2 part question. Playing to a click

a) IN THE STUDIO
b) LIVE

click tracks are the ultimate badge of insecurity. crap

Playing in a different tempo than the click is pretty cool.

Dylan, you is funny.

I voted crap, but with a waffle. The band we share a space with uses a click for their sequencing stuff, but I gotta say, their drummer is a ferocious sonofabitch live. Makes you forget that he's got an earpiece because he plays with a lot of emotion in spite of the metronome.

Crap, still.


Faiz

I think it all depends on the music you are making. Saying clicks suck is like saying the tuba sucks. Click and drum machines in the right hands can be very great and as far from not crap as you can get. Just like electric guitars in the hands of Ratt... well you know where I am going with this.

Don't blame the tool.

Now all that said, I have most often seen them used as crutches, especially with live bands. They often are paired with live music that seems caged by the programmed beat. Again, in the right hands... blah blah blah...

Here is a C/NC we did long ago about drum machines that seems to relate..

Damn Bitch ass click tryin' to turn me into a robot. Bite my sequencer's ass. Suck the onstage ear piece monitor's dick. Suck the drum machine's sweaty ass.
Diet Pepsi. Uh Huh.

oops.

NOT CRAP. 2

You have no Soul. The Click has Soul.

You would like it if the Machine were Wrong.... Hey man I think that Click is off...

The Machine Is not Wrong. You are Wrong Mortal Fool. I used o think Playing to a click was for Soulless Musicians more Intereted in Playing tight than Playing something interesting.

I was Wrong. Musicians Groove Harder and Better if they can play to a Click. A constant Reminder of the Beat is Freeing, Liberating, If you know what you're doing. It should only constrain you and cause frustration if it is something you never practice.

Think of the Click as a member of the band, not a machine. A member with excellent meter and time.

Some tunes and arrangements are implausible with a click, but I reccomend it whenever possible.

I was talking about playing with a click in the studio... Were you folks talking about playing with a click at a live show?

The thought never occured to me until I re-read the posts. This will take much deliberation....

Very unusual, but not neccesarily bad....

I dunno, now I feel funny....

Playing to a click in the studio ensures that the numerical tempo of the song will not vary too much. That's all. That's also not a very important part of the feel of the music compared to the swing and stress of the music.

It is also usually a total pain in the ass. I have seen it be far more demoralizing and destructive than ever helpful.

That said, if your band rehearses to a click and you think of it as part of the band (a rare occurrance) that everyone is used to hearing all the time, then it isn't too problematic, and it may even be better to have there for security.

Thinking that a click track will make the band "tighter" or "more in time" is a complete fallacy. It makes everyone tentative, since no-one is in control of the time, and makes even very good drummers question every stroke they lay down.

As my good friend once said, in a rich Sicilian baritone, "The metronome is always out of time with the one true tempo, the heart: tum-tum, tum-tum."

If I'm asked to, I will pull up a click track, but it's usually a bad idea. Not always, but I'd say 90 - 95 percent of the time, a metronome doesn't make things better in any way I care about.