#Shawn pelton playing with a click track professional#
#Shawn pelton playing with a click track series#

It is also quite retro in a lot of ways, drawing on influences of the early Beatles, Memphis soul, and the blues. In contrast, our new record is fun, groove-oriented, hard-hitting, and electric. Our two previous albums got to #2 and #11 on the Folk DJ chart and our most recent single release went to #2 on the same chart this past January. We were lucky enough to have some of those songs recorded by other artists, win us the Wildflower Songwriter Contest in Dallas, and help us to become finalists three times in the Kerrville New Folk Contest. Our past albums have consisted of all-acoustic productions with a fair number of very serious songs. Two singles from the record have already been released to Spotify. This album is an exciting change of direction for us and will be released to terrestrial AAA, Americana, and Blues radio on February 4, 2022. We just finished recording a new project called Double Down on a Bad Thing. Though we have not made a fortune in the music business, we feel blessed to write, perform, and record only the music we really love. She and I are known on stage as The Twangtown Paramours, and we’ve written songs, performed live, and produced records since 2010. I am lucky to be married to my favorite singer, MaryBeth Zamer. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today? Hi Mike, so excited to have you on the platform. Visit for more information, rates, and work examples.Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike T. Jonah Brockman is an independent music producer and engineer dedicated to empowering songwriters with the resources they need to make great music. Your engineer and other musicians will appreciate it and your song will sound better for it. With some experimenting and practice you can get comfortable with playing to a click track. And most DAWs allow you to set the actual sounds to whatever you want – i.e.

#Shawn pelton playing with a click track series#

It’s often much easier to get a really good groove by using an appropriate beat instead of a stale series of beeps. Instead of a metronome click sound, use a programmed beat or even a drum loop to help keep beat. It’s usually hardly perceived but overall gives the song more energy. In the studio I’ve often (sometimes secretly) set the tempo on the choruses a few BPM faster than the verses.

Vary the tempo for a more “live” feeling.

You may just naturally want to play your song at a different tempo and it’s much harder to fight the wrong tempo.

Experiment with different tempos. If you’re having trouble keeping on beat, try a different tempo.

Practice! Practice! Practice!with a metronome, programmed beat, or even along with professionally recorded music.

For most pop recordings, though, and certainly for anything with programmed instruments, a click track is almost mandatory. If you desire a very live feeling, you might WANT the inconsistency in your tempo. Now I’m not saying EVERYONE needs to record with a click track. There are styles of music in which a click track would be detrimental. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Not using a click track (especially if your sense of rhythm is less than perfect) will leave your song sounding sloppy and hard-to-listen-to.

#Shawn pelton playing with a click track professional#

It makes editing and automating effects a breeze comparatively.īut setting aside my selfish preferences, using a click track will give your song a neat and professional sound. Why do you need a click track? Speaking as a mixing engineer and a drummer, the biggest reason for using a click is it makes things infinitely easier for me! I rely a lot on visuals and there’s nothing more pleasing than a song neatly laid out in my DAW’s edit window in 4/4 timing with 8-bar verses and choruses. The tempo is measured in beats per minute (BPM). Most often a click track is like a metronome – a series out quarter note “clicks” at a set tempo. What is a click track? Quite simply, it’s a beat used in recording to keep everything synchronized. Either way, playing with a click track can save a lot of time in recording, editing, and mixing AND greatly enhance the “cleanness” of your production. Some of us have very good natural rhythm. One of the biggest sources of discomfort I’ve witnessed for recording artists in the studio (especially newbies) is playing with a click track.