Click Tracks

How to build custom click tracks for use in practice, performance, and education

Dr. Thad Anderson
University of Central Florida School of Performing Arts
Professor & Coordinator of Percussion Studies

This page is a practical guide to building click tracks: what makes a good one, how to plan one from a score, and step-by-step workflows in the tools I use most with students (Ableton Live, Logic Pro on the Mac and iPad, forScore, and TonalEnergy). Most sections include a repertoire example, and the resources at the bottom list what the software costs.

On this page: why use a click · what makes a good click · planning a tempo map · choosing a tool · Ableton Live · Logic Pro · audio routing · Logic Pro for iPad · forScore · TonalEnergy · practice ideas · performance checklist · resources

Why use a click track?

A click track is a metronome built for one specific piece: it follows the piece’s tempos, meters, and tempo changes from beginning to end, and it can include count-ins, spoken cues, and accents that a standard metronome can’t. A custom click track is useful in many situations:

• Practice. An ordinary metronome can’t follow a passage that moves through 7/8, 5/16, and 3/4 at changing tempos. A click track can, so you can practice the music as it’s written rather than as your metronome allows.
• Performing with electronics. Many works for percussion and fixed media or backing tracks require a click to stay aligned with the recorded part.
• Ensemble synchronization. When players are spread across a stage or around an audience, as in Xenakis’s Persephassa (1969), or when a piece has long stretches of complex polyrhythm, a shared click can replace or support a conductor.
• Recording. A click makes editing between takes possible, and it’s standard practice for multitrack recording.
• Teaching. A click track makes complicated rhythmic material accessible earlier, and it can be faded out as students internalize the pulse (see practice ideas).

The technique comes from film. In the 1930s, film composers and music departments began punching holes along the edge of a strip of film so that each hole produced a click at a precise tempo; conductors heard the clicks in headphones while recording, keeping the music synchronized with the picture. The principle hasn’t changed, but you can now build in a few minutes what once took thousands of hand-punched holes.

Anatomy of a good click track

A click track is only useful if the performer trusts it immediately. These elements make the difference:

Before you build: map the score

The most reliable click tracks start with a tempo map: a list of every change in tempo, meter, and beat grouping, written out before you open any software. Go through the score with a pencil and make a table like this one:

Writing it out first catches problems (an ambiguous metric modulation, an unmarked fermata) before they’re buried in a session file, and it gives you something to check the finished click against. If the piece already exists in Dorico, Sibelius, or MuseScore, you may be able to skip most of this step by exporting a MIDI file, which carries the tempo and meter changes with it (see importing MIDI data).

Choosing a tool

The workflows complement each other: build the click in a DAW, export it as an audio file, and then play it in forScore alongside the score or share a simpler version as a TonalEnergy preset.

1. Digital audio workstations

A digital audio workstation (DAW) gives you the most control: any click sound, any tempo curve, spoken cues, and a finished audio file that will play anywhere. The two DAWs below cover most needs, and the concepts transfer to others (Pro Tools, Reaper, Cubase, Studio One, and so on).

Ableton Live

Playback and warping

Live’s warping stretches or compresses audio to follow a tempo without changing its pitch. For click tracks, this is useful in two ways:

• Practicing with a recording. Import a recording of the piece, set its first downbeat with Set 1.1.1 Here (right-click a transient in the clip’s Sample Editor), and use Warp From Here so that Live maps the recording’s tempo. You can then slow the recording down for practice, loop a passage, and run Live’s metronome or your own click in time with it.
• Following a performance’s tempo. If you add or adjust warp markers at each downbeat, the Set’s tempo follows the recording, including its rubato, and a click track built in the same Set will follow it too.

Choose the warp mode to match the material. Complex or Complex Pro suits full mixes and ensemble recordings; Beats suits drum-heavy material; Tones suits a single melodic line. If you turn Warp off, a clip plays at its original speed regardless of the Set’s tempo, which is what you want for spoken cues and one-shot samples.

Building the click with a Drum Rack

Live’s built-in metronome (with Classic, Click, and Wood sounds and a count-in option) is fine for practice, but it can’t be exported and it only knows bars and beats. For a real click track, build one from MIDI:

1. Set up the tempo map. In Arrangement View, add tempo changes with automation on the Main track’s song tempo, and add meter changes as time signature markers in the scrub area. Use automation ramps for accelerandos and ritardandos.
2. Create a MIDI track with a Drum Rack. Load three or four click samples onto separate pads: a downbeat sound, a beat sound, an optional group accent for irregular meters, and a quiet subdivision sound. The free Metronome Sound Collection is a good source, or you can sample a woodblock or rimshot yourself.
3. Program the clicks. Draw a MIDI clip for the first bar or group, then duplicate it through the passage. Because MIDI follows the Set’s tempo and meter, the clicks stay aligned through every tempo change. For 7/8 grouped 2+2+3, for example, put the downbeat on beat 1 and the group accent on eighth notes 3 and 5.
4. Use velocity for balance. Downbeats loudest, beats a little softer, subdivisions much softer; this is easier to adjust than separate volume faders.

Cues

Spoken cues make a click track far easier to follow in rehearsal. Record yourself saying rehearsal letters, measure numbers, and warnings (“Letter C,” “fermata,” “two bars to the end”) and put them on a separate audio track, with warping turned off, one bar ahead of each event. In Arrangement View, add locators at the same points (right-click the scrub area and choose Add Locator) so you can jump straight to any section in rehearsal. Locators can also be mapped to MIDI controllers or foot pedals.

Exporting

Use File > Export Audio/Video, set the Rendered Track to the click track (or export the click and the cues separately), and export a WAV file at the project’s sample rate. Export the whole piece and, if it’s long, each major section as its own file, so a player can start rehearsal anywhere.

Example: Psathas, Corybas

Corybas, Omar Carmenates’s arrangement of a movement from John Psathas’s piano trio for mallet quintet and percussion ensemble, is built on an Eastern European dance groove in 17/8, felt as 7+6+4 eighth notes. A standard metronome can only give you seventeen even eighths, or an uneven beat with no sense of where the groups fall. In Live, set the meter to 17/8, put the downbeat sound on eighth note 1 and the group accent on eighths 8 and 14, and add a quiet subdivision on every eighth. Once players can feel the groups, remove the subdivisions and keep only the three group accents.

Logic Pro

Klopfgeist and the metronome settings

Logic’s metronome uses a built-in software instrument called Klopfgeist, whose Tonality control turns the sound from a short click into something closer to a woodblock or claves. The metronome project settings (File > Project Settings > Metronome, or right-click the metronome button in the control bar) let you choose:

• When it clicks: while recording, only during the count-in, or while playing.
• What it clicks: separate notes and velocities for the Bar, Group (the start of each group in compound and composite meters), Beat, and Division.
• Where it goes: an output for the click channel, which matters for audio routing.

The Group setting is especially useful for percussionists. Once the time signature is defined with groupings (for example, 3+2+2/8), Logic accents each group automatically.

Importing MIDI data from notation software

This is Logic’s biggest advantage for click tracks. If the piece is in Dorico, Sibelius, or MuseScore, export a MIDI file from the notation program. In a new Logic project, choose File > Import > MIDI File, and when Logic asks whether to import tempo information, choose yes. Logic then reads the score’s tempo and meter changes into its tempo and signature tracks, and the metronome follows them.

A few cautions:

• Import tempo into a new project, not one that already has a tempo map you want to keep.
• Check the result against the score. Notation programs sometimes export a playback tempo rather than the written tempo, or omit groupings, so verify each change, and pay particular attention to the time signature track.
• Fermatas and ritardandos export as tempo changes, which may or may not be what you want for a click; edit them in the tempo track.

Printing the click to audio

Logic’s metronome doesn’t appear in a bounce, so to make an audio file you need to turn the click into an ordinary track:

1. Create a software instrument track and load Klopfgeist (or a sampler with your own click sounds) on it.
2. Write MIDI notes for the click on that track, with a different pitch or velocity for the bar, group, beat, and division sounds. As in Live, MIDI follows the tempo and signature tracks, so a one-bar pattern can be repeated through each section.
3. Add a second track for spoken cues if you need them.
4. Use File > Bounce > Project or Section to export the result as a WAV file.

Examples: Xenakis, Persephassa and Pléïades

Both of these works for six percussionists are classic candidates for click tracks. In Persephassa (1969), the players surround the audience, and a long accelerando eventually reaches 360 beats per minute, with patterns rotating around the hall; dispersed players often can’t see a conductor, and a click keeps them together. Pléïades (1978) runs about 42 minutes and layers polyrhythms with different accentuations across the ensemble. For both pieces, plan the tempo map from the score, build the accelerandos as tempo-track curves, and give each player a click (or a click with personalized cues) on a separate output.

Audio routing: click to the ears, music to the room

When you perform with a backing track, the audience should hear the music but not the click. That means sending them to different outputs:

• Use an interface with at least four outputs: outputs 1–2 to the house or monitors, and outputs 3–4 to a headphone amplifier for the performers.
• In Live, set the Main output to 1–2, set the Cue Out to 3–4, and route the click and cue tracks to outputs 3–4 (or use the Main track’s Cue mode). Live’s own metronome follows the Cue Out.
• In Logic, set the outputs on the click and cue tracks’ channel strips (and the metronome’s output in its project settings) to the headphone outputs.
• Different players can get different clicks. With enough outputs, each player or section can get its own mix.

Then think about what the performers are wearing:

• Prefer in-ear monitors or closed-back headphones, which keep the click out of nearby microphones and the audience’s ears. Open-back headphones leak.
• Avoid Bluetooth. Standard Bluetooth headphones add roughly 40–250 milliseconds of latency, which is far beyond what’s audible (around 10–15 milliseconds). Use wired headphones, or a dedicated low-latency wireless system designed for musicians.
• Set levels in the hall, not at home. A click that’s comfortable in a practice room can disappear under a full ensemble.

2. Tablet DAW

Logic Pro for iPad

Logic Pro for iPad is a full version of Logic on a tablet, with the same Klopfgeist metronome, tempo and signature tracks, and the ability to import MIDI files with their tempo information. That makes it a practical way to build or adjust click tracks in a rehearsal room without a laptop.

Building a click

1. Start a new project and set the opening tempo and time signature.
2. Enter the tempo map. Show the global tracks and add tempo and signature changes from your score map, or import a MIDI file exported from your notation software and choose to import its tempo information. If a MIDI import looks stretched or the wrong length, check the time signature track first: an incorrect meter on import is a common cause, and correcting it usually restores the right length.
3. Adjust the metronome in the project’s metronome settings (sound, bar/beat/division clicks, and count-in), or, to make an exportable click, create a software instrument track with Klopfgeist and write the clicks as MIDI, just as on the Mac.
4. Export the project as an audio file and save it to Files, where forScore and other apps can open it.

Because Logic projects open on both the Mac and the iPad, you can start a click track on one and finish it on the other.

3. forScore

Synchronization and page turns

forScore is a score reader, not a click track builder, but it’s the best place to use a click track in performance, because it can play an audio file attached to a score and turn the pages for you.

1. Attach the click track to the score. Import the exported WAV file and link it to the score as an audio track. Playback appears in forScore’s media controls, with options for looping a passage and changing the speed (from 25 to 200 percent for most files) without changing the pitch, which is useful for slow practice with a click.
2. Record the page turns with Replay. Tap the Replay button in the media controls, start the audio, and turn the pages as you would in performance. When the track ends, stop recording.
3. Play it back. With Replay on, forScore turns the pages automatically at the same moments every time the track plays. Markers in the playback bar show where each turn falls, so you can see and adjust them.

A Bluetooth page-turn pedal is still worth having as a backup, and for practicing sections out of order. And because the iPad’s headphone output carries the click, use a wired connection (or a USB audio adapter) rather than Bluetooth headphones, for the latency reasons described above.

4. TonalEnergy

TonalEnergy (also called TE Tuner) is a tuner and metronome app that’s familiar to many students. Its Advanced Metronome can sequence bars of different meters and tempos, which makes it a quick, portable way to build a practice click without a DAW. It also supports voice count-ins, accelerando and ritardando, polyrhythms, and syncing several devices with Ableton Link.

Example: Psathas, 4BY4

4BY4 (2012) is a percussion quartet in which each player has a drum-set-like setup with a kick drum, and the four parts alternate between pounding unisons and dense rhythmic counterpoint. Sections like these are where a simple TonalEnergy preset helps: set the meter and tempo for a passage, choose the subdivision, and use the beat display to set accents (accented, normal, or silent) so that each player hears the pulse that their part locks into.

Building a click track preset

In TonalEnergy, a preset is a bar (or group of bars) with a defined meter, tempo, subdivision, and accent pattern, and a preset group is a sequence of presets that play in order, which is effectively a click track.

1. Open the metronome and switch to Advanced Metronome.
2. Open the preset list and create a new preset group; give it a name (press Return to save the name).
3. For each section of your tempo map, add a preset: choose With Meter, set the meter, beat unit, subdivision, and number of bars, turn on Use Tempo and enter the tempo, and tap the individual beats to make them accented, normal, or silent.
4. Turn on a count-in for the group (one or two bars, with optional voice counting).
5. Make sure the option allowing presets to change the tempo is enabled in the metronome options, then play the group as a sequence. You can also loop it, or change the tempo of the whole group by a percentage for slow practice.

Example: Psathas, Corybas

The 7+6+4 groove in Corybas translates directly into a TonalEnergy preset: a 17/8 bar with accents on eighth notes 1, 8, and 14, and the remaining eighths normal (or silent, once the groove is secure). Put a two-bar count-in in front of it and loop the preset for practice; add further presets to the group if the passage changes tempo or meter.

Exporting a preset

Preset groups can be shared with other TonalEnergy users. From the list of preset groups, select the group and use the share (forward) button to send it, for example by email; the recipient opens the attachment in TonalEnergy, and the group appears in their app. This is an easy way for a teacher to give a whole studio or section the same click for a piece.

Using click tracks in practice and teaching

A click track is a tool for learning time, not a replacement for it. These exercises help students move from depending on the click to working with it:

• Start subdivided, then thin it out. Begin with every subdivision audible, then keep only the beats, then only the downbeats or group accents.
• Gap clicks. Mute the click for one bar out of every two (then two out of four, and so on) and check whether the player is still with it when it returns.
• Displaced clicks. Hear the click on the offbeats or on beat 2 only; this builds a stronger internal pulse than clicks on every downbeat.
• Tempo ladders. Duplicate a passage at increasing tempos (for example, 70, 80, 90, and 100 percent of performance tempo) in one file or preset group.
• Record and compare. Record a run-through against the click and listen back; most players are surprised by where they rush or drag.

Performance checklist

• The click track has been checked measure by measure against the score.
• Every player has the same version of the file, labeled with a date or version number.
• Clicks go only to performers’ ears; backing tracks (if any) go to the house.
• Headphones are wired, or wireless with documented low latency.
• Levels have been set in the performance space with the full ensemble playing.
• There’s a plan for a restart: section files, locators, or rehearsal-letter cues.
• A backup device (with the files on it) and spare cables are on hand.

Resources

Prices are in US dollars and were checked in September 2026; they change often, so confirm before buying.

• Ableton Live
  • Students and teachers get 50% off any edition: a perpetual license of Live 12 Intro is $49 (regularly $99), Standard is $174, and Suite is $374
  • Ableton Note is free for iPhone and iPad and gives you Live 12 Lite for free
• Apple Pro Apps Bundle for Education
  • Includes Logic Pro, MainStage, Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Compressor for the Mac
  • $199.99 perpetual license
• Logic Pro for iPad
  • Now available only through an Apple Creator Studio subscription, which also includes Logic Pro for Mac, Final Cut Pro, MainStage, and other apps
  • $12.99 a month or $129 a year; college students and educators pay $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year
• forScore
  • Score reader for iPad, iPhone, and Mac with audio playback and automatic page turns (Replay)
  • $24.99 one-time purchase; an optional forScore Pro subscription adds more features
• TonalEnergy
  • Also known as TE Tuner
  • Available for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Android, and Windows; $6.99 on the App Store
• Metronome Sound Collection
  • Free!
  • Includes sample metronome sounds for Ableton, Logic, Pro Tools, and many more
• Related pages on this site
  • Composing for Percussion Instruments, for writing and notating music for percussion with electronics
  • Microphone Field Guide and Drum Set Micing Field Guide, for the recording and amplification side
  • The Vibra-Kit, for using technology in improvised performance

How this page was made

I expanded this page from my original clinic outline with Claude, and I’d rather say so plainly.

What came from me. The outline itself, including the choice of tools, workflows, and repertoire examples, which come from my teaching and performing.

What Claude did. Drafted the explanatory text and step-by-step instructions from that outline, and checked menu names, features, and prices against the software makers’ documentation and other published sources.

What that means for you as a reader. Software changes faster than web pages, and AI-assisted writing can be confidently wrong. If a menu has moved or a price has changed, trust the software and its documentation over this page, and let me know so I can fix it.

Copyright © Thad Anderson, 2026, Plus Two Media (ASCAP), All Rights Reserved