Noob recording to click/grid for the first time tomorrow...any tips?

[plague_rider]

Stick with it dude, its gonna be tough if he's a n00b at clicks to a grid, your gonna have your hands full, so just mission on with it...

if they have multiple time changes, i've found putting a different click on for 4/8/12 beats (depending on tempo) before the change, so the drummer knows where he's coming in alot better

though i probably sound like n00b saying that myself like its sound advice

 

[Oak]

Because whether or not you record to a click determines if the song has groove and feeling or not Get the fuck out of here with that nonsense man, a good song is a good song whether or not it was recorded to a click or not.
You may not like it, fine, but others do.

Well, that's not what I said. What I commented on were the two statements that:

a) recording without a click was stupid at 200+ bpm in 2010

Master of Puppets is 200+ bpm.. but oh.. that wasn't recorded in 2010, so I guess then it was possible - it turned impossible around 2001.

b) not knowing what tempo a song has (in BPM) is pathetic

Your drummer can't count a song in without having a click help him? You can't hear the song in your head at the correct tempo - by heart?

If these opinions make me measurably gay, then please fuck me - I'll like it.

 

[Oak]

On Topic though: Program the whole song in MIDI. Then replace instruments one by one with their real counterparts. In my experience, that works better than playing to a standard 'click' track.

 

[Oak]

I'm going to eat shit for the Master of Puppets reference.. but oh well.. I'll let it stay.. ha ha... (it was recorded to a metronome)

 

[Metaltastic]

The issue wasn't the suggestion that there can't be stuff that sounds good even though it wasn't recorded to a click (because that wasn't what you said), but rather that recording to a click eliminates potential for groove and feeling, which IMO is completely false

 

[::XeS::]

^ +1
Oak, if I have to work with a drummer that accellerate and slow his playing where the tempo is the same, this is not groove/feeling. He's a shitty drummer.
If a drummer is CONSISTENT and know how to play the same tempo for more than 2 seconds....ok he can try to record without a click.
But if he has to record a chorus in 130bpm and he does 2 bars at 125, 3 bars at 140, 2 bars at 120 and 4 bars at 124....it's not feeling. It's SHIT.
I said it's stupid seeing shitty drummers that wanna play without the click because they know they suck.
Of course you're right...in a perfect world. But the 80% of the drummers can't count so.....

 

[MEGA DAVE]

bottom line is labels now dont care about performance, they care about 2 things, a flawless recording and a band that can work for themselves and make them money, so in all essence you can write crap songs and suck at playing them and still get signed and pull in a big fanbase. nobody cares about performance anymore it's just all about riding the trend train and making that green son

 

[mrfunk]

Am i missing something here. Get the guys to play the songs through before recording. Sit down and work out the tempos with them. Set the click on a metronome, or your sequence and figure out the tempos, make a note. Does the tempo change for each section? Do the same thing. Then in Cubase create a tempo map before recording. The rest is up to to the drummer. If he fucks around and cant follow it either send him away until he can or just turn the click off and record without. I dont see what the big issue is. People always say it creates problems later on but in my experience thats only because the musicians are fucking shit and cant play. If you need to make a "click" to follow a "non clicked" performance use the time warp tool in Cubase to line up the grid with what he played.

 

[darthjujuu]

you'll be fiiiiiine, it's not that hard dewd. everyones suggestions here for tracking twice and making pre-made MIDI templates are all cool ways to stay organized, but you don't need to make it that complicated as long as the song is reasonably simlpe. you already figured out how to do the tempo changes in reaper, just get a tempo that sounds good for him and if there's a part where the tempo changes just be like "alright, we'll try this part a little faster/slower" and then he'll fail and then you'll say "k, want faster or slower?" and eventually he'll be back in the pocket. just make sure you have scratch guitar on hand so the guitarist can be like "ahm...he's goin way too fast" if need be.

this is good though, tracking to a grid opens the door to editing. once you're done tracking, try turning that little "magnet" on in the top left, then chop up all your shit and move it around. and you'll be like, oh, now i understand how a modern DAW works. haha