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Recording Ideas for recording a sax "quartet" (solo, multitrack) with tempo changes

Guenne

Guenne

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Austria
Hi!
A friend of mine asked me to help with her sax quartet. I offered her to record some arrangements, play all 4 tracks, mix all and minus 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th voice.
Some of the arrangements have changes in meter, some in tempo.
While going from 4/4 to 3/4 or 2/4 shouldn't be a problem I'asking myself how to manage tempo changes, for instance in an arrangement of "Fly Me To The Moon" which goes from the 16 bars Intro 110 with straight eights to swung eights in 180.

Thanks for your help,
Guenne
 
Guenne said:
Of course, but I have to set the tempo first.
When I change to 180 after 16 bars, everything will go to 180.
Click to expand...
What DAW? I use Logic, and have used Cubase and Reaper in the past, and they allow tempo changes in the middle of the sequence. Pro Tools does too. Even as far back as 1995, when I worked at Passport Designs, sequencers could change tempo (MasterTracks Pro, and Encore, Passport’s products, used the same code base for the sequencing engine).

I’ll bet your DAW has this feature…. I don’t know of any that omit it.
 
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Guenne said:
Of course, but I have to set the tempo first.
When I change to 180 after 16 bars, everything will go to 180.
Click to expand...

I don't really understand what you are saying here - is it that the DAW you use cannot have a changing Click track - this sounds unlikely and there must be ways around it if so. I can do that easily in Audacity, with multiple Click tracks starting at different points and maybe using different click sounds if that helps highlight the change point.

Or maybe you mean the Click would change instantly at that point and it might be hard to adjust straight away, but then you could possibly have a couple of beats of the new tempo or meter before the actual point where it starts.

One thing that I do if the quartet arrangement is really tough, is to get the arrangement in Sibelius and then export each saxophone line as audio and use those as a guide when recording. That helps you stay solidly in time and you can include however many tracks at whatever level you prefer to play with.

But you are a very strong player so I wouldn't think you need do this unless the arrangement is exceptionally difficult.

Rhys
 
I'm using Studio One.
Until now (on a song without tempo changes), I've set the tempo for a song and turned on the metronome.
You mean I should prepare an audio click track with a changing tempo and play with that?
How would I know how long a section has to be?

Greetings, Guenne
 
Suggest you Google tempo changes for Studio One.
If S One cannot do it then you’ve gone beyond it’s usefulness to you.

I’m sure it’s capable - it’s a pretty old facility for most.
 
Digger2054 said:
In Audacity you can make a rhythm track for a specified number of bars, then add another track with the next tempo.
Click to expand...
I think I could manage to google the real step-by-step "how".
My question was more like - is it necessary to make an audio click track, then another one, then another one, or would someone do it by "programming" the metronome, or yet completely different.
 
When you set up a new track, there will be a default tempo - maybe 120bpm.

This can be ignored if an mp3 backing track is pulled in, but if decided to add anything - maybe there aren’t any drums or you want to add another (midi) instrument - then having the ability to see everything “on the grid” can be a life saver.
 
Hello!
I haven't already recorded the song, but changing the click's tempo is easy.
You just have to open the metronome track, set the tempo, set to "bars", go to the relevant bar and click the plus sign for every tempo change, set the tempo.

Bildschirmfoto 2024-04-22 um 12.54.13.jpg


I think what I have to do is add 2 bars of click in front so that the players can adopt the tempo.
 
Guenne said:
I think what I have to do is add 2 bars of click in front so that the players can adopt the tempo.
Click to expand...

I had been thinking it was for your own benefit when making the recordings but maybe it is for the end users.

As you are making multiple versions with each voice missing, will you also include that click track (always, optionally ?) in the versions you share out ?

It is worth thinking carefully about which click sounds to use, how loud to make them and where to pan them in the mix.

Good luck

Rhys
 
Once you know how to do it it is super easy...
Next would be volume automation, as sometimes it sounds very funny (that's also because of sight-reading :))
The gradual rit. at the end is not perfect too.
Anyway, it's good practice.

If you want to give it a listen, here it is.

Fly Me To The Moon arr. Jack Gale

Thanks for your help!
 
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