CLick Track question

[gillentine]

What is the best unit or device for making really good clicks. I don't mean a simple drum machine with KICK SNARE HI HAT 4/4 kind of shjt. I'm trying to imagine there is a better way to do clicks. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

[thethingwiththestuff]

perhaps a metronome would be just the thing.

[slowblue]

I like mic'ing a turn signal in a car. Sometimes I use the sound of rain on our roof, it kinda has the feel of a train beat and there's always a little groove built into it, call it nature's rhythm.

[yardleyone]

i just use protools or protools and reason via rewire. You can use protools to set temp and meter changes throught the song if you like. and reason if you don't like the sound of the protools click. That's how I do it.

[maz]

farts.

[Disasteradio]

.. there's always a little groove built into it, call it nature's rhythm.

woah, what about a heartbeat ? anyone try that? I always thought it'd be 150% on the awesometer to hook up an ECG to a beat detector with midi clock if I ever got onto using midi playback live. I think a little too much about this shit.

[chetatkinsdiet]

The little Boss metronomes they sell primarily for drummers are cool. I have a DB66 that even has a phones out so you could send that through your board. It does triplets, has a tap function and really, everything inbetween. That might work if you don't just want to use a sound from a midi keyboard for your click.
later,
m

[Mark Alan Miller]

Sequencer and drum module. Drum machine. Both good.

I find that folks react/stay locked well to a click with cowbell type sounds on the major accents and shakers on the smaller subdivisions...
Cowbells aren't easily masked by kick or snare hits, whick means you can still hear the click when on time, while the shaker has a softer attack that indicates the tempo between, say, 1/4 notes, without rigidly stating 'play HERE' on a particular feel - it helps people find their own groove outside of the standard BEEP boop boop boop BEEP boop boop boop that people use so often.

[Rigsby]

I'm with cowtrax, cowbells are good. Especially when you're recording the first instrument, feels like somethings there already and it's not all down to this take to get things started.

[Jpp]

Loop the first few bars of Fine Young Cannibals "She Drives Me Crazy". I was in the grocery store last night when that came on. Mmm, rhythmic.

Jpp

[joel hamilton]

The click you choos will have a direct influence on the final feel of the song in most cases. Even with an amazing drummer, the click will tug this way or that on the song, so it can be really important to either choose something that really grooves the way you want the song, or B. Stays the hell out of the way of a good drummer....

Depending on the style of music, the tempo, the feel, the band, the drummer, I have used everything from a metronome to drum machines to loops to keyboard pads locked to midi to guitars gated and keyed off a sidestick click.

Heavily filtered loops can be really cool as well, like something with the right feel for the song, but filtered to the point that it is just an arbitrary sound that happens to be the right tempo. One drummer I have recorded a ton of times in particuliar used that technique quite well. We would even loop stuff, heavily filtered, in 7 so the loop would land on a 4/4 pattern in a longer phrase. When we would do that, the filtered loop would find its way into the mix every time, even if just a tiny bit to motivate the chorus or something, ya know?

Try using any electronic/electric/mechanical device that will keep better time than you. I have recorded a wall clock for a song, and vari-speeded for tempo. I have recorded lots of repeating noises, like sample and hold white noise patterns that hold steady.

Somethimes the click can inspire rather than annoy!!!

[gillentine]

Thanks Joel for taking the time to answer. I'm going to look into some of the suggestions throughout this thread. Thanks everyone. Especially the Farts idea. I never would've thought of that one.

[cgarges]

The click you choos will have a direct influence on the final feel of the song in most cases.

This is so true.

When I have to play to a click, I like a semi-complicated percussion pattern that doesn't have the kick drum or the emphasized backbeat in it. This allows me to play "around" the pattern and interject whatever feel might make the song pull a certain way.

It amazes me how many drummers really just want quarter notes or "kick-snare-kick-snare."

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[mrufino1]

Ask the drummer what they prefer (if they have a preference). Just be ready to change it if it isn't working for some reason. I usually wind up using cowbell sounds though, and it works for most.

[Rigsby]

The click you choos will have a direct influence on the final feel of the song in most cases.

This is so true.

When I have to play to a click, I like a semi-complicated percussion pattern that doesn't have the kick drum or the emphasized backbeat in it. This allows me to play "around" the pattern and interject whatever feel might make the song pull a certain way.

It amazes me how many drummers really just want quarter notes or "kick-snare-kick-snare."

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Yeah, i tend to play well with those first, sometimes the accents on the kick too though, then you're really free to play around that pattern as it's already so confidently there.