just wondering..

i've never...but i'm guessing i'll need to start providing one for clients..

thanks in advance..

It depends on the drummer mostly... I think for some drummers it can be a drawback because it requires too much effort and it takes away from the performance. An obvious benefit (which IMO isn't really a benefit) to using a click with a DAW is it makes it a lot easier to cut and paste sections of the song... But anyway I don't think it's good to create rules- sometimes a click is appropriate and other times it makes things more bland and less cohesive. I would prefer to do everything without a click but sometimes people haven't completely figured out the song structure yet and are going to be rearranging things.

lovely..

that's just what i wanted to hear..
i would love to let the song and drummer determine the tempo..

what helps you determine when a click is appropriate?
besides of course when the drummer is rushing or slowing of course..

i don't want to count out the bands that will want to change the arrangement..
and i fear that i'll be needing a lot of punch in/rearrangement nonsense..

now about that sound..

chikchik of a 9mm?
ticktick of a clock..

thanks for the reply..

i think if a band rehearses with the click for awhile first it's just fine. alot of times people don't, but are convinced they want to use one in the studio. i've been guilty of that myself, and it often doesn't work out well.

When I am recording someone else, I only use a click if they ask for it. Only one person ever has.

When I record my own music, I never do.

When I am playing on someone elses record, if they want me to, I do. It doesn't bother me.


I usually use a cowbell sound because it's so obnoxious, there's very little chance of me not hearing it over the music.

Jeremy

I LOVE RECORDING TO A CLICK.

A lot of drummers hate it and a lot of rock musician's can't play to one. In either case, it's best to defer to you're musicians' and/or clients' comfort levels.

I have two best practices for using clicks.
1) I will feed different players different signals in their head phones. E.g. The players that are used to playing to metronomes can have a click. Other's might get a kick/snare or a pair of brushes on a snare etc. This is particularly effective when the song is supposed to start, or play in part, without the drums.
2) Even when the band isn't going to play to a click, I may use a metronome/click to give the initial tempo.

B.

For work I often use a click... mostly for things that will have to loop back to the beginning (mostly online video game type things). I use a click also when I am writting music a lot of times... it makes it easy to move thngs around and play with arrangments when you can swap parts around easily. The bands I play with do not work well with click as the songs often alter tempo throughout a song as part of the arrangement.

I have rarely heard music recorded to a click track that does NOT sound unnatural. In my experience it sucks the raw energy out of a band...they have to hold back, and you can hear it in the recording.

Many times I have listened to a band and thought "They sound so much better live." Many times those bands recorded to a click track.

An addition:

Some styles of music require a click track for editing/looping purposes, as mentioned above. I thought this thread was just referring to rock/band recordings.

damn..lovely replies...

thank you very much.

i think the closest i ever got to playing with a clik was a drum machine that i would play drums along with..

fun...but kindof a pain at times...

just like recording in general..

ok..keep em coming