RECORD METRONOME

A simple way to have a metronome on a track is to create a loop and copy and paste (or drag out after looping).

Otherwise, this search link will provide you with solutions.

Frank Basile


Like Mike suggested, try using loops as your "click" track. Download a whole bunch of different types of click loops here... http://www.smartloops.com/Free/

Thanks Frank, for the tip. Please except my apology for nubee questions but which format works best. This site asks if I want them as SF2, SFZ or GIG. I have just started working with Sonar 6 Producer Edition. Fear has kept me away and NOW I have a NEW project to record and I need to learn this program QUICK. I have used nTracks for several years, but am still novice with it.
 
 

Thanks for the tip. Pops.

 I realize I need guidance and have JUST ordered from Amazon
Cakewalk SONAR Power! Tips
http://www.garrigus.com/p...oks/SONARPowerTips.asp
[expert tips for Cakewalk's SONAR music software]
FOR Sonar 6 PE.
 
Years ago I bought Cakewalk 3 and never did anything with it. That will not happen this time.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
 

Larry you have hit the nail on the head. I just need a designated "Click" track so the other players can come in and record. Also if there was a need to sing to tracks there would be a count in etc.
 
I have learned a lot just reading the info in this forum btw.

Blueskeys,

You can easily create a "click track" on the spot (in a couple of minutes at most) using TTS-1 or SD2 or whatever in SONAR. It's just a matter of learning how to do so and spending a little time planning (RE: "if there was a need to sing to tracks there would be a count in etc."). SONAR's metronome feature has a count in feature that is user definable.

Your original question and subsequent posts are vaguely conflicting. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

Alright Ariajazz,

Recording with sonar's inbuilt meternome always proved troublesome for me, as it caused dropouts, whereas without the meternome my system runs without a glitch.

To work around this as I always play to a click track, I use the stepsequencer. Convert the signal to audio then copy and paste (with multiple repetitions).

With this method I've nver had a problem and it is very, very easy to edit later on.

Rod

papa2005


Blueskeys,

You can easily create a "click track" on the spot (in a couple of minutes at most) using TTS-1 or SD2 or whatever in SONAR. It's just a matter of learning how to do so and spending a little time planning (RE: "if there was a need to sing to tracks there would be a count in etc."). SONAR's metronome feature has a count in feature that is user definable.

Your original question and subsequent posts are vaguely conflicting. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

I don't mean to interject on Blueskeys behalf, but I think we're on the same page about this for the most part. And I'm folloing this too to see if there's a better way. I've used SessionDrummer quite a bit to create fancy click tracks. Some clients find it way easier to play along to something sounding like an actual drum beat than a sterile ticking or beeping noise which gets rather annoying after a few minutes. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods I've found out over time. People are people and have their own requirements. I don't pass judgment on why one method is preferred over another. It's not my place to dictate to a client what they should be hearing in the headphones. Whatever makes them happy is my motto.
 
In our worlds it doesn't really matter what device is used to create a click track (generally speaking). What makes the standard metronome appealing is the ability to choose from a nice selection of sounds. And it's relatively easy to set up compared to SessionDrummer which takes a little longer.
 
Either method requires that we render the audio to a WAV file or audio clip that can be edited, saved, exported, etc. I have tried, in the past, just using these devices as MIDI timers (set the cursor to zero, hit record, play the clicking/drum sounds through the headphones, record your tracks, done). The problem with this method is it assumes you are starting at the same place every time. And what if you want the count in only for the first measure or so, then come back in again later at multiple places? Trying to program this into the timeline in Sonar seems like a major time soak.
 
In my world, I don't care about the time line. Could care less if I start recording at zero, 5 seconds, 20 seconds, 32.6.008 seconds. Quite often I'm shifting takes around to accomodate overdubs or whatever. With an actual click audio clip, I can move it around just as easy as anything else and my reference is always the same.
 
Again though, I'm all ears if there is a better way to "make a click track" that doesn't involve audio leaving and re-entering Sonar.
 
 

i've had to do this exact thing many many times, but unfortunately there's not a straight forward (not straight enough) solution for it in sonar (so please in sonar 9?!)

i've had to use the audio metro and send that to a bus, then record that bus on a track. 

now...the biggest issue is that the metro is actually WRONG!  i've got many songs with lots of time and signature changes and the metro really doesn't "like" that i've found.  the more you stray away from */4 the more it "forgets" what one is, giving you strange "one" beeps at random times.

other times i've run into the issue where the timing is actually "off" (i.e. latency), so i've had to audio snap the wav file.  again...works...but a hassle for something that should be REALLY simple.

what i'd really like is an option to dump the metro to midi (via a single button click) and then send that to a vst if needed to dump to an audio file at the very least.  this way if the midi was wrong it's alot easier to edit/ filter.

but yes...please cake...fix the metro and and the ability to add it to a track, please?!

papa2005

ORIGINAL: krizrox
 
In our worlds it doesn't really matter what device is used to create a click track (generally speaking). What makes the standard metronome appealing is the ability to choose from a nice selection of sounds. And it's relatively easy to set up compared to SessionDrummer which takes a little longer.
 
Either method requires that we render the audio to a WAV file or audio clip that can be edited, saved, exported, etc. I have tried, in the past, just using these devices as MIDI timers (set the cursor to zero, hit record, play the clicking/drum sounds through the headphones, record your tracks, done). The problem with this method is it assumes you are starting at the same place every time. And what if you want the count in only for the first measure or so, then come back in again later at multiple places? Trying to program this into the timeline in Sonar seems like a major time soak.
 
In my world, I don't care about the time line. Could care less if I start recording at zero, 5 seconds, 20 seconds, 32.6.008 seconds. Quite often I'm shifting takes around to accomodate overdubs or whatever. With an actual click audio clip, I can move it around just as easy as anything else and my reference is always the same.

 
Larry,
 
With all due respect (and my apologies in advance), none of what you stated makes any sense to me. Perhaps I've had one too many adult beverages but I don't understand any part of your reasoning. There is ALWAYS a timeline involved. Nothing states you have to start overdubbing at the same point. Even in analog tape studios there was a "timeline" but no restrictions on where you wanted to start recording/punching in...
 
What does "Quite often I'm shifting takes around to accomodate overdubs or whatever" mean? Why would you need to do such a thing?
 
You stated that you don't use MIDI, so one would presume (at least I would) that once the basic rhythm track is laid down there would not be a need for a click track of any kind. Perhaps I just need to know more about what kind of recording you actually do because all this "count in for vocals overdubs" and "then come back again in multiple places..." makes no sense to me.

 
I'm not sure to explain all this without getting bogged down in vocabulary and Sonar-speak.  THere are too many permutations of projects to state that it's always one way or another. But generally, if a band wants to play to click track, the first order of business is to determine the correct tempo. Then I establish the metronome settings (ASIO ouput, click sound). I'll start the recording at time zero if it's take one of many takes, and then adjust the sound of the metronome in the headphones so people can play along with it. While this is happening, an actual WAV file is being recorded on track 1 (my click track). As I described earlier, this is done by routing the audio out of Sonar, through an available ASIO channel in Scope, then back into track 1 in Sonar. The band plays and the audio is recorded to tracks 2 - whatever. At the end of the take we now have a click track and all the other tracks of audio that make up the song they just recorded. We listen back (usually with the click track muted). Like the take? Great. Next song. Something not right? Do another take. I copy the click track we just recorded so it starts somewhere after the first take (disable the metronome because we no longer need it for this song) and the band records a new take listening to the click track we had recorded the first time. Doesn't matter where we start recording from. I could care less. I can do many many takes like this simply by copying the click track I originally recorded to the next open spot in the time line. I don't care where each click track starts. Doesn't matter at all. The band is listening to the click track, not watching the timeline in Sonar. They don't care where we start in Sonar either.
 
Get a good take and now it's time to overdub whatever it is that needs to be overdubbed. At this point, there are probably drums recorded so we don't really need the click trqack anymore unless we need a count-in (perhaps the guitarist starts the song for a number of measures so we need to hear the original click in order to double the guitar track). So I'll mute the click once the drums kick in. Maybe there are various points in the song where the drums drop out and it's a solo instrument or a new vocal that has to be added for a few measures. The click is unmuted during those sections.
 
Get what I'm talking about? This isn't that difficult to understand I think. It might be difficult to understand if you don't normally record other artists/bands in your studio. What I'm talking about is so typical. Sonar is nothing more than a tape deck with the advantage that I can see where the takes begin and end. I don't care on need to know where on the timeline these things happen. Doesn't matter at all. It's just a big spreadsheet for audio.
 
That's what I'm talking about. The click is there just to keep the band in sync. I don't even need to start recording at time zero initially. I can crop and slip edit the click to start whenever I want so it makes sense to the artists when they overdub. Quite often, the band might want to go back and add brand new beginning or ending sections to the song. Shoot. Sometimes they even add entire new middle sections. Sometimes this stuff is done by trial and error. Let's record something and see if it fits. Sound good? Splice the ends together so it's seamless. I do this is sort of audio frankenstein type recording all the time. I could never do this by being a slave to the time line. That would take forever to setup. With a click track clip, there's no need to worry about the time line.
 
If I'm still not making sense then oh well. I don't know how else to describe the process. Probably easier to watch than describe
 
 

Papa - we're not really communicating and ultimately, it doesn't really matter. I'm not the one with the problem I can make and use click tracks easily with Sonar and Scope. I did, however, take a closer look at the SessionDrummer documentation (per your original recommendation). As I recalled, it's a rather sparse bit of information that doesn't really tell you much other than how to load and playback the presets. In my case, SD has only seen limited usefullness. Some times it gets the job done very well (when a client wants a simple drum beat instead of a metronome sound). But the ordinary metronome gets used around here a lot more than SD for a lot of reasons.
 
It is possible that with one of the other devices, you could set up a sophisticated MIDI programming sequence and then bounce to an audio clip but gosh, I really don't see how that is faster or ultimately better than simply recording a few seconds of the metronome, and then looping it for 5 minutes (or whatever). I'll bet I could create a click track this way in about a minute or less. In this instance, I find it infinitely easier to massage an audio clip then a MIDI table. I can copy, paste, edit, export with ease. Doesn't matter when in Sonar I plop that thing. I can record take after take by simply copying and pasting click track audio clips all day long. I can mute sections, add sections, etc with a couple of mouse clicks. I don't see how it's easier to do that level of click track manipulation with a softsynth or drum machine program. I can make a SessionDrummer track the exact same way. By routing the audio out of Sonar through an ASIO channel and back into Sonar. My only interest at this point would be how to do this "not in real time" but as a simple bounce to command (that doesn't involved MIDI programming).
 
I still think it would be kinda cool to have a "make click track" feature that automatically makes a click track audio clip however long you want, with the sound you want, at the project tempo. I would find that a really nice workflow feature for a future version.

krizrox

I still think it would be kinda cool to have a "make click track" feature that automatically makes a click track audio clip however long you want, with the sound you want, at the project tempo. I would find that a really nice workflow feature for a future version.

I guess I'm missing something here since I haven't heard any response to my suggestion of simply using already made click loops in Groove-Clips format. Start a project, Open the Loop Explorer View, pick the click-loop you want from a "Click" folder (quarter notes with a side stick sound, eighth-note clicks with a cowbell, sixteenth notes with hi-hats, Triplets with a claves sound, simple drum beat, etc., etc., etc.). Drag it onto a track, drag it out as many measures as you want. I just tried, it takes about five seconds and Bam! there's your click track.

krizrox
 
I still think it would be kinda cool to have a "make click track" feature that automatically makes a click track audio clip however long you want, with the sound you want, at the project tempo. I would find that a really nice workflow feature for a future version.

BINGO, just a little simple method, instead of having to be total gear head at this. Every project in any studio I have worked be it analog of DAW has provided a recorded click track designated to track 1 usually. I just want to PLAY and RECORD my music on a system that feels like a 4 track machine but can do everything this wonderful program can do. Is that TOO much to ask?
Sorry, I just get tired of having to do a work around.