HELP!...Keeping tempo tight... clicktracks, scratch, etc...

[jonlarsen002]

How do you ensure a recording is rock-solid regarding tempo? I've found that laying an initial drum track with a scratch guitar and vocal track can be tricky. Inevitably, the drum track or the scratch track will get a tiny bit off tempo in a couple of places and that will ripple through subsequent tracks... since a layered instrument won't know whether to follow the tempo of the drum track or the click track or a scratch track etc etc. At the end of the day, you're left with something that sounds like a multi-track hack-job.

Do you have a standard procedure for scratch tracks, drums, and click tracks that helps to dial in the tempo better?

[Somniferous]

Usually I try to record drums to a click and not a scratch track (unless the drummer is unable to do this, then I'll record a guitar part to a click.) From that point on the click is no longer played as long as the drums are tight (no glaring timing issues and close to the click most of the time). Remember real people will push and pull the beat a bit, and as long as everyone is following a set marker, ie the drummer, it should should good. Well as long as all the other musicians know what they are doing that is. I always tell the player which part they should be following and if they have problems I mute anything they don't need.

[chrisgraff]

record drums to a click and scratch gtr/vocal.
Beat detective if neeed.
overdub

If tracking bass & drums. Just edit the bass...or recut the bass after beat detective.

If you ever have the pleasure to work with an A-list rhythm section, you'll understand how easy it can be. :band

[asintoras]

Well, that's the beauty of digital recording. You can make almost everything tight with the clicktrack (metronome). What I do in case I still don't have the drums recorded (I'm a guitar player), is that I play the best I can according to the click. If there is something not tight, I play in slow motion just to be sure if it's up beat or down beat, and then I move the track accordingly.
If there are too many out of tempo tracks, the song will sound floppy, mediocre, so try to stay tight with the beat as much as you can.

[loudboy]

If you ever have the pleasure to work with an A-list rhythm section, you'll understand how easy it can be.

This.

Get good players and you won't have to worry about all that stuff.

W/o solid drum tracks, your project is doomed.

[Iknow]

Every recording program has a built in metronome. Just turn it on, select your tempo and record. The click will come through the headphones. This is absolutely necessary. Set it up before you begin recording. It will allow you to cut and paste, drag in loops, etc to a grid. Also your delays other plugins/software instruments will have a tempo match option that will follow the click track.

[MichaelK]

Here's what I do, pretty much in sequence. It looks like a lot, but from step 3 it takes less than a minute. I find it easier & more accurate than using a MIDI click. I have a saved Pro Tools session template with several steps done in advance.


Pick up a guitar and play a bit, settling on a tempo that I like.
Turn on a metronome and rotate the dial til it comes closest to the beat as I played it.
Set the MIDI session tempo in Pro Tools, grid in quarter notes
Create a mono audio track
Import two short click samples that I've saved: a louder, higher-pitched click for the "1" and and a softer, lower-pitched click for other beats. Drag the samples to the beats in the first measure only.
Set the grid to whole measures
Highlight only the first bar, hit "Command-D" 3 times
Highlight all 4 bars and hit "Command-D" 3 times again
Highlight all 16 bars and hit "Command-D" as many times as I need for the length of recording time I want.

Ta-daa... a click track in an audio file that can be used in any version of Pro Tools. If I decide later on to change the tempo for the whole song, or just for some spots, or drop it altogether, or whatever... it's easy to do. Next I usually lay down a guitar, playing to the click, then a vocal.

When I record a full band I prefer to record them playing at the same time whenever possible, playing along with the click and scratch tracks. Assuming they're guys who know what they're doing, everyone's part fits in the mix better and the song moves along better (IMO) than laying down parts track by track.

Later on, if I collaborate with another studio, I consolidate the whole click track to a single audio file beginning at zero, so anyone on any system can play along without needing to create or import a tempo map.

[altruistic8]

This.

Get good players and you won't have to worry about all that stuff.

W/o solid drum tracks, your project is doomed.

+1 Get players who can play along to a click track to begin with, it will save the engineer endless hours of editing and many headaches, as a bonus the band saves money.