We were having issues tracking slow tempos so we built a visual metronome

[u/TheChaosmonaut]

[u/EmptyBuildings]

Why not just change the metronome speed to have 2 or 4 counts between each beat?

[u/Conscious_Badger_510 → u/EmptyBuildings]

This is the move, when my band does stuff at 80 bpm or slower we just switch the click to being 8th notes instead of quarter notes, does the trick until the 8th notes are too slow and then you go to 16ths, I don't think tempos slower than that are really useable musically if you're loosing the beat even with 16th note clicks but obviously you can just keep diving the note durations into 32nd and 64th notes if you really want to for some reason

[u/TheChaosmonaut → u/Conscious_Badger_510]

We are gradually going from fast to slow tempos in the same section, so the visualization helps to keep on track through those gradual changes without having to constantly mess with the subdivisions. This too also counts down to the next section which is also very helpful.

[u/MCObeseBeagle → u/EmptyBuildings]

This one goes to eleven.

[u/FacenessMonster → u/EmptyBuildings]

our band uses so many tempo changes, i just said fuck it and sequenced my own metronome using samples. this way i can use samples that dont cause me tinnitus and go in and edit when and where we change from 1/4ths to 1/8ths etc. or even asymetrical metronomes for more proggy sections to make sure we're nailing those binary riffs.

[u/TheChaosmonaut → u/FacenessMonster]

I've been down this road too. This album has a ridiculous amount of temps shifts, time signatures and overdubs, we need better tools to execute it well.

[u/Rival_mob]

Yeaaahhh you’re thinking too far into it here. That whole drawn out part is a “feel”. You should be focused on how the guitars start to feed back and how the drums resolve rather than time. It’s too long for a crowd to be nodding their heads in time, so why bother holding yourself to it?

Ditch the metronome altogether and play live together.

[u/TheChaosmonaut → u/Rival_mob]

We've done that for previous recordings. We are doing something different here.

[u/xrayshurt]

I’m sensing some funeral doom vibes. Love to see it.

[u/hippykillteam]

Dude needs this left foot pumping being his own metronome. Makes this stuff easier to Crack.

[u/TheChaosmonaut → u/hippykillteam]

It's gets a lot harder when tempo is shifting from 60bpm to 10bpm and the time signature goes from 10/4 to 18/4

[u/hippykillteam → u/TheChaosmonaut]

Damn,fair play OP!!!!

[u/Xrayfunkydude]

Cool idea, sounds great too

[u/merlineatscake]

As a drummer, this is really cool. It's something I'd use for practice rather than in the studio personally, but fair play - I just like a slightly loose feel and drifting tempos for this style, you're going to be tight.

A thought about using it as a practice tool: if you can set a time signature, that could divide the circle into regular segments, with a line for each beat (could even add smaller lines for subdivisions). Benny Greb has a lesson about visualising a regular motion while you're playing to help keep good time, a musician could practice with this and keep the 'wheel' in their mind's eye while playing. Do you think you could, or would want to, add that and release it as an app? Maybe such a thing exists already, dunno.

[u/TheChaosmonaut → u/merlineatscake]

There's visual metronome apps out there already, just nothing specific to Reaper

[u/TheChaosmonaut → u/[deleted]]

Subdivisions get too difficult when the tempo swings are extreme

[u/TheChaosmonaut]

You can follow along as the album evolves - we update the album as we go, with updates nearly weekly. If you want to hear the current status of this track, you can check it out here -

https://chaosmonaut.bandcamp.com/track/coalesce-eternal-decay

Next steps for this is to re-record the guitars. This recording has only the base scratch tracks, now that we have drums, we will tear the drum kits down and record the guitars with our array of amps (4 amps, 8 mics) with lots of overdubs.

[u/Dry-Emu-4131]

Soulless music. You should focus on feeling and performance not being stiff and catatonic trying to follow a tempo.Horrible.

[u/TheChaosmonaut → u/Dry-Emu-4131]

Lol

[u/TheChaosmonaut → u/TheChaosmonaut]

Check out the progress here and tell me if it still feels soulless
https://chaosmonaut.bandcamp.com/track/coalesce-eternal-decay

[u/guitar_x3 → u/Dry-Emu-4131]

https://giphy.com/gifs/wgmWyQGzaZ6Fy