Recording Drums Last Options

[mellotron]

would it be possible to record everything BUT drums to a click track, then burn these files individually to a cd (or better yet just bring the whole external hard drive) so the session will still contain multitrack files, bring all these files to another studio and track the drums to the pre-recorded tracks and click? or would the drums have to be recorded first in order for them to sync with the song?

[formatj]

yes.

You have to find a drummer who can play to a click track!

[Bart S.]

Click track can be a drag for most drummer...
It can also influence (in a bad way) how you're gonna record the (previously recorded) other instruments (you're taking the risk to play them like a damn machine...).
I would personnaly rather set up a rough drum track (kind of a demo one) using sound modules/samplers such as Kontakt, Plugsounds, Reason...
Try to make it as close as possible to the final drum beat you wish to use; record your stuffs using it and bring it along with your other tracks. That way the drummer will have more than just a square click-click to play with... Just my opinion.

[Levon River]

It not only can be done, it has been done, but I've never known it to be a picnic for the drummer.

(BTW: I've heard that "Sound of Silence" was an acoustic guitar and Simon and Garfunkel's voices originally--without even benefit of click track--and that the rest of it was all added later. The tempo in that song wanders all over the map. Must have been some fun trying to play to.)

The relative success depends a lot on the music itself, and how well your drummer can split the seam between the click and the vagaries of the instrument tracks. Of course if its multitrack digital audio, you can always edit any real offensively out-of-the-pocket hits (by any instrument or instruments) after the fact, and pull it all together. It's not my idea of fun and games, but definitely doable.

[holli]

put the click on two and four only, this leaves one and three to breath whilst keeping the track tight. Ask any decent jazz musician, works for anything non-classical.

[Teiwaz]

In the old days, we all used clicks & metronomes.

Now, however, as Bart S pointed out, it's not the best thing to give a drummer when laying down live drum tracks. A click has no "groove".


It tells us the basic 1-2-3-4 occurences in the bar, but what is in the silences in between? Is it a shuffle groove, a swing groove or straight 16ths?

Playing to a click can be hazardous to the 'emerging' groove, as the bassist may or may not "put his own impression" of a swing in the spaces, but the groove may not be consistent...ie: his 20% swing factor may at times be a 10% swing and then he may drift into a 25% swing elsewhere. Then the drummer has to play to THAT!!! Oops. Shit groove results when adding live drums!

It is always wise to put down a 'mockup' loop of the groove you are aiming for the drummer to play. If he's good enough, he will lock to that loop you play him through his headphones while he's recording live drums and because everything else was played to that loop (bass, guitar keys, vocals, wobbleboard, egyptian nose flute, etc) the live drums will slip right into the track like a missing piece of the jigsaw.

Use a click and the piece of the new live drum jigsaw more than likely will not fit into the 'groove's puzzle'.