I’ve been experimenting with separating the drum track from a song in Moises … so far so good.
I’ve downloaded the separated tracks as MP3 … so far so good.
I can play the drum MP£ on my PC … so far so good!
But…the track starts with the drum and base together, so there is no way for me to start the drum track on the PC and hit the first note on the 1. Is there a way of easily adding four clicks (yep, the song is in 4/4) at the beginning of an MP3? (The only DAW I am currently using is Garageband).
When I need to add count in clicks to a song, I use Audacity. I load the track into Audacity, add a mono track to the project. I then modify the new track as a “Rhythm Track”. Save the entire project and export it to an MP3. I do this before using Moises to separate the tracks.
Is there a reason you don’t just use your normal DAW for this? Most have a count-in button, and you can do exactly the same thing as here if they do not. All you have to do is make sure to set the tempo correctly to the song tempo in the DAW, which is the first thing you should ever do anyway, as otherwise the measure and beat markers will not line up.
In GarageBand you can select the count in button. You have the backing track, then you create another track to record yourself AND the count in only works when you press Record and not Play.
Useful for when you start recording yourself in the future.
Before really working with stuff in DAWs, you want to make sure you set the DAW tempo correctly to the song tempo. This will make other DAW features work properly. The measure and beat grids will line up correctly, the count-in, metronome, and click track features in the DAW will be correct, and especially if you are using any virtual instruments or effects plugins, they will sync correctly.
You can change it later too, but it can be a PITA because you need to make sure it won’t stretch the existing audio in the project to match the new tempo, which is the default behavior for most DAWs. Just make a habit to set it right at the start.
CakeWalk (the DAW I’m using) has this count-in functionality as well, but I’ve never been able to get it to work… Even if I set the tempo before loading the tracks, the clicks I’m hearing still seem to be too fast, or too slow, or “misaligned” (for want of a better word) with the actual beats. Also, when I enable the count-in button, the clicks continue after the tracks start playing, which is pretty distracting. I’m sure I’m doing something wrong, I just don’t know what it is. I’ll try again someday, using the explanations posted here by @howard, @g13dip, @Paul_9207 and @Barney as a reference. Thanks for posting guys, very useful!
I may be wrong but I think most of the DAW count-in clicks are not included when exporting the track so, if the aim is to create a backing track to learn a song to (which I’m guessing is the intention here), you need a method of adding clicks to the exported track. I’ve not used it yet but I think for this purpose the tempo option in moises might be the best way. Or maybe DAWs have an option to output count-in clicks to the exported track. I’m not that experienced with them yet to know.
Agreed, but I don’t find the interface on my DAWs (Ableton and Audacity) the most convenient for repeated practice playing. So my preference is to create a practice track with the clicks. If necessary these can easily be removed when/if it comes to recording, though I generally keep one version with and one without the count in.
In Logic (and probably GarageBand), you need to go to the mixer (X) and click the “All” button (where it says “Single/Tracks/All”). Now you should see a control strip called “Click” which is associated with the plug-in “Klopfgeist”. Right click on that strip and choose “Create track” - the track is now in your timeline (main window). Choose the editor (E) and, e.g., the piano roll view, use the pencil tool and create four beats (or whatever you need). There is a click on all keys/pitches, and you can change the tonal qualities of the click in the plug-in Klopfgeist.
Create as many bars as you need, and there is your initial click, ready to be bounced with all the other tracks
EDIT: if you are unsure about your skills when painting in notes in the piano roll editor, make sure to either have them snap to the right grid, or quantize them later, such that they all lie where they are supposed to!
Correct but I only mentioned it because when forum members get to the point where you want to record themselves (both audio and video for a cover) it’s a useful feature.
A lot of songs have the bass coming in on the one and the count in on GarageBand is helpful for that. Especially as it may take multiple takes until you’re happy with the result. The count in takes away some of the guess work.
Hey @sunDOG I spent some time this morning surfing around to find your answer.
Here’s a neat little video explaining exactly how to add a click to the beginnning of your track which you can export and use anywhere you want to practice.
It’s also why I love this forum! No ‘d’oh, what do you mean, you don’t know?!’, just helpful advice!
Thanks everyone!!
I’ve got a jam session scheduled early Jan, three of us, a guitarist, a vocalist and me. We’ve agreed two songs we’re going to have a go at, but we need a drum track - I don’t really want to just use the basic drum patterns in my Zoom B1four, or try to create a drum track in a Garage Band, hence Moises…
Yeah, I always just add the drums first by MIDI editing - but then again I don’t use backing tracks
Then for songs with a bass lead-in, I just record it over the drums somewhere in the middle and then drag it back to the start of the song in the timeline.
