Recording time signature changes...Sequencer reccomendations

[gribuski]

So this is in realtion to the "click track" discussion in the other thread. I myself am a fan of clicks. I practice with a metronome consistently, and have no problems. Neither does my drummer. BUT, I'm in a metal band that has pretty strange tempo and time signature changes.

I would like to program them into a drum machine/sequencer of some sort to practice to and get a good recording (like the Metallica/Megadeth). Any reccomendations? I borrowed a Dr. Rhythm from my buddy, and it was pretty good, but way expensive. Something affordable would be great.


Side note here: I think I'm the only one in my band that: 1) knows what time signature the other parts are in, and 2) even really cares. Its pretty crazy that my drummer and guitar player write these crazy lines, and have no earthly idea what time they are in. They just "feel" it or whatever. I usually don't play metal, and I HAVE to figure out exactly what's going on before I am comfortable playing it . Anybody else noticed something like that?


Anyway, thanks in advance.

Gribuski

[tZer]

In Sonar you can indicate time signature and tempo changes throughout a piece. I would imagine in programs like Cubase, Logic, and Pro-Tool you can do the same.

In Sonar, you can bring up a 'tempo' view and it gives you a measure-by-measure indication of your songs tempo and time signatures. If you have no changes, you will only see the original settings, but if you want to go from 4/4 to 6/8 and drop the tempo at bar 64, you can do so.

--tz

[gribuski]

Incidentally, I have Sonar. I'll have to mess around with it. I'll say that I'm having a terrible time getting my Sonar to sync correctly. I don't exactly have the best setup for recording (USB MobilePre > Dell Laptop), and can't get the tempos of either the MIDI or audio metronome to work (which is a whole new thread in and of itself). All I've used it for is recording my riffs so I don't forget them.

Also, we're getting ready to go into a studio, and I'd like to be able to use whatever I make there. That studio uses ProTools.

Thanks again.

[tZer]

Well, midi stuff should be transportable to an midi-capable world - but as for the hardware/software issues... man I feel you pain. It took me a long time to get my little low-scale home situation functional and I have nowhere near a 'real home studio' going on. Just a standard soundcard into my latest version of Sonar. But for me, that works quite well. We do most of our recording at my friend's studio (Also a Sonar user) but he has the hard-core hardware - so I just bring home bundles and do editing at home.

Good luck! The Sonar help files should tell you all about tempo manipulation and time changes.

--tz