My 5 Minute [Click Track Library Creation Technique]

Nothing outrageous here, just thought I'd share:

Go to Jeff Rona's website and download his "click" wav file: http://www.jeffrona.com/ReelWorldBook/p125.html

Load that into DR008 or whatever sampler you're using.

Set the project's time signature to 4/4.

Play or draw in four quarter notes (1 measure), quantise if neccesary, and adjust the volume/velocity in the piano roll view to your liking (e.g., accent the first quarter note).

Bounce the MIDI clip to an audio track.

Slip-edit the right edge of the clip beyond the barline at measure 2. Then split the clip at the barline at measure 2; just delete whatever is after the barline at measure 2. "Bounce to clip" that one measure clip.

Double click the clip and enable groove clip looping, set transient detect to zero and rhythmic detect to quarter notes. Then save the clip as a wav file by hitting the disc in the upper left corner of the loop editor view. Call it "Click 4_4" or something like that.

Then change the project time signature to 6/8 and start over, this time playing in 6 eighth notes and accenting the first and fourth notes (the fourth note a little less than the first).

Repeat the whole process once for each time signature you will ever generally use: 3/4, 7/4, 12/8, etc.

Now you can just drag these loops into your project as needed - they will sync to your project tempo and follow any tempo changes mid-project.

Sometimes I even patch in a tempo-sync'd delay and/or auto-wah to get a more "inspiring" click going.

Probably old-hat for most of you, but I thought I'd share given I find this perfect for my uses.

what the hell did all of you 'we want a metronome' people do before sonar ? and what do for timing you're not glued to the puter.

i've played guitar for 25ish years now, sonar wasn't around when i started (no cakewalk,steinborg etc.)

when i first started playing i bought :

a guitar & strings
a tuner
a metronome

buy a friggin $19 metronome.

let the sonar coders alone so they can develop functionality that's really needed.

buy a friggin $19 metronome

huh ? i couldn't get what u really wanna say here ... how's a friggin $19 metronome related to the lack of a good audio metronome in sonar ?

( damn , here we go again ... )

what the hell did all of you 'we want a metronome' people do before sonar ?

i would ask WHERE the hell did all of these posts/users requests gone ? its clear , they worn out , how many times can u ask for a metronome ? too many posts on this isse anyway,
not that it helped .

now for the second part - "people do before sonar ? " WHO CARES what was before Sonar ? <g> ohh , guitar players , alyways thinking back.. "Vintage" :)

I think that is a question of paying attention to basic functionality. It may be not be something to brag about, but the basics should work, so the artist can think about what ever the artist thinks about. And, making the functions work is the software developers responsibility,
Like the tuner and midi and fx envelopes and midi editing. The focus for the user should be on the sound, not on why isn't a tool working on this track. Or why do I have to invent a metronome I can hear thru my headphones. Cakewalk isn't alone in the problem of focusing on the basics, and it is too good a tool to give up. But the code developed years ago needs attention, too.

Don

ORIGINAL: HammerHead

i build my foundation midi drum tracks first

Well, you don't need a metronome then since you are drawing in your patterns, step sequencing them or using imported MIDI clips. If you wanted to play in drum beats on a set of trigger pads or a MIDI keyboard, you would have to have some sort of metronome, otherwise you wouldn't be able to lay down the "first track" in time with the sequencer.

Anyway, I didn't realize I would be drumming up such hostilities. I have never once complained that Sonar does not have a metronome, and I never will. I was just trying to share how I go about it (and will go about it even after they implement a metronome feature).

Anyway, I didn't realize I would be drumming up such hostilities. I have never once complained that Sonar does not have a metronome, and I never will. I was just trying to share how I go about it (and will go about it even after they implement a metronome feature).

you did nothing wrong....

...I have the highest contempt for people who continue to stand in the way of this metronome request


(spitting on the floor... )

BTW ...what do you think of my two options there (up in this page ) ? which one is what i really think and which one is faked ? :)

it's probably effective, but the existance of yet another around just makes the support situation more difficult IMO.

...regarding people who want to disrespect the request, I gladly return the favor. It doesn't take much energy at all. Audio metronome is my sacred cow.

Um, PINGDXi still works pretty well for 14 bucks :)

ps... I didn't mean to reply to you specifically tab, I just wanted to add this reminder that (in the meanwhile) Ping does a decent job until we get a real metronome is Sonar.

LOL !

If Cakewalk hadn't already said that it's coming in the next version of SONAR, I'd have something to say. As it is, people can enveigh against it all they want. It's coming. I am satisfied.

If, however, Cakewalk were persuaded otherwise, I'd have a word or two to say about that.

Theres an easier way to do this. Just import a click in to measure 1, copy and paste it as long as you want on the measures.
Then delete all tempos but the first event in the tempo view. Save as a template file. Done. The click will adjust to your tempo.
No need for bouncing down audio. No need for ping dxi

Guys enough with the workarounds and gimmiks. Lets focus on what Rop Kuper said about Sonar 4 and the internal audio metronome implamentation and be done with it.

Some of you insist to rub this "I dont use it so let everyone else suffer" attitude. Please be considerate of others and lets not turn this into another flame war.

And I agree too, I've read people saying how you don't find Cakewalk in many pro studios yet. Forget that, but an audio metronome (atleast a Dxi could have been bundled) should have existed from SONAR 1.0

ORIGINAL: soundtweaker

Theres an easier way to do this. Just import a click in to measure 1

But, where do you get that "click" to import? And you'll have to find one with 4 beats per measure, 6 beats per measure, 9 beats per measure, etc. anyway, right? The way I do it, I only had to do this process once for each time signature, and now I have a folder full of groove clip enabled click tracks that can be dragged out at will and/or can handle time signature changes and tempo changes mid-project flawlessly. I can't imagine how much easier it could get, but if you say so, that's great. I've already finished building my clicks though ... if I had a website, I guess I could just post the files and then everyone could use them using your method. But, unfortunately I don't have a website.

Other than the fact that it should have been there (like Project 5 has) in the first version of Sonar, I agree with you...

from my perspective it's not a done deal until it's shipping. Software companies have to make decisions/trade offs all the time. Features are cut from products at the last minute for a variety of reasons. Priorities can change over time and a diluted plea for an audio metronome can have an effect.

Software does not realistically exist until it's shipping.