Shall we follow the click?

[theblackmoon]

I always record drums with click, no prob. Then recording everything, except for vocals and leads I still use the click, sometimes almost no drums, really loud click.

So, the Q is do you guys think that this may take a bit of natural feeling of things? Or you guys go for the extreme precision stuff?

I know it depends a lot of the musician, but you guys sacrifice a bit of consistence for a more *natural* playing?

 

[Ermz]

I go for the extreme precision stuff. Musicians naturally push and pull the beat around the click and that's acceptable and contributes to 'feel'. When you're tracking without click, a lot of the time people will push so much that at the end of a 120BPM track they would've ended at 140.

 

[AStacy2]

I usually record the drums with a click and try to get that performance to be exactly how it should be timing wise. Then when recording everything else I just use the drum track and no metronome.


No one has perfect timing though. If the drummer is a little off and the bassist is spot on with the metronome I think that would sound weird. I'd rather the bassist played to the drum track and was right on with that.


If your drummer dosen't have good enough time for the rest of the band to play to that then the track probably isn't going to turn out as good as it should have anyways.

 

[Rickard Bengtsson]

Beatdetective and drumagog rocks.
Takes a little time but helps a lot in the end.
So click it is.

Rickard

 

[Razorjack]

I always track to a click, for some parts the guitars track *just* to the click without any drums at all.

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

Depends what I'm doing. The drummer in my band has feel, but playing to a click he loses some of that, and the groove is more important for that music I think. In my previous band, the drummer always played to a click, everyone else followed the drums. And for my own stuff, I write guitar parts and fit the drums too that - so it makes sense to record the guitar parts to a click and add drums later.

For my band's next recording, I'm going to try something new - recording the scratch guitar tracks to a click, then using those guitar tracks as the 'click' for the drummer. I'm hoping he'll find that more natural to follow, so it won't affect his feel as much.

Steve

 

[sparkyness]

i push the click up a couple of bpm in the choruses on the metronome....gives it a little bit of a lift without sounding disproportionate to the rest of the track. I sometimes track guitars with just the click but always track bass with only the drums as I want the kick + bass locked right in together.

 

[ThatGuitarGuy]

I personally like it if the drummer had a click so he's in time, then tracking guitars over drums with SOME click in there so I can have the best of both worlds, and then bass just to drums and guitars with the guitars quiter so you can hear mostly the drums and kick.

 

[Thedeloshimself]

have you ever recorded the guitars to a click first and then recorded the drums to the guitar and click? thats what I'm doing and it makes it easier for me to go through the drums (because i play hard drum parts it helps if the guitars are there on time)

 

[smy1]

have you ever recorded the guitars to a click first and then recorded the drums to the guitar and click? thats what I'm doing and it makes it easier for me to go through the drums (because i play hard drum parts it helps if the guitars are there on time)

I dont like recording to a click only. I prefer recording to a drum loop with a shaker or off-beat hihat. There's a lot more groove in that.

You can still run the click if you want more precision, but the loop really makes my guitar playing sound more "alive".

 

[xmarcelx]

have you ever recorded the guitars to a click first and then recorded the drums to the guitar and click? thats what I'm doing and it makes it easier for me to go through the drums (because i play hard drum parts it helps if the guitars are there on time)

I don't know many drummers who can play a track without any guitars....
I think it's common to record a dirty guitar track before recording drums...

 

[GeertSamuel]

Drums - Click
Rythm guitars - Click + softdrum mix
Lead guitars - Click + soft drum mix & rythm guitars
Solo's - Depends on the solo... if we try to reach for precision or emotion...
Vocals - Depends on the song...

 

[cobrahead1030]

i would say it depends a lot on the musician...if you have a drummer that has a really nice feel, and can keep time well without a click track AND count things off properly for intros, pauses, etc. then you might be better off flying without a click

of course it will also fall on the rest of the musicians in the band to be able to lock in tight with the drum tracks

 

[ThatGuitarGuy]

have you ever recorded the guitars to a click first and then recorded the drums to the guitar and click? thats what I'm doing and it makes it easier for me to go through the drums (because i play hard drum parts it helps if the guitars are there on time)

I have and everything was in TIME...but it felt EXTREMELY sterile. There wasn't as much feel to it, and it was definately more hard to pull off the takes without drums...It feels so artificial I guess and I personally have to play to drums.

I know some people will play with the drummer as they're tracking their parts so there is a guitar, but the click is there too.

 

[cobrahead1030]

i always have a guitar scratch track going with the click, but the only way i've ever had the guitars FEEL right is be tracking them with the drums

 

[theblackmoon]

Thanks everyone for sharing your experience.

Sometimes during bass or gtr tracking I realize that the drummer was not so tight with the metronome, those times recording gtrs or bass with only metronome sounds as if the gtrr and bass players are a bit off. But was the asshole drummer. Sometimes you let details slip. Live and learn.

 

[AStacy2]

If the drummer can't play the song without the guitarist, than the drummer dosen't know the song well enough to be recording it IMO.


I think drummers need to know the song really well and lead the rest of the band.

 

[greyskull]

I always track everything other than vocals to a click.
But if i waant to retain a bit of feel with the drummer (they have to have it in the first place) when using beat detective; instead of setting it to uber quantise; i set it to 96 % and exclude with in 6% so it can still push and pull alittle bit; but not so much its out of time. works a charm for me

 

[cobrahead1030]

If the drummer can't play the song without the guitarist, than the drummer dosen't know the song well enough to be recording it IMO.


I think drummers need to know the song really well and lead the rest of the band.

do you think this is true for long songs with a lot of temp changes? i've recorded a 5 minute song with 17 tempo changes before...that's a looong way to go with just a click and nothing else as a reference

given i know it could be done, but i'm not sure if i know any drummers that could do that

 

[AStacy2]

do you think this is true for long songs with a lot of temp changes? i've recorded a 5 minute song with 17 tempo changes before...that's a looong way to go with just a click and nothing else as a reference

given i know it could be done, but i'm not sure if i know any drummers that could do that

It depends on the musician really. Certain people like different things. But I do think it's a really good idea for a drummer to know exactly how to play the song without anything but a click. If your drummer isn't leading the band, then who is? Tempo changes, what do you mean? Basic half-time changes? Yeah, a drummer needs to be able to do that. Pushing a chorus up 5BPM? Yeah, a drummer should definately be listening to the click for that one too, not the guitar. I'm a drummer and personally I like following just a click, it's a lot more consistant that any guitar player I've ever seen and I like my tracks to be perfectly in time. I feel that if I don't know the drum track well enough to play it by myself to a click, than I don't know the part well enough to be tracking it.