the drummer one week before the recording and he told me that everything was great. The day of

the recording we started to divided the song in sections, the song tempo 210 BPM double time 420 6/8 meter, and a couple of changes (not really big)

210 BPM 3/4 meter.

The drummer found difficult one section so we moved on, we get down 4 section not perfect but with a touch of BD sounded ok.

Then we moved to the Double tempo blast and disaster....everything it's all over the place the drummer cannot do it

so we spent hours try to loop the section, split down to 16 bar, try only a single kick, nothing worked so I took a little

section of 8 bars that was not bad and BD and then copy and paste it....the band obviously was not happy at all and decided to get back to practice.

My question is what you do in this kind of situation from the engineer point of view?


Any suggestion will make my life easier for the next time that happen.
 
thanks for the replies lads....the replies concerning programming the drums open to a second question......if the band it's totally against any artefact (they were not happy at all that I was using BD) what to do? I know the answer send them home practice.

I have now a third question how many of you have recorded drums 100% play by the drummer spotless that don't need any BD or programming?
 
I'd say try recording without the click track and see if it sounds good. A click track is a tool and if it doesn't apply then maybe you shouldn't force it on the band. If it on the other hand is the band who insists on using it, then by all means, ask them to go to the rehearsal place and practice with the click track until it sounds good.
 
only when we're tracking my bands stuff... in generic metal/core // fast stuff never... means : 1 out of 50 times
 
The band want to use the click the song that they want to record it's too fast and need to be absolutely tight, I don't like to force the click but for metal I always feel compelled to use it. This is just a reality check if the drummer cannot do it nothing can be done to have the track down........
 
Record the feet and hands seperate. Works a charm.

If he still cant do it. Record the feet as samples from his kit then paste the double feet in (make sure you have a left foot, right foot sample, even if only one kick drum is used).

Then get him to play the hands separate at full tempo. If he cant play the hands at full tempo slow down 20BPM and just elastic audio it up to tempo.

Seriously happens all the time with double kicks and blast beats. Not a biggie, you just have to know the tricks to get the job done.

And its very rare that we come across someone that isn't BD'd. I would love for that day to come but it doesn't happen. Not in metal.
 
We tried also that combination hands first and then kick....but was a mess anyway.

Problem is that the band wants him to play all the way trough, i suggested the elastic audio trick but they refused......next time I need a miracle
 
Ungratefuldead said:
Problem is that the band wants him to play all the way trough, i suggested the elastic audio trick but they refused......next time I need a miracle
Click to expand...

The problem is you have to tell them that their struggle comes from the drummer not being able to play the material correctly and not anything you have done or want to do. You're only trying to fucking help and you dont need this bullshit from a stupid band that can't get their stupid shit together and/or recognize that you are not the problem, the drummer is.... end of story.
 
The band doesn't want to use tools to fix a terrible performance? then the band needs to work on NOT giving a terrible performance, that's pretty much it, either they let the cheating go on or they take the drummer's ass into the rehearsal room and don't let him out till he's grown a beard like Masterbeast
 
HOW was he not able to play to the click? Was he pushing forward? Or was he pulling back? Either of these things mean that maybe you should speed up or slow down that particular section. Or do the band have some kind of deeply held religious beliefs that force you to stick to whatever arbitrary tempo the guitarist used in guitar pro or what the fuck ever. I've encountered such before. The guitar player demanded that the entire song be played in 185bpm despite the fact that they always play it faster live and the drummer was constantly pushing against the tempo.
 
the problem was that he cannot do proper and clean blast, if the snare was sometimes fine the kick was all over the place impossible to fix also he was no constant, the tempo was fine because when we tried to track only the snare an ride he could keep the tempo (not for a long section though).

The band it's really focus about their music and they decided that was better to stop and have the drummer practice for another month or so........
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Forge Farm
Click track
Replies
7
Views
596
Andy Sneap
Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral
H
Dustin
click....click....click...CLICK...click....click...
Replies
1
Views
2K
Andy Sneap
Andy Sneap
A
MKS
Click or not to click?
Replies
48
Views
2K
Andy Sneap
Brett - K A L I S I A
B
zver
click problem
Replies
17
Views
974
Andy Sneap
zver
Z
Atheist
Playing to click and prerecorded keyboards
Replies
6
Views
702
Andy Sneap
pifos_2
P
Top Bottom
Back