A blog about music and pop culture coming from New York, NY. How original.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on February 27, 2007 11:52 PM.

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Metronomes

I have nothing against the metronome. I certainly could stand to use more time practing with one. And recording with a click track has been a established practice for a long time (though I'm not convinced one way or another whether it always (or never) results in a better-sounding song).

But since when has it been acceptable practice to have a drummer play to a click track during a live show? It's one thing if the band is using some kind of drum loop, an often-but-not-always dubious proposition (Radiohead has done it well). But just having a metronome keeping the time underneath seems wrong somehow. Not to mention that I've seen bands play where you could hear the thing ticking off between songs.

I assume advances in technology have allowed bands of all levels to utilize a computer to help keep the time. For all I know, this practice could have been around among big acts since the 80s. Still, it only seems like recently that I see drummers wearing headphones as they play. Might just be my musical snobbery emerging, but it seems a little weak.

And of course, I couldn't let this post end without a link to the song Metronome by some band called The Bosch.

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2 Comments

OK, if you're going to call bands out for bringing the click track, name some names!

no need to jump to conclusions, though.. we use in-ear headphones sometimes but it's for monitoring vocals, as it can be difficult to hear yourself clearly on stage..

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