How do you record rubato piano solos?

Paulie · Post by **Paulie** » Thu May 19, 2016 9:34 pm

For the piano folks here, do you always use a click track when recording rubato or minimalist music? I'm wiring on some music for the listing due this Sunday, just curious as to how others record. Click track is killing the mood for me.

Len911 · Post by **Len911** » Thu May 19, 2016 11:05 pm

Your daw should have what is called a "beat calculator" in Cubase. Also there is a tap tempo, which I suck at!

http://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/qui ... -cms-21352

Basically, you set the time signature, then you select each 1 bar area. 4/4=4beats per measure. It then displays the tempo which you can insert in your tempo track. You can do every measure that way if need be.

Beat detective, BPM counter...

Some may operate on audio or midi. The cubase beat calculator operates on either.

If you compose 1 measure at a time, it's very easy to work with.

mcgrawmusic · Post by **mcgrawmusic** » Fri May 20, 2016 9:50 am

Hi Paulie,

Even though I am a drummer and percussionist first, I have had several piano pieces forwarded.

What works for me is to set an approximate tempo, but only use the click for the count off. Then I can play as rubato as I like. If I need to do any editing in Pro Tools, I use slip mode so nothing is locked to the grid.

To me, that goes a long way in making the piano sample seem realistic and the experience of playing is more natural.

Good luck with the listing.

Michael

Paulie · Post by **Paulie** » Fri May 20, 2016 1:14 pm

Thanks guys!

HenriettaAtkin · Post by **HenriettaAtkin** » Sat May 21, 2016 12:35 am

Paulie,

No 100% satisfactory solution, however......

1. You can set click track in Logic X to be the flashing light only.

2. You can learn how to focus weally weally good and play with the click track -- this usually takes several tries for me.

3. You then tweak and tweak and tweak.....

4. You can quantize the bass part, put it on a different track (even if you've played hands together) but leave melody rubato. Then go back and humanize accompaniment part.

And here's my tip of the day .... you can use set tempo to fluctuate a few beats every measure (for e.g. at 120 bpm, sometimes go 118, then 120, then 122 -- depending on if you're at the cadences or the fast part of the phrase). I have gotten some pretty good results from this technique! It does take forever to do, however.

Len911 · Post by **Len911** » Sat May 21, 2016 8:01 am

There's a free program, Sonic Visualiser, where you can actually do your thing and go back later and analyze with the free vamp plugins. There are for example bar, beat and tempo calculators. It might be too late for Sunday to wrap your head around it, though it's possible.

otoh, if you are doing a piano solo, it doesn't really matter, does it?

http://www.sonicvisualiser.org/index.html

*I still think it's easier though to use the daw bar and tempo calculators. The sonic visualiser is more useful analyzing the works of others.

Russell Landwehr · Post by **Russell Landwehr** » Sat May 21, 2016 11:19 am

Hey, Paul.

Do I use a click when I'm recording rubato? Oh hell no.

It certainly means that "quantization" must be done by hand and note by note. Or just perform it perfectly without any mistakes

Russell

ochaim · Post by **ochaim** » Sat May 21, 2016 12:25 pm

I dunno, sounds pretty quantized to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNMOj8HCsLQ

edmondredd · Post by **edmondredd** » Mon May 23, 2016 12:51 am

To have a good rubato, you'd have to feel the large beat (the pulse), not the little subdivisions, but the big beat.. and once you do that, you have lot of freedom to mold the tempo to your whim by getting a little faster towards the middle of the phrase and relax at the end of the phrase.
You could probably set the metronome to give you just the first beat (say in 4/4), and you could have the liberty inside the bar to do whatever pleases you.. (talking about music of course

)
Other options have been said above too, like manually quantizing, or even, if you're on a solo piano track, maybe there is no need for a metronome at all
hope this helps,

edmondredd · Post by **edmondredd** » Mon May 23, 2016 12:53 am

HenriettaAtkin wrote: And here's my tip of the day .... you can use set tempo to fluctuate a few beats every measure (for e.g. at 120 bpm, sometimes go 118, then 120, then 122 -- depending on if you're at the cadences or the fast part of the phrase). I have gotten some pretty good results from this technique! It does take forever to do, however.

That would be my favorite edit, after recording the piano, I would mess with the tempo, and the tempo curve to create the feel I wanted to have

How do you record rubato piano solos?

How do you record rubato piano solos?

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