Drummers with and without click tracks - analysis

... yet there is an increasing obsession with perfect timing...

100% perfect timing, even when playing alongside a click track, is a hard a task to achieve, and I believe it's not always beneficial to the music, it will give a clinical, feelingless and cold sounding grooves. :(

Some pro session drummers are working very hard to achieve and provide that warmth, that feel and their sensibility within the music, if it was "too" perfect, you would lose these attributs, which is the very reason why an artist is calling for such or such drummer for their project.

There's a lot of icon drummers and songs already in this thread, and while they're not reading a plot anywhere near a 100% rating on a plot, they've indeed influenced generations of musicians. :)

A piece of music is full of emotions and feelings, and it's perfectly normal that's reflected within the players involved within the project, I could not imagine "Stairway To Heaven" with a drum track of a 100% rating, it would kill the feel of the song IMO. :)

Here's a couple of exemples to demonstrate the "accuracy" of an analysis of a plot...

Russ Ballard's Voices:

The plot (64%) http://labs.echonest.com/click/?songId=SOAKLAU12A6D4F7602&artist=Russ+Ballard&title=Voices
The song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVehzvsZ5GY

Even with a reading of "only" 64%, the feel of this drum track is perfect, again, IMO. :)

Nik Kershaw's Radio Musicola:

The plot (100%) http://labs.echonest.com/click/?songId=SOGKDDS12A67020A54&artist=Nik+Kershaw&title=Radio+Musicola
The song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyQQh0nLeSo

This is a programmed drum track, very clinical sounding, no feel, a real drummer would have been a better choice (strangely enough, all the other songs on this album features a real drummer).

Bottom line, yes it is important to have a solid time as a drummer, but not to the detriment of the music, on some style of music, you actually want to have slight fluctuation within the tempo, such as blues or Jazz, to name but a few. :))
 
Some drummers are so used to playing with a click that they can sound like they aren't playing with a metronome, even when they are dead on. Josh Freese mentioned in an interview that he preferred to play behind the beat along with a click so it didn't sound too clinical. That's certainly not me, though! I can play with a click ok, but not ahead or behind the beat like that.

I think click tracks make sense for step recording, since there is so much to layer, but one trend I can't stand is click tracks live. Slapping on a pair of isolation headphones, not interacting with the music and playing off the crowd, but hearing click-click-click the whole time? IMO It would be lame. Why does live have to sound exactly the same as the record, with flown-in electronics, vocals, etc.? I don't get it.
 
most of my friends are recording pop/rock/indie. radio friendly stuff.
hell i think one of them even programs jazz brushes...

Ok, I figured your friends would be playing related styles to you.


100% perfect timing, even when playing alongside a click track, is a hard a task to achieve, and I believe it's not always beneficial to the music, it will give a clinical, feelingless and cold sounding grooves. :(

Some pro session drummers are working very hard to achieve and provide that warmth, that feel and their sensibility within the music, if it was "too" perfect, you would lose these attributs, which is the very reason why an artist is calling for such or such drummer for their project.

... Bottom line, yes it is important to have a solid time as a drummer

Agree. This is not to say that my own time is fine ... it's not and I need some more quality time with a metronome.

However, I question the degree of focus on perfect time, apart from obviously digital tracks and/or when sequencers are used. It feels to me like producers are trying to get the production super shmick to make up for the relative lack of sincerity, soulfulness, compositional ideas, inspiration etc.

As a listener I want more of the juicy stuff.


Some drummers are so used to playing with a click that they can sound like they aren't playing with a metronome, even when they are dead on. Josh Freese mentioned in an interview that he preferred to play behind the beat along with a click so it didn't sound too clinical. That's certainly not me, though! I can play with a click ok, but not ahead or behind the beat like that.

I think click tracks make sense for step recording, since there is so much to layer, but one trend I can't stand is click tracks live. Slapping on a pair of isolation headphones, not interacting with the music and playing off the crowd, but hearing click-click-click the whole time? IMO It would be lame. Why does live have to sound exactly the same as the record, with flown-in electronics, vocals, etc.? I don't get it.

Yep, naturally the top players are excluded from any of this. As I said before, if the band's using sequenced parts then a click is a must. A number of people on the forum have said their band's time has improved from always rehearsing and gigging with a click, so it's no doubt a good training tool.
 
This is not to say that my own time is fine ... it's not and I need some more quality time with a metronome...

A little story Polly

My first encounter with a click track was when I've been hired as a drummer by a friend of mine to lay down a groove on one track in a recording studio, that was in 1985 if my memory is correct, I never played that way before, and I only used a metronome for my own practice, never with a band or during live performance.

The track I had to play had all the music and vocals recorded, I just had to to record the drum parts, and I had a click track in my headphones, I could hear that I was "missing" beats during the first take, and I was really concentrating on the click. After the first take we had a listen, and I can tell you I was ashamed of my playing, it was all over the place, it was really embarrassing, in the end we recorded the drums without the click track, and believe it or not, my timing was much better by playing along the music than with the click. A really tough lesson though, as a result, I played with a metronome during band practice after that experience. :)
 
The track I had to play had all the music and vocals recorded, I just had to to record the drum parts, and I had a click track in my headphones, I could hear that I was "missing" beats during the first take, and I was really concentrating on the click. After the first take we had a listen, and I can tell you I was ashamed of my playing, it was all over the place, it was really embarrassing, in the end we recorded the drums without the click track, and believe it or not, my timing was much better by playing along the music than with the click. A really tough lesson though, as a result, I played with a metronome during band practice after that experience. :)

I don't see the point in having a click if you're adding drums to music that's already been played to a click. All you have to do is play the music and you know the tempo will be steady.

I'm so old school and way out of today's loop - I'm not a fan of separate tracking. I prefer the whole band just playing together. I like music that's a bit goofy and imprecise.

This whole perfection thing strikes me as very formal, unless the music is a bit twisted or weird, which takes away the conservatism. In conventional music I like things more loose and relaxed, which of course is the luxury of a hobbyist.
 
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