Originally Posted By: Guitarhacker
Well, as I see it, you have a few options.

1. Everybody in on ONE. Yes, good musicians can and do start at the same time on the 1. That's kind of the default way to do it. Absolutely nothing wrong with that kind of start. There might be a couple of milliseconds difference in the actual hit on one, but not enough for anyone to notice.

2. Pick up notes. You hear this all the time too. In country..."and a 4 and" is an accepted way to kick off a song. The pick up can be the fiddles, steel, guitar, drums, and quite often, all of them combined.


Yes... this is what I'm referring to. Especially the "couple of milliseconds difference" part. This is, and it's only my opinion, why a live band has a looser sound or feel than a machine band which is usually tightly quantized. I'm not saying that it makes any difference to the human ear per se... I think that it just makes for a looser sound all around. I don't mean that in a bad way. I don't mean that the band is terrible because they're all out of time. I just think it's a "human" thing. Humans can't quantize quite as tight as how a computer can. But as you say, we're talking milliseconds. Nobody in the bar is going to tell you that the band is no good because of this, just because they can't hear it. Neither can the band members.

And of course, 99% of the time there are count ins and most always there are pickup notes that kick off the song. I like your reference to country music. Classic country and old rock and roll paid my bills for a LOT of years. grin

Like a lot of people here, once I have the main framework of my song done in biab it is promptly dropped into my daw and I go from there. A lot of the time I end up using just the bass and drums but there are also times where I may like the rhythm guitars or piano or background peddle steel. It is in my daw where the pickup notes are inserted and that takes the "every instrument starting at the exact same time" syndrome out of play. Especially when those pickup notes aren't quantized. Same goes for the middle solo and ending.

I really didn't mean for my post to sound like it was a problem I was having with this. It just kind of struck me as I was sitting back listening to my song play in biab. It was just a muse. But the post sure has started some great conversation. I love this place!!!

Bobby

https://soundcloud.com/bobby-t-394727974