The Steel Guitar Forum

If you record some tracks to a click track, can you add a drum machine later?

If you recorded to the click track, you would have to sync the drum machine speed with the click track. That's the only issue I see.

I record with a drum machine (either an Alesis SR-16 or SR-18) so I don't need the click track.

I've recorded by laying the drum track first. But, after adding additional instrument tracks, I've wanted to edit the drum track or add another verse and chorus,etc. At that point, I'd have to reprogram the drum machine and put down a new drum track. Plus, I'm always tweaking my SR-16 and upgrading it's sounds. I'd like to be able to stick in a new drum track.

If the click track is coming from a device capable of producing FSK to song-pointer sync or SMPTE to MIDI time, and the drum machine is capable of slaving to an external clock, I'd say the answer is yes. Just enter a start time and tempo and it should work. There may be variances, in which case you may need to program a tempo map to lock everything up the whole way through, but it has been done.

Striping a track with SMPTE and using an old MOTU MIDI TimePiece is how I used to avoid programming and/or recording drum machines but still use the sounds from it. Back in the day (I think it was a Tuesday), I used an Alesis HR16 and the old Yamaha RX7 triggered by a Roland Octapad into a 286 IBM running DOS and Voyetra Seq+ software. Nowadays I use the drums built into Logic or various plug ins like Stylus RMX.
Programming drums in a MIDI editor in a DAW is a much more flexible way of using virtual tracks instead of recording the sound. Besides easily editing or arranging the patterns, you can change the drum sounds being triggered at any time later.

As long as the click track was digital (computer or other electronic click) You will be able to sync a drum machine to it by matching the BPM (beats per minute)If the click track was analog, or a mechanical metronome, it won't match up perfectly.

In some cases you will be able to fly in (wild sync)a drum machine part that lines up for a verse or so, then you can cut and paste these good parts to match the rest of the song.

It doesn't have to be perfect, because real drummers aren't perfect, but it has to be very close. So when you overdub bass, guitar keys etc. it will pull together like a real band.

Have fun, it can be tedious but may be worth it
Dom

If you are using a drum machine, why not record it first instead of the click track? I can understand that adding the drum machine lets you add fills, intros, etc. after the other instruments are in and may be more musically adaptable.
If you are using a DAW with midi capabilities for recording, I've found that EZDrummer with the Nashville expansion kit sounds really professional. You may need to manually edit the midi track to achieve what you hear in your mind, but it is a killer sounding drum track.
It takes some work for the editing, but wow... it sounds fabulous because it is sampled drum kits. And as far as synching it to the other tracks, if you put a simple drum track down with EZDrummer you can just "tell it" to synch to the beats per minute that you assign to the song with a DAW like ProTools.
I've had excellent results with this method, although sometimes it takes some time tweaking your drum track to get the individual drums to the perfect volume, etc. but the results are amazing.
Hope my input was a bit helpful.
Best regards,
David

You can add anything you want at any time later.

I find it is very helpful to have a basic groove laid down by the drum machine before you add the bass part. Then after you add bass, guitar fills and other tracks, go back and re-visit the drum part. Add accents, breaks, tom fills etc. to play along with the "band"

I love the multi-track recording process, and it is wonderful to see how each track inspires the next one. Sometimes a divine mistake will become a "hook" lick and you will want to edit another track to match the unintended riff.

Dom