Entertainment For Lively Minds
In Search Of The Click Track
In the last podcast talk turned to click tracks. So I thought the Word Massive might be interested in this blog post Revisiting The Click Track in which the author uses a service from a company called Echo Nest to analyse the difference between actual and average tempo of a song. Or the deviation from the click track. Resulting in graphs such as the below contrasting So Lonely from The Police (1978) and I Love Rock'n'Roll from Britney Spears (2002). Demostrating the thesis put forth in the podcadst that since 1980 every track has been in time. Original is here.
You can have fun trying this out on your favourite tracks with their online tool In Search Of The Click Track. There's a drummers gallery too. For example here's a Jimmy Chamberlain analysis.
What gems can the Word massive find?
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Sounds like fun
Had problems with the programme. It didn't seem to work treied a few inlcuding David Bowie - no luck.
You'll need to allow Javascript to run.
In Firefox with the 'Noscript' plug-in running, you'll need to allow (at least temporarily) scripts from 'echonest' to run, otherwise the graph won't appear.
How do I copy the graph?
I've tried and I can't do it.
I can't copy the graph either
but I find all this fascinating stuff.
I think there's a danger, though, that you might start assuming that songs without machine-like tempos are automatically "better" or more "real". For example, an album like DJ Shadow's Endtroducing uses regular tempos by necessity (as the drum beats are all sampled loops) yet the whole thing still sounds dynamic and exciting to my ears.
And modern dance music: although it's not to my taste I can see that part of the excitement in it comes from the constant hard tempo which never lets up.
But when push comes to shove, I like a live drummer best, and the push and pull you get from hearing them play off against the other musicians. I can't imagine a song like Voodoo Child (Slight Return) with a click track (In fact, I can.... ugh).
To Copy The Graph
In FireFox to copy an image: Right click on the image and select Save Image As...
interesting
David Loverling's drums on Debaser by Pixies seems to vary between 50 and 100%.
Bill Berry of REM would seem to have started using clicktracks around the Fables of the Reconstruction album - though the much earlier Ages of You scored 100% too.
I have a couple of doubts
I have a couple of doubts about this.
One is that there might be tempo changes written into the music – that's very easy to do with current music software. Just having the tempo pick up in the chorus isn't in itself a sign that a click wasn't used because you can program a click to speed up and slow down. Indeed, a common trick these days (with competent drummers) is to let them play as normal then have the software derive a tempo map from what the have played. After that it's possible to squash the tempo variation over the course of the piece a little if it's too much. Like Elastic Time in Pro Tools, for instance.
There may also be some slight inconsistencies with the software and how it derives a tempo from a piece where the time signature may not be constant (most classical pieces, or indeed prog rock).
Surely the proper test is how it sounds? Graphing a musical piece in terms of timing or pitch can lead nowhere good.
Error message...
...when I search. Oh well.
The one that always bothers me is the HJH's You Won't See Me which noticeably slows towards the end. I've often wondered if this was due to Ringo fatigue or druggy design.