If you’ve used the GP metronome, you know just how piercing and painful the default sound can be with any increase in volume. I’ve nearly blown my eardrums out a few times over the years! It’s been a challenge to find good metronome sounds that A) allow for a good degree of volume , B) have a pitch that doesn’t interfere with the music, yet C) don’t get cancelled out by the music.
I came across the TICK metronome, which provides a low-pass filter. This allows for some higher pitched sounds to be used while taming the destructive frequency into something more percussive and less piercingly tonal.
I ended up sampling some ‘tick’ and ‘tock’ sounds using the low pass filter, and now use those as the samples within GP metronome. Now I don’t risk blowing out my eardrums anymore.
Here are the ‘tick’ and ‘tock’ samples, for anyone interested in using them. Tick_Tock.zip (8.6 KB)
Very cool custom setup with a lot of flexibility in that panel.
Percussion samples are great when playing solo, but for me they get lost in the mix once I add in actual drums.
Currently I use the inbuild standard sound, which are OK
But I had situations where I wished to have had changed them, but have had nothing prepared before rehearsal…
I would certainly appreciate more metronome sounds that can be chosen quickly. As @tripleB mentiones, oftentimes other tasks are more important and we live with a not perfect metronome sound. My 2 cents.
I wanted to pass on a metronome technique I learned when recording in Seattle, years ago at Triad Studios with Tom Hall (Queensÿche engineer).
Scott Rockenfield (founding Queensryche drummer) made his own midi sequenced click tracks to record and perform to. They were not static clicks though. He used a mallet type sound and made them pitched to the melody of the songs.
He could rehearse alone and know where he was in the song. I imagine the same feed was sent to the band later when they were performing with the video productions they did on their later tours.
With Scott making the sequence, he would be more comfortable knowing what accents and ques he needed in the songs. He also triggered the sound effect/intro samples from a sampler and started the click sequencer. I guess it was good to be pretty midi savvy as a drummer back in the late 80’s.
I have used this technique for recording with later projects. Thought it worked well for me, but haven’t had a drummer making the sequences.
Thought I’d pass this along since click tracks are being discussed.
That’s a nice description how metronome evolved to more or less complex click tracks. I’ve seen some bands which prepare click tracks in a similar way, where they even add some spoken audio to announce the next song parts like a stage manage in a clascial theatre does towards all technicians (sound, light, effects)
BTW: James Brown was also some kind of click track “Take me to the bridge!”
I’m playing drums with a series of seven foot pedals while playing guitar(or keys) and singing along with a scripted sequenced-style looping app. Precision is required, and while I’m decent at keeping time I don’t possess the god-like ability to keep things as precise as I need it to be while juggling all those things at once.
I do cut out the metronome at times if/when I’ve looped a section of drums, but most of the time the drums are live and not looping, so the metronome is usually present. Having clicks that don’t clash with those drums but are still loud enough to be heard in-ear is why I enjoy the samples that I provided above.
I’d like to see this. 
