Click Tracks

Broke my Strat · Post by **Broke my Strat** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:55 pm

Does anyone here NOT use a click track when recording by yourself? For some reason, they always throw me off when I'm recording something I wrote without one. If only audacity had a metronome instead...

James · Post by **James** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 9:15 pm

They're the same thing?

Change the tone of the click to something less abrasive. If you can play to them but not put in a good performance, try doing a guide guitar track to them, then using that to play along to and deleting it after.

If you have gaps in your songs that means you need something to keep it together, just do the guide guitar thing and play a simple part just to keep time in the gap.

You could just do the guide thing without using a click at all, as long as it's consistent it will sound fine.

Aug · Post by **Aug** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 1:27 am

using click tracks makes me nuts. I prefer to lay down the dirty guitar/vox, then lay the drums, remove the dirty tracks, and start from there.

Broke my Strat · Post by **Broke my Strat** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 2:11 am

I should have specified - I'm talking about those multi toned click tracks that throw off every bit of rythem you've got. Come to think about it, I should throw down some money and buy decent software. With a free setup like audacity, you get exactly what you pay for.

James · Post by **James** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:19 am

Download a free VST click plugin.

Every software click I've ever seen lets you set the level of the accent relative to the rest of the clicks.

filtercap · Post by **filtercap** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 7:21 pm

I always set up a simple fake-drumz loop first. No matter how good or cheesy the canned drum sounds are, I can follow those much more easily than a click, even a multi-velocity click. Drums of any sort are more audible than clicks to me when they have other sounds (such as my live noise) layered over them.

I do a scratch rhythm guitar next. At that point, I'd probably be best off tossing the drum loop track, playing live drums along with the guitar track, and making that the arbiter of "feel" for the rest of the project. I have better luck drumming along with a guitar than with a click. That's probably because I've played guitar far longer than drums. I do want to be able to drum along with a click to get the skillz, but if I have a click and a guitar together, I find myself listening to and drumming along with the guitar track rather than the click.

I like Audacity, but I haven't tried recording a song in Audacity alone, so I don't know what your drum loop options might be, other than hooking up a separate drum machine.

Post by **Doog** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 9:09 pm

I either programme drums, or lay down live drums first. If it's a "stoppystarty" kinda song, I'll record to a click. Otherwise, I'll do it all without.

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 10:06 pm

YEAH do what bob and doog says, I had a hard time with the plain click track, then just used a snare or a kick drum beat as a click, so it was like playing with a damned good drummer.

Alot of the time I'll sit down to record a song and end up have a good take, and use that take and build around it, even if it is off time a little, who cares unless your gonna sell it to someone or your wanting to impress someone...then it doesn't really matter.

Who cares its teh internetz.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 2:53 am

i just now started using a click and i love it. it does take a while to get used to it, but i set it to 1/4 time so it's the same click every time. it makes everything feel more solid and I can tell it's helping improve my "drumming".

aen · Post by **aen** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 8:55 pm

I've always recorded guitar to a click, or drumloop, but last fucking night I had the worst goddamn click fucking track experience EVAR.

So John records his guitar to a click, cool.

I record the "noise/wash/texture" drums, not really listening to anything but the guitar, cool

Johns vocals, cool

"Rock drums" with the other elements AND A CLICK? TERRIBLE AGONY!

I'm so against it now. Humans have natural tempo shift, and between his and mine, recorded seperately, it sounded like a truck full of bouncy balls for the first 23426 takes. p Lus drums are fucking loud, so most of the time I couldnt hear the goddamn click without breaking up my headphones or eardrums.

We're going back to scratch tracking the whole song, so we move together, and THEN overdubbing individual parts.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:11 am

Broke my Strat wrote:Does anyone here NOT use a click track when recording by yourself? For some reason, they always throw me off when I'm recording something I wrote without one. If only audacity had a metronome instead...

recording on time is very important... If you are going for that modern, competitive sound I guess. A nice human feel is always good if thats the sound you want.

It can be much easier to follow a click track if the resolution is set differently. Basically doubling the tempo of the click track.

so instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, at say a tempo of 120. You get a 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. (240 tempo) Also, if a click track is still hard to follow. You can program a midi keyboard or piano track to be perfectly in time and play along to that. Or lay down some drum loops in fruity loops (FL studio).

You have many options for this. Just take the extra time to prepare such tracks before you record. Being able to play on time with click is an important skill. Don't just give up on it because you can't follow along right off.

aen · Post by **aen** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:18 pm

Dude, I've been recording for 6 years. I know what my options are.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 12:16 pm

You aren't the center of the world. Or this thread.

giginthesky · Post by **giginthesky** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:52 pm

unless i'm throwing something down just to remember it, i always record with a click. it's funny... when i type using this size font, click looks like dick.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:06 am

suck my click BlTCH!

Post by **dots** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:41 pm

when i do little demos of just guitar for bandmates to hear, i'll put on a click track. we usually try to avoid them in the studio, though, so long as the drummer has good meter. a couple bpm variation here or there is okay. . . makes the song breathe more naturally.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 8:12 am

Ian wrote:You aren't the center of the world. Or this thread.

Oh the crushing irony.

aen · Post by **aen** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 4:51 pm

Im glad someone else made a snarky comment.

Dots- about the "breathing"

I never had any idea how much my current band's songs shift tempo, untill it was me vs. the click. It's very hard fo the guitaist to understand why I want to track things together now....

vivadeluxxe · Post by **vivadeluxxe** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:29 pm

Most decent audio recording software has something called a Mastertrack which allows you to map the tempo of a song over the entire track...
If you wanted a more human feel when recording to a click you can adjust the tempo fractionally so it goes up or down...

If I'm doing a programmed drum track and I want to humanize it a bit, I speed the track up gradually towards the end, you wouldn't really notice it, but it helps give the impression of a real drummer...

Ninja Mike 808 · Post by **Ninja Mike 808** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:08 am

We kinda covered the topic of click tracks today in Audio Engineering 3... Don't ask why we covered it in 3, we covered it in 1 and 2, and I suppose people still don't get it, but...

Pro Tools has a variety of different click sounds and options you can go through. Apparently you can also download or buy some plug in that has an instrument like quality to it. As far as a click track goes, how ever, I'd talk to the band about it. For example, if the drummer says he doesn't wanna play to a click, then that's cool, if he wants to play to the guitarist, then great. I'll ask the guitarist how he feels, and if he's ok with a click, then I record a scratch track of him, but perfectly on rhythm. Give that to the drummer, and maybe argue about the click more... As long as there is some rhythm that is no beat, then there is no need for a click, since the click is just a reference point anyways... Some people hate it, some people fiend for it. I fiend for dope music, so as long as it comes out good, then I'm cool.