music recording

Patrick Tracy · August 23rd, 2020, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Nantz

The metronome I have is simple and doesn't change so one that changes is new to me. Not sure how that would work, probably has to be programmed?.

In most recording software there's a metronome function that can be manipulated to change tempo at predetermined points. It's often called a tempo map. You can either have the software attempt to recognize beats in a recording or you can manually program it.

I generally prefer to record people playing and then have other people play along to the recording. It seems to be more natural than converting an organically changing tempo to a click and then having someone attempt to play to that. But priorities might be different in an academic context.

Paul R Johnson · August 24th, 2020, 01:06 AM

If you have time to waste being nosey with your favourite tracks on tempo is really interesting and often gives a clue as to how it was recorded. In the 80s - clicks, and usually rigid ones were the starting point. Everyone played to clicks in studios and it meant copy and paste were easy. Now we can stretch and shrink we can copy a chorus part and drop it in fine, but in the 80s - constant tempo was easier. Of course with the band music where they freeform it was just hit record and forget tempo.

There was also the beginning of the tracks for live music in the later 90s. My band were supporting a very big and well known rock band and we were playing totally live then. The realisation that they were playing to tracks was quite a shock. Synth parts, maybe the odd strings and other tracks used to thicken up the sound was a big jump, and of course the band well known for rock steady RnR had to play in time with the track - mainly by virtue of their drummer being able to play to the click. Twenty plus years later we're still doing it.

We do a lot of show tracks (or did!!) and the way we record them is to take the original track and in cubase, build up a tempo track that keeps the click in time with the song. I've discovered predicting which are fixed and which are not is often impossible till you try. The most fluid ones we did were the Carpenters - their tempos thrash around wildly. It's actually interesting to do the tempo track then look to see how it flows for those really popular songs - speed ups when you expect pull backs, or worse speed ups that sound like slow downs and vice versa. It's a part of music many people ignore, but oddly some dance tracks do have small tempo changes in them, which I guess give a bit more excitement?

August 24th, 2020, 01:06 AM	#17
Paul R Johnson Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Lowestoft - UK Posts: 4,049	Re: music recording If you have time to waste being nosey with your favourite tracks on tempo is really interesting and often gives a clue as to how it was recorded. In the 80s - clicks, and usually rigid ones were the starting point. Everyone played to clicks in studios and it meant copy and paste were easy. Now we can stretch and shrink we can copy a chorus part and drop it in fine, but in the 80s - constant tempo was easier. Of course with the band music where they freeform it was just hit record and forget tempo. There was also the beginning of the tracks for live music in the later 90s. My band were supporting a very big and well known rock band and we were playing totally live then. The realisation that they were playing to tracks was quite a shock. Synth parts, maybe the odd strings and other tracks used to thicken up the sound was a big jump, and of course the band well known for rock steady RnR had to play in time with the track - mainly by virtue of their drummer being able to play to the click. Twenty plus years later we're still doing it. We do a lot of show tracks (or did!!) and the way we record them is to take the original track and in cubase, build up a tempo track that keeps the click in time with the song. I've discovered predicting which are fixed and which are not is often impossible till you try. The most fluid ones we did were the Carpenters - their tempos thrash around wildly. It's actually interesting to do the tempo track then look to see how it flows for those really popular songs - speed ups when you expect pull backs, or worse speed ups that sound like slow downs and vice versa. It's a part of music many people ignore, but oddly some dance tracks do have small tempo changes in them, which I guess give a bit more excitement?