Click Tracks

[jafrha]

I am inolved with a production of We Will Rock You nest April and we are using a live band, however there are some parts of the show that will need to use a click track. I've got a home studio in which I can create the tracks but how do you set them up for use in a theatre without the audience hearing the click?

 

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

James

[Shez]

Headphones on the drummer? In-ear ones are obviously less obtrusive.

[Bobbsy]

This is one where you will need to work fairly closely with the musical director when deciding what form the click track should take and who should hear it.

 

Technically, to do it you will need some form of multitrack playback and an available aux channel to feed the click track to the MD/band member(s) who need to hear it. At the most basic, if you can live with your recorded music track being mono, you could use simple stereo playback, with the click track in one channel and the music in the other. Ideally though you'd have true multitrack playback so you can have a click track plus stereo music. The easiest way to achieve this (at least in my opinion) is playback off a computer with a 4 channel sound card.

 

In either case, you bring the click track and the music channel(s) into your mixer, feeding the clicks only to the aux for the headphones/IEMs and the music to FOH and/or stage monitors in the normal way. Being paranoid, I tend to put a piece of tape over the click channel so I can't put it up to FOH accidentally.

 

Obviously there's lots more detail we could go into if you have any specific queries, but the above should at least get you started.

 

Bob

[Trunker]

Use a metronome. You can get one for about £10. This will give you a click track. Or are you on about an electronic drum track? Two totally different things!

[Andrew C]

Use a metronome. You can get one for about £10. This will give you a click track. Or are you on about an electronic drum track? Two totally different things!

No, he needs a click track to keep the band in time with recorded music, or video. Quite a common requirement, that a metronome certainly won't do!

[basilbrush1982]

Also, speaking with the drummer as to what form they want to hear the click in is good. some want a piercing click, others a hi hat tap.

[Ben Lawrance]

I use click tracks all the time with various function bands. I have found the best way of doing it is to used a headphone slitter/amp and feed the click to the "left" channel, and feed the drummers mon to the "right" This then allows the 2 sources to be mixed (level wise) and can either be panned to each ear, or placed in both.

 

With 6 ins/outs available, each member of the band can have a differant "mix"

 

Ask any drummer though, and you will receive very differant answers.

[Bobbsy]

Also, speaking with the drummer as to what form they want to hear the click in is good. some want a piercing click, others a hi hat tap.

 

I've been asked for all sorts of different forms of "click"...and even for an actual count ("5, 6, 7, 8...") where there are "transfers" back and forth between live and pre-recorded. That's why I say that close cooperation is needed between the MD (or drummer) and Sound in this case.

 

Bob

[jamesperrett]

Ask any drummer though, and you will receive very differant answers.

 

As a drummer, I prefer to listen to a rhythm track with the sort of feel that the music is aiming for rather than just a straight click. Ask the drummer what he/she prefers as some people are going to be used to working with a straight metronome.

 

Cheers

 

James.

[Rob_Beech]

A drummer should be able to adapt to any type of click, however if these tracks are being made for them and them only to use then why should they? So speak to everyone involved, I know one drummer who has had a device made up which lights a large LED when a signal from the click track is heard, this means that even if the earphones/headphones fail he can still see the led flashing to keep in time. Obviously there is more that can go wrong.

 

Rob

[pisquee]

Definately speak to the musical director of the band, as they will (likely) be he one bringing in the band at appropriate points. Count ins are definately a help along with the click - especially if, a musician or section have to sit for many tacet bars and then come in - a "Brass - 1,2,3,4 in" can be helpful to wake them up. Talk to the MD, and find out who in the band wants/needs to hear the click. Also talk to the sound desiginer for the show, and find out how he wants the music tracks arranged - does he want just a stereo pair of everything, or does he want a track of strings, one of brass, one of extra keys, one with backing vox etc etc. If there are enough multitrack channels, then getting the principals in for a recording session can be good to record their vocals for all the songs, so if their mic goes down you can flip to the track version (if you do this - don't process it, and use the headset/lav mics they will use on stage) so it sounds the same as much as possible when flipped to.

[Ed_N]

There's a good article on the Sound On Sound website about producing click tracks:

 

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug03/arti...clicktracks.htm

 

Ed

[jamesperrett]

I know one drummer who has had a device made up which lights a large LED when a signal from the click track is heard,

In a similar vein - there used to be a device called a Russian Dragon which had a series of lights on the front which were sequenced like a conductors baton in time with a MIDI clock signal sent to it.

 

Cheers

 

James.

[Ed_N]

Can anyone recommend an appropriate set of cans for a conductor who needs to hear a click track? The only thing through the cans would be the click therefore the most important aspect is keeping the reduction/alteration of the ambient sound to a minimum.

 

A little bit of internet surfing has pointed me at the AKG K240s (or maybe K141s) but aside from that, most sites just tell you if the headpone is closed or open. Will any decent open headphone do the job?

[paulears]

The Sennheisers seem very popular with MDs, as they can be fairly loud, but let room sound through.

 

If you want to hear a typical track - click here for an mp3 of one from one of my shows a few years ago.

 

For me, having the title on the track is critical, so if it's the wrong one, you know very quickly. The example I chose has umpteen bars of empty track - and getting even a beat out is very destructive.