Click track - any other alternatives than logic?

Find a drum loop that is in the time/tempo that you want and play to that.

X

Then I would suggest building your own with a drum kit or synth sounds.

Like the claves (?) as all of the beats except the first where you'd want something more distinct, like a cowbell.....or for the synth, find a nice pulse sound (in the key of the song you'll be playing) and use the same note/velocity for all the beats except the first where you'd want to raise the pitch up a bit (maybe an octave?) and increase the velocity.


Why spend money on a plug when you can build your own metronome?

Hope that helps.
X

What xs4ls said...

Just make your own exs click instrument. Mine has a variety of "popular" click sounds. The infamous Urei click sound, along with a shaker, cabasa, side stick, cowbell, and tambourine.

Make a one bar click pattern, with the subdivisions/accents you, the drummer, or whomever can relate to, and loop it.

Done.

yes I too always build a midi click from a drum set

but you can change the sound of KlopfGeis also. It is nothing more than an audio instrument. It sits on audio instrument track 128. so open up your Audio Configuration window and scroll down to instrument 128, double click on KlopfGeis and change the sound.

Hitting C and having the click turn on and off is just as easy as hitting "MUTE" on the percussion track that you used to create the click and having it turn on and off.

So. . . instead of hitting C. . . hit M or MUTE on the track where your homemade click is, and voila, there you go. Just as easy.

You can get Logic's metronome to trigger midi gear too. So if the sound isn't right you could use an old (or a new!) drum machine, sound module etc.

I'm not sure but I suspect there is way of playing with the metronome in the environment too. perhaps you can trigger an exs sample or two that way.

All these methods mean you can use the standard key commands to switch off the click of course.

I'm not sure about any plugin is available. I can't really imagine what it would do that you can't already do with a bit of tweaking in Logic. A plugin would still need an audio track to "live in".

What sort of timing features are you after? Logic's will do bar + beat + division. If you need some sort of swing to the click I suspect you'll need to look at sample loops or your to own drum programming.

I can't say I've ever had issues with the click in logic.

Just to go off topic a bit regarding drumming and clicks. As a drum teacher I used to teach "playing to a click". From experience and study I found the automatic assumption made by both drummers and "those providing the click" to have the click loud with all beats + divisions wasn't the best way to get a good drum performance. I would encourage my students to play to a very sparse click - just the bar clicks and at a low volume too. At least for practise purposes, the level would be such that the drummer would only hear the click if he was out of time.

This way encourages the drummer to relax and "feel" the tempo leading to a much better performance. I believe loud clicks can improve confidence but can have an adverse affect on other aspects of playing (apart from the annoying headphone spill when recording).

For any drummers out there who haven't tried this approach, I strongly suggest you give this a go. It can feel disconcerting at first but its worth the effort I think.

I would encourage my students to
play to a very sparse click - just the bar clicks and
at a low volume too.

Are you saying that the click would occur only on the first beat of each bar?

hi, this approach is used in classic performance/rehearsal.
and it's a lot harded to do, but it stops using the click as a crutch.
another method used is to only sound the 2nd and 4th beats in a bar of 4/4.
this, too, is difficult to do initially, but is favored by some to "get the groove swingin' off the back(snare)beat".

personally i use two types, a simpler one for trkng, and a more detailed one for editing.

G'day, ben.

i hardly ever use logic's built-in click.

i use the ghostclick plug on the last audioinst trk, generally trk64,or 128,and make a full blown midi clicl track with it.
more trouble, and in 4/4 it might not be worth it, but my current project uses all manner of metric changes.
so a custom trk is required.
i do one bar of click per meter and use to loop function to repeat it at first.
then i select that bar and it's loops, press "K" and they become real copies.
this way, you can have as many accent levels and divisions in that bar as you like.
if you are doing pattern based groove music, you can easily put accents on updates, etc. i often, in 4/4, accent 2 and 4, so the backbeat is louder. you can then swing off this.
in 3/4, i accent the 2 and 3.
also note that you can use any pitch on any beat you like, just as with normal midi.
so, beat 1 and 3 could be C4, and 2 and 4 be G4.
i often detail a pattern so it outlines the main notes in a bass riff(say 1, 2, 3a, 4a) or other instrument.
i use a lot of samples, and sometimes the timing varies a little too much between the different notes, so i use the above methods to tighten the sample lines playback.
lotsa work, i know. but the result is worth it.

best, david r.

Are you saying that the click would occur only on the
first beat of each bar?

correct Impiro,

I wouldn't suggest you force your drummer to do this in the first moments of a session though (LOL just thinking about it!).

My point was to just consider the technique. I remember a few years ago working recording an amateur band who wanted to play along with some sequenced synth track. The drummer the click was fed loud and proud to the drummer but his playing only improved to a something usable once we'd turned down the click.

Perhaps the point is that the volume of the click can really affect a drummer's performance. Like a previous poster said, a loud click often results in the drummer following it rather than being on it. Playing to click is not easy -you need to work at it and learn how to do it. My own concept of whats happening is that with a regular click puls to the music its natural for a musician to kind of relax, to wallow in the beat a bit. A natural reaction to the robotic nature of whats being heard. I find if I need to play like a drum machine having a bass line or some regular keyboard lick makes things much easier. Bass lines are ideal as they also don't bleed from the headphones to the mics like clicks do.

The last time I was playing to a click I was playing percussion (darbooka). The tempo was a relaxed 82bpm or so. I couldn't get the feel right till I put the click on just the first beat of the bar. Once I'd got "into the groove" I was playing like I mutha. It increased my enjoyment too and generally allowed me to feel like I was part of the music rather than a machine.

If I want a click I use logic's. I don't like clicks though. Don't use them unless you have to, I say.