singer songwriter - metronome?

[JeffSanders]

What's your take on recording a singer songwriter (just a guitar and vocal)? Do you normally use a metronome or does it ruin the feel?

[SANDS]

Depends on what the song is and are you talking on an engineer's perspective or the artist?

Are there going to be other layers and tracks later on? If so does the person seem rehearsed enough and skilled enough to play with the "feel" track or will it take a metronome to get it done?

I have been on both sides and here is what I have done and still do.

The Artist: "This will be acoustic and vocals nothing else." This is the feel I want and I am rehearsed enough to record it start to finish no metronome.

"I just wrote this and I am not sure where I want to go with it." Metronome all the way, who knows what I might want to add. Helps in writing down the road too even if it goes back to no metronome, it's good to have a structure and skeleton to build from, if you want to let it float around a bit later cool, but you will now know how to play the song anyway you want, and that is cool because it shows you are very well rehearsed.

"I just wrote this and it's done but I can't play it well yet." "When I sing and play it I get off time or feel sometimes, but I would still like to record it." Metronome.

The Engineer: "This person is good, I like the feel of that, I can tell he wants that push and pull, it's been the same drag and push each time he has rehearsed it during mic checks." No metronome.

"This guy is a phony, this sucks." He's paying so let him try both. "He thinks he's ready but he is far from it." You probably want both. Both will be bad, but you might be able to add some other things in the mix later to shine the turd. Use both.

"This is a really good track and the artist is close but he really speeds up that part and drifts of pitch on that one part and I know he wants it done right." Get the sections if you can without the metronome and find a starting point where the metronome comes in to finish a tough section. Both.

Hope that helps a bit.

[I <3 The Beatle]

While I'm no professional, so I would also be curious about how others approach this, I have developed my own philosophy on the idea.

If I know that this song will never be edited, overdubbed, etc. etc. I will track with no metronome. It allows for some more freedom and there is less to concentrate on, you can get into your "place" a lot easier IMHO.

If I think there is a chance there will be edits and/or drum/percussion tracks added in later, I'll track to a metronome. HOWEVER, I do not use an actual metronome, I program a SIMPLE beat (2 4), (1 3), or maybe even (1 2 3 4) with BFD samples -- anything from bass drum and snare drum to tamborine tracks depending on the song.

I find playing a song on guitar to an actual metronome is a vibe killer, that's just me.

Also worth mentioning ---- It's VERY rare I produce other musicians other than myself. If I was getting paid to produce and the musician could not stay in time, I would force some kind of metronome (of course, I would be using tambo samples) into his/her cans.

[JeffSanders]

Thanks for the reply, Sands.

I've always recorded to a metronome, because I went with layers afterward...drums, keys etc., but I'm starting work on a new cd that will be completely stripped down...sort of a Jose Gonzalez/Nick Drake-ish vibe.

I was recording a song yesterday along to a metronome and I got to thinking...this is feeling robotic, and I wonder if the song might breath more with some push and pull and more dynamics. (tracking to a loop from EZ Drummer felt much better, though)

So I figured I'd ask what the general consensus was on recording this style.

[Karloff70]

Depends on the track and artist, as mentioned.

Another thing that's cool is to run click for a bit in the intro and just rip it away and let them go. That way you get the tempo into an editable area between takes, but get the benefit of no grid vibe for the most part. Often a good solution, then edit large chunks of the arrange and use that as the 'grid' for overdubs.

[SANDS]

For sure, what I failed to mention too is drum beats like you suggest, they are easier to push and pull with compared to a sterile click.

also if i want to make sure I'm close to the grid for editing later but I still want to be close--I will beat calculate the tempo through Cubase, set it say at to 200bpm but give the song the smallest count, say it feels like an 1/8 note feel at 200bpm, I'll set the click or drum hit to a 1/4 note, this gives me room to push and pull without feeling too weird when I get off with the click while recording.

[Tommy-boy]

Prefer not to use metronome. But if folks can't keep a beat, well then, that's when the metronome gets put to use.