Bandlab confusion

[u/Lord_Struyk]

So i made a cover of Sombr's Undressed as a garage rock version, it rough but still learning the ropes

I got my Scarlet 2i2, mic, guitar, the works.

Now i try to play along the built in metronome but man...either i dont hear it at all (when playing drums)

Go too fast (playing guitar) or just miss it (playing bass)

Currently my work flow is guitar, drums, bass then vocals. Matching bass to kick drum works but somehow a bpm checker says i am playing at 122 bpm while i put 117 in bandlab.

Any ideas what i am doing wrong?

Thx.

[u/Raspberries-Are-Evil]

Playing to the click takes practice.

If locking into the click is a struggle, you can try making a simple drum loop and playing with that.

There really is no other way to get better at than just practicing.

[u/Lazy-Individual6617 → u/Raspberries-Are-Evil]

the metronome in bandlab can be tricky with latency, what helped me was bumping the click volume way up and using a sharp sound like a woodblock instead of the default beep. also check your buffer size in the scarlet settings, too high and you hear everything late which makes playing on time almost impossible

[u/DocHoss]

I've spent literally hundreds of hours playing quarter notes to a 120bpm metronome. And I definitely still mess up. Not saying I'm better than you, I'm saying you gotta put in the time. It takes a lot of practice to nail playing with a click, but you can do it. Practice playing quarter notes (right on the beat with the metronome) at 120bpm and get so precise the click disappears. If you're playing exactly with it you won't hear it. If you can hear it you're slightly off. Do the JK Simmons thing from Whiplash...play four beats then stop. Were you rushing or dragging? Try again...repeat....try again...repeat. Got it right? Awesome! Repeat.

Don't practice until you get it right, practice until you can't get it wrong. You got this!

[u/AbilityMysterious744]

Try lowering the tempo while recording and turning up the metronome. The BPM difference could just be from rushing slightly while playing.

[u/ChartlessApp]

Playing 122 against a 117 click means you're rushing, which is normal when you track guitar first. Two fixes. Raise the click volume and swap it to a sharper sound, because drums bury a quiet click. And set direct monitoring on the 2i2 with a small buffer, so you don't hear yourself late and start pushing.

Also, drums are the hardest instrument to record to a click cold. Cut a rough guitar scratch track, play drums to that plus the click, then redo the guitar. Bass locking to the kick is the right instinct. Keep that part.

[u/Implausibilibuddy]

Make sure you're using the ASIO driver for your Scarlet and set the latency as low as you can before getting underruns (clicks and pops). Having latency too high can mess with your timing if you're recording into the same source as your metronome.

[u/No-Cardiologist472]

Sorry I can't answer your question but I'm totally adding "learning the robes" to my vocabulary.  

[u/Lord_Struyk → u/No-Cardiologist472]

😭😭 robes it is then..sorry for the poor English

[u/No-Cardiologist472 → u/Lord_Struyk]

Great name for a wizard tutorial