Question to crew about click tracks.

[tenebre]

like mentioned earlier, almost any band playing to backing track plays to a click. And playing to a click is definitely not easier than playing to the "feel". I cant imagine why anyone would be shy, embarrassed or ashamed of such a thing unless it is just the general non-musician knowledge that creates a false prejudice.

I remember seeing Nevermore on the DMB tour and the backing tack DAT fried so Van took off his ear phones with the click and they played minus the click/backing tack. When playing to a backing track you have to sync to a machine so a click really is almost mandatory since the backing tack is the the forced timekeeper rather than the drummer. If all bands toured with full orchestra/choirs/etc then they could all sync with the drummer.

Anyone who has ever worked session drummer gigs will tell you that playing to a click is a massive plus for getting gigs. It aint easy.

 

[skyrefuge]

On 80s live albums, the songs tend to be faster than the studio versions. On modern metal albums, the songs tend to be the same tempo.

Iced Earth's 'Alive in Athens' is a good example. On the songs where there are backing tracks ("A Question of Heaven"), they're played at the same tempo as the album version (though, I think they may also have some click-track songs where they sped up the click-track relative to the album tempo). In contrast, songs without backing tracks ("Travel in Stygian") tend to end up blazing fast.

Before the days of in-ear monitors, drummers needed to wear headphones to hear a click-track (at least I assume no one did it over-the-air?), so click-track usage was quite obvious. In Iced Earth and many other bands (Dark Tranquillity also comes to mind), when I'd see the drummer put the headphones on, I knew an elaborate song was coming up, and when they headphones came off, I said "yeah, enough of this locked-in, deliberate garbage, now we're finally gonna start flyin'!"

Since playing to a click-track actually requires *more* skill as a drummer, I don't imagine there are any bands that do it for no reason, and those who use it along with obvious backing tracks aren't trying to hide anything. So the only time that I would see this as a sensitive issue is if there are bands who use backing tracks in a subtle way and *don't* want you to know.

Neil

 

[Harvester]

. So the only time that I would see this as a sensitive issue is if there are bands who use backing tracks in a subtle way and *don't* want you to know.

Neil

Thank you.