Question for the musicians here...

[Melissa]

I was reading DL's forum (slow at work right now & I'm bored) & there's a post about backing vocals & someone posted about Journey using a "click track" live? What is that?

Sorry, I don't know much about music other than I LOVE listening to it, lol. Esp. Journey live!

[conversationpc]

Here's one definition I found on the internet...

This is an audio track that contains a metronome beat at the tempo of the music. This allows musicians to synchronise acurately to a film or parts recorded during another performance.

Some people also use the term to refer to a pre-recorded segment of a song that either keeps the band in time or replaces an instrument that there may not be enough band members to play sufficiently live.

[JrnyScarab]

I was reading DL's forum (slow at work right now & I'm bored) & there's a post about backing vocals & someone posted about Journey using a "click track" live? What is that?

Sorry, I don't know much about music other than I LOVE listening to it, lol. Esp. Journey live!

A click track is an electronic metronome that the band hears in their monitors. It is used to keep the song and all the parts at the same tempo. If they are using programmed backing vocals they are on a computer which has to know the right time to trigger them. Therefore, everything is synchronized to the click track. If the band didn't use the click track they might play the song too fast or too slow and the programmed background vocals might come in at the wrong time. Hope this helps.

[Melissa]

Thanks! Amazes me how complex a live show really is, & all the work that goes into it!

Thanks again.

[Michael Leigh]

I think Jon uses a click for some of the string and keyborad parts as well.
If you notice before he starts Open Arms, he hits the space bar on his laptop to start the sequence that is probably used for the string parts.
Check it out on the 2001 DVD.

[TRAGChick]

A click-track is spawned from HELL

...j/k...seriously...

My first exposure to a click-track was watching Kenny Jones put on headphones in order to play The Who's "Emanence Front".

The reason WHY he had to do that was to keep the cold, exacting, metronimic "beat" to the synth line, which was sequenced: locked in; ABSOLUTELY NO wavering AT ALL of tempo.

But, at age 11, I thought to myself, "Why is he listening to the radio or something when he's the drummer?"

.....and MAJOR

[Marc S]

Click tracks can be made to be clever, there is a processor unit called The Human Clock which is a time code that can pick up the tempo a drummer is playing to; drummers have a slight tendency (probably not so much the likes of Deen Castronovo or Simon Phillips) to quicken their pace into a chorus and lay back behind the beat into a verse. It can be midi'd up to backing vocals or instrument samples and sequences to effectively follow the drummer assuming he's not that wildly out of time. The idea is, it puts a human element back in to the overall effect when playing excessively with click tracks. Journey maybe do this but Leppard obviously don't as they want it to sound like a programmed drum track anyway.

[JrnyScarab]

drummers have a slight tendency (probably not so much the likes of Deen Castronovo or Simon Phillips) to quicken their pace into a chorus and lay back behind the beat into a verse.

Man, I know that click tracks can make a band sound sterile but the drummer on the new Audioslave album could have used one! There are a few songs where he is slowing down so much it ruins the groove and drives me nuts to listen to it. Just isn't good time keeping on his part. He is a good drummer though his timing is not the greatest.

[conversationpc]

A click-track is spawned from HELL

...j/k...seriously...

My first exposure to a click-track was watching Kenny Jones put on headphones in order to play The Who's "Emanence Front".

The reason WHY he had to do that was to keep the cold, exacting, metronimic "beat" to the synth line, which was sequenced: locked in; ABSOLUTELY NO wavering AT ALL of tempo.

But, at age 11, I thought to myself, "Why is he listening to the radio or something when he's the drummer?"

.....and MAJOR

I don't see the big deal with any musican using a click track. If the guys in a band typically use the drummer as the timekeeper, why is it any different to use a click track instead?