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The Teachers’ Animation Toolkit
Using a click track
Assuming that you already have some ideas for the music, and in
particular its tempo, you need to create a click track.
Once the tempo of the music has been decided, Audacity can be
used to generate the click track. Click Generate>Click track in the
drop-down menu. The options
will be given for the tempo, beats
per measure and number of measures. Compound click tracks can
be created by inserting additional tracks, for each of which you will
generate a new click to match each tempo change. These can then
be copied and pasted into the main click track.
Most commercially produced music, including fi lm music, uses
a click track. The only exceptions to this tend to be
on jazz and
classical music recordings. The system is very simple and a way
of coordinating, by means of a regular metronomic pulse, the
performance of the musicians involved. The click is fed to the
performers via headphones, and in the bigger fi lms, it is often the
case that there may be as many as 100 sets of headphones in use
at one time.
Once the click track has been prepared
it can be saved as either a
WAV or MP3 fi le for insertion into Windows Movie Maker.
The click track coordinates with the fi lm and runs at the tempo of the
music. There will be a preparatory set of bars where only the click
is heard and then the fi lm itself will kick in. Generally, music that
is at a different tempo from the preceding section will be recorded
separately, although it is sometimes the
case that a compound click
track is prepared in which the tempi may change. This was very
much the case in the fi lm
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
where the
composer, Alan Silvestri, prepared a score much in the style of the
old animation cartoons of Tom and Jerry, with
many frequent tempo
changes.
For recording compound click tracks with changes of tempi, fi rst
add more tracks. Click Project>New audio track and for each track
generate a new click corresponding to each change of tempo. Cut
and paste these into the master click track. Ensure that you have
included some free beats before the point where the music starts by
way of a countdown–for example, two measures of four beats.
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After all the adjustments have been made to the master track,
delete
the others.
Save the master click track as a WAV or MP3 fi le for importing into
Windows Movie Maker or another editing package.
Sound editing