Editing Click track (section)

==History==

The earliest known usage of "precise timing-aid" in movies may have been by Walt Disney’s team when recording music and sound effects for their early cartoons. Since cartoons at that time did not include dialogue, the jokes onscreen relied heavily on how precisely they were synchronized with the sound effects (e.g., one character hitting another with a frying pan is funniest when it occurs simultaneously with the "boing" sound effect). When the timing is bad, the joke loses significant impact. [[Wilfred Jackson]], who made the music for ''[[Steamboat Willie]]'' in 1928, simply used a [[metronome]] to set the precise speed of the music for scenes: <blockquote>What I worked out, was a bar sheet (or dope sheet), to indicate measures of music. It wasn't like a score, because it didn't have five barlines; it had a little square for each beat in each measure, and it had an indication of the tempo. The frames were in the beat of the music; so in twelve-frame, or sixteen-frame, or whatever. That way, we were able to synchronise the scenes, which were shot separately, of course. My contribution to sound-cartoons was that I knew what a metronome {{nowrap start}}was.<ref>The Cartoon Music Book, Goldmark/Taylor, ISBN 1-55652-473-0</ref>{{nowrap end}}</blockquote>

This system evolved with use. The Disney team experimented with additional graphical symbols, to better show the performing musicians when to expect happenings. This system was used well into the 1930s, when the first [[Multitrack recording|multitrack]] recording machine was built and dubbing became possible.

The click track was sufficiently useful as a [[synchronization]] tool that it became part of standard recording technology, whether for films, radio or other [[Sound recording and reproduction|sound recording]] and the click track was applied to one of the tracks on a multitrack tape recorder. By the late 20th century, particularly in the realm of [[synthesizer|sound synthesizers]] and [[digital recording]], the click track became computerized and synchronizing different instruments became more complex, whereupon the click track was largely supplanted by a [[SMPTE timecode]].

Click tracks were also once very important in the creation of accurately timed music such as radio and television spots (commercials) and other timed production music. In this type of use a rhythm section or ensemble would play all instruments to a click track. With the use of [[MIDI]] sequencing in the 1980s and 1990s it became possible to build an entire music track that was accurately timed without depending solely on a click track. Computer based [[MIDI]] sequencing programs are still used in the creation of music. The MIDI sequencer generated track can be used with only MIDI controlled instruments or embellished with other instruments played by musicians. The musicians who embellish the tracks created with MIDI sequencer essentially play along with the already timed piece of music. In many cases all of the MIDI instrumentation is replaced by actual musicians.