Click/Accompaniment Track Suggestion...

[NLoomis]

So, I've read a few posts on here where people said things like:

"If you're going to use tracks, your band has to know the arrangement really well, cause tracks are unforgiving that way." Or something like that.

Here's what I do. I had my wife record the following words:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Intro Verse Chorus Bridge Turnaround Instrumental Outro

I separated each of these words to its own audo file and created 2 new Reason drum kits, one call "Cue" and the other called "Count".

Now, on the left channel where my click is located, I have a female (my wife) voice both counting the band in and out and announcing the next element of the song a measure prior.

Now, not only does my band not have to know the arrangement that well, they almost don't have to know it at all, since they will be told what to do and when to do it. This has also majorly cut down our needed rehearsal time.

I would have uploaded a sample, but I keep getting a database error.

Anybody else doing this?

Nathan

[MustangsAndDrums]

I did almost the same thing - in addition to the main structural elements of each song - chorus/verse/bridge/etc, I had my wife also record cues like guitars in/out, drums in/out, etc. It works well for the entire team.

[bryanknelson]

Right on guys. Having a spoken "guide track" is extremely helpful if you are married to a song sequence. Here's another trick that mymusicwriter.com has put to use. How about a click track for a sound check? The loop level gets checked, the click level gets checked, then the spoken "guide track" will guide the rest of the band to layer in checks...allowing both FOH (front-of-house audio mixer) and IEM (in-ear-monitor system) levels to be dialed in. The entire sound check process mymusicwriter.com has is boiled down to 7-minutes for a full band. Not only does the guide track happen for band, but announces to the FOH and IEM operators which instrument is coming up next. The best part —*the song is consistent from band to band, week to week, and operator to operator. The sound check with click track and loop can be found at mymusicwriter.com at this link.