Click track

A click track is a series of audio cues used to synchronize sound recordings, sometimes for synchronization to a moving image. The click track originated in early sound movies, where optical marks were made on the film to indicate precise timings for musical accompaniment. It can also serve a purpose similar to a metronome, as in the music industry, where it is often used during recording sessions and live performances.

On click tracks

The invention of the click track is sometimes credited to Carl Stalling, although other sources have given it to Max Steiner and Scott Bradley.^{[citation needed]} The click track was sufficiently useful as a synchronization tool that it became part of standard recording technology, whether for films, radio or other sound recording and the click track was applied to one of the tracks on a multi-track tape recorder. By the late 20th century, particularly in the realm of sound synthesizers and digital recording, the click track became computerized and synchronizing different instruments became more complex, whereupon the click track was largely supplanted by SMPTE timecode.

Click tracks were also once very important in the creation of accurately timed music such as radio/TV spots (commercials ) and other timed production music. In this type of use a rhythm section or ensemble would play all instruments to a click track. With the use of MIDI sequencing in the '80s and '90s it became possible to build an entire music track that was accurately timed without depending solely on only a click track. Computer based MIDI sequencing programs are still used in the creation of music. The MIDI sequencer generated track can be used with only MIDI controlled instruments or embellished with real instruments played by musicians. The musicians who embellish the tracks created with MIDI sequencer essentially play along with the already timed piece of music. In many cases all of the MIDI instrumentation is replaced by actual musicians.

The click track may also be used as a form of metronome directly by musicians in the studio or on stage, particularly by drummers, who listen via headphones to maintain a consistent beat. As said before, one can think of a click track as essentially being a kind of metronome (except that in musical recordings it is fed through headphones to one or more of the musicians during a recording or performance, but as previously mentioned, quite often to just the drummer). This is because drums (often along with the bass, guitar and/or piano when present, together making up what is often called the rhythm section) tend to provide the rhythmic fulcrum in small ensembles, not just because drums are loud, but also because drummers very often go through the most advanced rhythmic training compared to many other instrumentalists.

The practice of recording using an aiding click track is contrary (and bothersome to some) to the practice of using a metronome during practice and then turning it off come time for a performance or recording, which has traditionally been more common in the past. More information regarding criticisms of click tracks will be found in the relevant section of this article. The use of a click track allows for easier editing in a digital audio workstation (DAW) or music sequencer, since various parts can be easily quantized and moved around or spliced together without worrying about minute differences in timing. This approach to recording is sometimes criticized for making the music sound "dead" and artificial, but in the right circumstances it can be useful. For instance, there exist modern "one-man bands" who may record all or many of the different parts of a recording separately themselves, and put them together in a multi-track audio editor. In this case, click tracks are usually essential.

This can be especially true (regarding one-man acts) with regard to longer pieces of music. This is likely because the longer a human being tries to keep a metronomic rhythm without a reference, the more time there is to get significantly off-synchrony with the project's beats per minute (BPM). However, if they are able to maintain a very consistent tempo throughout, but fall slightly shy of having performed at the song's overall actual tempo, the resulting recording can often be time-stretched or condensed to fit the proper duration evenly so that it can be added to the mix of tracks, without the need for quantization).

Click tracks can also be essential for certain types of metal, especially if the music is played at an extremely high tempo. In circumstances like these, where the margin of error is so minute, the performance may need to be aided by a click track, or it will completely fall apart, and it can become a blur in which the downbeats can't be clearly recognized, with the overall rhythm possibly in ruins. Furthermore, there is also the case of electronic music artists, whose music is generally entirely (or mostly) based on multiple, individually created tracks, all set to rigid timing by the very nature of the medium used to produce the genre.

It is not uncommon for musicians or engineers to subdivide click tracks at slow tempos (for instance, below 70 BPM) into smaller parts, with, e.g., a click on the start of a bar and a beep on every individual 1/4 (or 1/8, or 1/16, etc.) note. Some musicians also use pre-recorded backing tracks with additional parts such as synthesizers, strings or layered background vocals to recreate parts that would be impractical to play live, in which case a click track synchronized with the backing track is played through headphones or in-ear monitors to keep the musicians in synchrony with the backing track.

Criticisms

Using a click track, does not really allow a natural shifting of tempo, that would be vital for expressive phrasing and instances of fermata, accelerando, ritardando, etc. Quotation:

• "And many recent recordings of pop music demonstrate how music is killed by a metronome for they are as square as a draftsman's T. For the convenience of recording engineers, each player has to record their part on a separate track while listening to a click track — a metronome — and the clicks are then used to synchronize the tracks while the technicians adjust them to their taste and mix them. I know talented young musicians who can't do it; we can understand why. Nothing compares with a recording of a live performance in which the players provide each other with the time-framework.[...] if you want to kill a musical performance, give the player a click track!"

— James Beament; How we hear music: the relationship between music and the hearing mechanism

When there is no need to post-process the music with it properly fitting up to a tempo grid in a DAW, it can be reasoned that there is thus no need to record or perform to a click track, particularly if the band is good at keeping together rhythmically and particularly if they are musicians who are experienced with tempo-alteration and musical phrasing. Although it is possible to create "click maps" (pre-programmed click tracks designed specifically for a song or musical presentation that changes tempo and/or meter throughout), much live music can benefit from natural shifts of pace (tempo) between different sections of a song or piece of music. Genres like jazz are especially said to have this type of character to it. If one listens to some jazz from the 1930s or 1940s, and then imagines those musicians having to record it to an unchanging click, one might be able to see how it could ruin the musicians' "grooves", so to speak. Similarly, if one loads an old jazz recording into a DAW and tries to automatically calculate the average BPM, one may be surprised to see just how much the tempo naturally increases and decreases, depending on the current mood of the piece.

References

• From the glossaries: BBC and about.com

External links

• Clickbook for sync-point composing — An online available tool to calculate click-tracks to synchronize the music with the film
• What is a click track? — A thorough explanation
• musicmachinery.com — In search of the click track
• ClickTracks, iOS app