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chrysler wrote:Playing to a click is about as helpful as driving with a cop behind you.

I just want to say that I have stolen this line for use in real-life normal speech a few times ever since I read it here. I feel exactly the same way.

A click destroys or inhibits musical extemporaneity. Without that, really good takes are unlikely and good improvisation is impossible.

But chrysler said it better.

-r

edit: fat-fingered, born bass players should not post using a palm treo. extermporaneous? wha?

Well, it is true that I don't need no instructions to know how to rock...

Being a drummer, i'll just say that it takes the stress of getting the blame for timing issues away from me. My guitarists timing blows, and i don't like going into angry discussion about who's realy got the bigger dick.

Although i would prefer not to have to use it: NC

I decided not to use the click... We never practiced it during rehearsals and our drummer seems stressed by the principle
We haven't used it on our first album and the rythm is changing a bit... Whatever... This is rock
Do you think that Nirvana used it ?

Well, I may know fuck all about most things on this forum but with my drummers IQ I at least have a bit of knowledge about the old click.

I don't mind playing to a click in the studio but it's preferable without. When it sounds completely shitty is when everybody in the band is trying to follow the click. Just let your drummer have it in his cans. Not the guitarist, bass player, organ player and, god please, don't put it in the singers mix.

You might want to consider the following when using a click:

1) Don't have the click at full blast. Keep it just high enough in the mix so it sits with the other instruments comforatbly.

2) Try programming a percussion track or, even better a 8th note followed by two 16ths per crochet to each crochet/quarter note beat. This is a trick of engineer/producer Tim Smith.

3) If you feel you are ahead of the beat or behind it, don't panic and suddenly lock in. If you are not too far out then you can ease your way back in.

4) Warm up by playing a few simple rhythms with a pair of brushes or those shitty twigs that people seem to think are some kind of miracle drum stick (hot rods I think they're called). Keep it simple and get used to the click before you have the pressure of recording the track.

Most people use clicks if their band can't play in time, in which case I don't think a metronome is going to help them at this late stage.

Click - for people who play like crap?

im good at it. not crap.

people who vote crap are generally people who arent good at it.

anyways, if you use a drum machine or have anything midi-triggered by a sequencer, its the same thing as using a click track. if you hate on the entire practice of using drum machines or sequenced stuff, then youre just a bitter cynic who cant handle the times.

BClark wrote:people who vote crap are generally people who arent good at it.

Poppycock.

I'm the best drummer in the world and I don't need no stinking clicks.

I used a click once a project. We had a drummer who had a habit of slightly speeding up, it wasn't noticeable until we'd do overdubs, then it was something to brace yourself for. He was a good drummer and we never had this problem live at all, but sometimes he'd speed the tempo up a little. Click track helped him and us out by saving a lot of studio time.

Clicks are pretty circumstantial, but I endorse them.

USS Horsewhip used a click track once for an intro of a song that consisted of two guitars, two piano parts, and nothing else. I had the engineer turn the click off once the drums kick in.

Even this instance comes with a pretty high waffle factor.

Click when you need it for some stupid studio crap you need to pull off when there is a drummer absent or you need to add overdubs later and paste things back together and there is no other logical way to pull it all together: semi not crap.

All other times: full on bitch crap with a diet coke.