I recently worked on a acoustic EP with the artist Chase K. We spent 3 days from start to finish recording and mixing the entire thing. On one of the songs, Chase chose not to record to a click track. Sometimes it’s hard to get a certain feel when playing to a click track.
I found a loop that the artist liked, and used time compression to make it fit the tempo of the song. But, I didn’t lock the loop perfectly to the grid. I left it slightly imperfect. If I would have gridded the loop, it would have been no different than having Chase record to a click. The tiny imperfections in the timing of the loop are what allowed him to record his acoustic guitar parts with a little bit of groove and feel. It made the song sound a little loose, but it feels great. While he was recording it in the live room he was holding his acoustic guitar and dancing around slightly.
The point was to be a bit creative and get something that even though it was a little loose felt great. The result turned out exactly as we had hoped. Please watch the video below and to see exactly what I did, and how we made the song feel so good.