i play guitar and i need to hear like 4 clicks or little bangs that tell me when the song is going to play. i have tried doing this but it doesn’t work.
does anyone know what i can do to start with 4 metronomes and then my song starts?
thanks
Do you mean that you have a recording of a song, and you want to add 4 clicks before the start of the song so that you can then play the song (including the 4 count in beats) and join in with the song as the song starts (immediately after the count in)?
Do you know the tempo (beats per minute) of the song?
Do you have Audacity 1.3.7 installed (recommended by all of the forum regulars these days).
yes that is exactly what im trying to do.
before the song actually starts i want to hear a couple of ticks maybe 4, then after the 4th tick, i know when the song starts and i can jump in and start playing it. you know what i mean?
and i do have the audacity 1.3.7 installed.
and im not sure what you mean by tempo(beats per minute) of the song
“Tempo” is the speed of the beat. You need to know how fast or slow the count in needs to be.
When you listen to the song, is it going “1… 2… 3… 4…” (slow) or is it going “12341234” (fast).
Think of a big old clock ticking once each second - that’s one beat per second or 60 beats per minute. The speed of the beat (pulse) of music is called “Tempo” and is commonly measured in beats per minute (bpm).
In the “Generate” menu in Audacity you will see an item called “Click Track”. A click track is like a “metronome” (a mechanical or electronic beat counter for musicians).
Select “Click track” from the Generate menu and enter the following values:
Tempo: 120
(this is the speed - 2 clicks per second)
Beats per measure: 4
(this is the number of counts per measure - 4 counts is “1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -”.
3 beats per measure is like a waltz " 1 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 2 - 3 -")
Number of measures: 4
(this will click “1 - 2- 3 - 4” and repeat another 3 times - 4 times in total)
Leave all the other settings at their default values and click “OK”
It will generate a short “Click track”.
Play the generated track - is that too fast? too slow? just right?
If it is not quite right, Press Ctrl+Z to “Undo” and have another go. If it needs to be faster, put a higher number for the tempo, if it is too fast, then put a smaller number for a slower tempo.
Adjust the tempo until it matches the song.
If you have not done so already, Import the song (File menu) If the entire song plays super fast in like 1/4 second, then it is an unsupported format. WAV files and MP3s are safe formats and supported by all versions of Audacity. (WAV format is better quality).
You will now have 4 bars of “Clicks” on one track, and the music on another track.
Use the “Time Shift Tool” (double headed arrow) to drag the music track left/right so that it overlaps the last four counts of the clicks, If you have the tempo set correctly, you should be able to match it up exactly.
When you have the music in the correct place, click and drag your mouse across both tracks so that you highlight the first 8 beats. Be sure you have highlighted (selected) both tracks, then press the Del key… This will delete the first 8 beats (2 measures) leaving you with a 4 beat count in, and a further 4 beats that match the first 4 beats of the music.
After you have recorded your guitar part, you can delete the track with the clicks, the Export your finished masterpiece.
For burning onto CD you should Export as a 16 bit WAV file.
thats a lot of information to take in. but ill do my best.
thanks for your help man i really appreciate it.
if i have another question about this ill reply
the tempo goes over the song im trying to make the metronome with. the click noise goes over the song and it keeps on going.
is there a way i can make it go and then stop when the song starts?
You should have the clicks on one track, and the music on another track. You can then select and delete any portion of the click track that you do not want.
The “Number of measures” setting in the Click Track dialogue sets how long a click track will be generated. Setting this to “4” will produce 4 groups of 4 beats. Setting it to “1” will generate just 1 group of 4 beats. The default is “16”.
alright man thanks for your help.
i finally got it down.
one more thing,
is there a way for me to open a song and to have it start like 4 seconds after i press play?
because when i opened the song it starts right away
Select both tracks, then ue the “Time Shift Tool” (double headed arrow) to slide the tracks to the right.
Click on the rewind button (or HOME key) to move the playback cursor to the begining, then Play (Spacebar).