JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Recording Studio and Gear Forum How do you end you songs with a click?

One thing I hate about clicks, is it's hard to come up with a cool ending to a song. I tend to just fade out or stop in the same temp to end. One cool thing about recording live with a band is you can let the drummer go off do a bunch of crazy fills and ride the cymbals, put your hand in your pocket, walk around and then wait for the song to end.

But then when I record and fade out, it gets me thinking "ok this looks to be another rough draft" and I get fed up.

How do you guys end your songs, even retarding the tempo is tough cause if you are using a drum program it becomes a real task.

I am working on a little 12-song vanity CD and only two songs fade-out, so I needed realistic endings for all the others. While BIAB doesn't have a true Ritardando function (or Rallentando or Lentando), it does allow you to slow down the song by a percentage or number of bpm's at each bar. So you can effectively slow a song down at the end. Here's a 3/4 tune (didn't make the CD) that slows down at the end (it is not a perfect ending, though): Blow you Life Away

Endings have normally been the weakest part of BIAB's toolkit, but I have been able to get a natural decay ending to most of my tunes. It is mostly accepting what BIAB dishes out after repeated attempts (ha, ha). I also finish some songs with just me playing, so I can do whatever I want.

Endings are super important -- I would get out of the habit of fading everything.

You record the click on a track, then do a run through of the song and erase the track where you want the song to end. You can record it with your midi sampler or synth, use loops, or just make a recording of a metronome or beat box.

Good song Kevin. I hear ya endings are important, especially in rock.

Thanks. Yeah, that sounds reasonable, although using a program like ez drummer you are forced to play any drums yourself where the click track was. And that can get noticable after a perfect drum track.

But that probably is the only way, aside from making the ending a whole new song, and then pasting them together.

I am not a big fan of fades......makes the listener feel cheated and losing out on part of the song. I prefer a crisp ending......
Endings are a whole ball game in themselves as it all depends on the genre and tempo of the song. It is not hard using a click and still coming up with an ending...or changing the tempo slower or faster.

I've conditioned myself to ignore the click when needed.

John

Fades lead to the imagination with me. Some songs do not seem to have an end. But I also like some of these songs with an abrupt ending. Maybe throwing in also something alien from the rest of the song. Like a classical sonata at the start, middle, or end of an alt or metal song.
I just like a quick ending for myself so my repetition does not lag too much.

I think fades are more of an artistic thing, also im sure amatter of convenience. it depends on if it suits the song. ie. a song where the lyric doesnt resolve, and is in effect still going, can fade out and it can be great. Some songs are more live based and demand a good ended, like Led Zepplins "Rock n Roll"

But many great songs faded out. Hotel California for one.

Rather than playing to a click track (a nasty beeping noise that never stops and always sounds distractingly horrible while you play) I prefer to make a quick drum track with software like Addictive Drums, EZ Drummer and Steven Slate Drums and play along to that instead. All I need for tracking purposes is an appropriate drumbeat that just gets repeated--it takes about two minutes to do, and I can replace it all later to construct a proper full drum track. This way, if I want the end of a song to ritard, I can just pull out the drums there...then I can naturally slow the tempo with my own playing, no click to confuse me. Once I've done that, I can add drum hits to match the speed of the ritard.

yeah thats how Ive been doing it @using a drum beat, musch more natural than a click, but when you pull the beat out where are you getting the drums that retard from?

Well, you play along to that drum track, and then when it comes time to ritard, the drums stop and you play freestyle to no beat, and record yourself slowing down naturally. THEN you go back and add those final drumbeats that you have to manually add and nudge into place. It's usually only a few beats or so.

Yeah, but the "feel" of ez drummer is the main reason to use it, me tapping on keyboard keys is not the same, it be nice If I had a drum kit. tack on another grand to the cost of everything.

Maybe you don't understand what I mean...EZ Drummer would be playing all the way through until the very end, when you let it go silent during the ritard. When you record your guitar track (or whatever), you would play along to EZ Drummer, and when the ending comes up, you freestyle that ritard on guitar. Then you come back and manually enter only that final measure of drums, and you nudge those final hits to match the slowing tempo of the guitar. It's really fast and easy.

No, I didnt understand. Nudging like cropping a photo?

I have done it by accident but never by design, lol.

That would be one way, will have to give it a try.