Wish this thread had come along a few months ago. I've come out of a 30-plus-year retirement to play in a wonderful band ... with part of my head still stuck in 1975. We recorded some tracks for a promotional video (there are two drummers) over the summer and my performance with click was simply horrible. Cut everything two or three times and then had to come back a couple weeks later to clean it all up again. I could never hear myself; all I listened for was the click.

This dialog has made it clear to me this recording model isn't going away and I better catch up. My chief complaint is/was that the music is organic and songs should be allowed to find the flow and speed and finesse of the players. This thread has reiterated tempo trumps all and that one man's finesse is another man's sloppiness.

Great stuff.

Most DAWs (recording software) allow one to program tempos, usually as a line on the master track. I did a session recently where the producer wanted certain tunes to pick up in tempo in certain places, mostly leading into solo sections or as the tune progressed. This allows you to multiple versions of a tune and edit them together, but yet have more of an "organic" feel that has the same degree of speeding up/slowing down on each take. Kinda the best of both worlds. I asked the engineer to add accents on the bars proceeding the tempo change as a cue. This worked very well. Not necessarily a recipe that works for every tune or an excuse to not be able to play to a stable tempo click, but is an option as well.

Just thought I'd add that, since it hadn't been mentioned.

There will always be the occasional song with ritards and accelerations as part of the production, however, most if the time, tempo should be a steady thing. That organic feel comes from note placement, sound source, touch and dynamics. Once you begin to get comfortable with it, you will learn to actually enjoy it.

Yes, but it applies to recording much more than to a 'live gig' situation. You can get away with a lot more stuff at a gig than in a recording studio where time and $ rules. I did some recording at Arista in New York in the late-90's and the engineer and producer on the job were a bunch of micromanaging nit-pickers. The only thing that saved me on that gig was that I managed to keep good enough time, that they felt they wouldn't have to do a whole lot of punching in and out (before mixing) to fix any little dookies here and there. In the studio, I'm much more aware of technical stuff, at gigs, it's all about feel. I'm not freaking out over minute details as much as when I'm being recorded. I am always -nervous- when recording, at gigs (after the first number,) I'm relaxed and I just try to enjoy getting into the music and having some fun playing. Two different heads.

John