Tracking a band with shifting time signatures?

[Punky921]

Hey guys,

So I'm tracking this band, and they want to record their performances as a full band. But they also want me to go back and nip, tuck, and edit. I figure it'll easier for me to do that if they record to a click. However, some of their songs shift time signature in the middle of the song. How would I account for that when tracking in Ableton, especially if the click needs to alter at a certain moment? Is there some automation I can record? Please let me know. I'm on Suite 7.

[Matt_Quinn]

You can define time signatures in Live (hover the mouse at the top of the arrangement window>'Insert Time Signature').

I like to ask the band for a rough diagram of the such changes so I can be ready ahead of time. You might have to futz with the Tempo at the point of the signature change to get an even transition - I was recording a song for a friend that went from 4/4 to 6/8 in the middle, and the tempo of the 6/8 section had to be raised quite a bit to get the right feel moving from the 4/4 section.

[Punky921]

Is the "insert time signature" thing something I can do in advance? Would I have to do it live? Can I automate it so it jumps up or down a certain number of BPM at the shift?

[Matt_Quinn]

Is the "insert time signature" thing something I can do in advance? Would I have to do it live? Can I automate it so it jumps up or down a certain number of BPM at the shift?

Yeah, you'd have to do the initial set up in advance. That's why I'd ask them for a rough idea of how the song is structured - 32 bar intro in 4/4 @ X bpm, 16 bar verses in 4/4 @ X bpm, 6/8 Chorus @ X bpm, etc. But once the time signature locators are set up, you can automate the tempo changes so it flows smoothly start to finish.

[Punky921]

Awesome. Thank you. I'll give this a shot.

When I ask them this question, they will literally shit their pants. They NEVER think about their songs that way.

[H20nly]

^ sounds familiar

"time signature?? what do you mean, help? all you're doing is hitting record and CDs and record sales should just happen automatically dammit!"

or...

"if i had a computer and all this software, i'd have that done by now"

i think you said in another thread (about this same band) something along the lines of... "i'm glad this isn't my full time job". uh huh.

[Punky921]

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. The process has been... interesting to say the least.

I could do with about 100% less bickering, and 100% more "Doing whatever the fuck I TELL YOU TO."

[noisetonepause]

My old band had a song that shifted between 3/4, 4/4, and 5/4. I didn't know how to insert time signature changes into the programme I used to record it (or if it could), so I just tracked it to a 1/4 click.

I was recording a song for a friend that went from 4/4 to 6/8 in the middle, and the tempo of the 6/8 section had to be raised quite a bit to get the right feel moving from the 4/4 section.

That probably was the same tempo in a sense, just 4th note triplets so the same distance between the 1 and 3 beats but subdivided into three instead of two.

[Angstrom]

yeah, I would do what NTP says -> record to a 1/4 click and ignore the bars, then afterwards when every other bastard has gone away find the sig changes, insert them and drag them to position.

In fact I don't tend to use the actual metronome bleep-bloop , I use a custom drum hit sound on a dedicated track because it's easier to alter it for monitoring. Change the sound, etc.