How to Create a Click Track in Ecasound

Ecasound can generate and monitor click tracks for musicians during live tracking sessions, though it does not feature a single-click dedicated metronome button found in modern graphical digital audio workstations. Because Ecasound is a modular, command-line multitrack recorder and signal router, it accomplishes metronome functionality by looping pre-rendered click samples, piping in audio-frequency pulses, or synchronizing with external MIDI clocks. By routing these generated tones exclusively to headphone monitor outputs, performers can track in tempo while recording pristine, isolated audio inputs.

Native Generation vs. Sample Playback

Ecasound excels at routing and processing rather than algorithmic pattern generation. To use a metronome during a session, you have two primary methods:

1. Looping an Audio Sample (Recommended): You can create or download a short click sample (such as a woodblock or rimshot) or a pre-rendered 1-bar beat loop, and instruct Ecasound to loop it continuously for the duration of the take.
2. Piping Real-Time Tones: You can generate a pulse train or click externally using utilities like sox or ALSA/JACK-compatible click generators and pipe the raw audio directly into an Ecasound chain.

Setting Up a Click Track with a Loop

The most reliable way to provide a metronome is to use a pre-rendered, tempo-accurate click WAV file that matches the duration of a bar or the entire song.

Ecasound allows you to loop an audio input across an entire recording take using the -tl (loop) flag or by chaining a looping input.

A practical tracking command looks like this:

ecasound \
  -a:click -i:click_120bpm.wav -tl -o:alsa,hw:0,0 \
  -a:record -i:alsa,hw:0,1 -o:guitar_take_1.wav

In this command:

• Chain click reads click_120bpm.wav, loops it continuously (-tl), and sends it to the musician's monitoring output (hw:0,0).
• Chain record independently captures the microphone input (hw:0,1) and records it directly to guitar_take_1.wav.
• The click stays isolated to the monitor output and never bleeds into the recorded audio file.

Advanced Monitoring and Routing

During complex tracking sessions, you may need separate monitor mixes for multiple musicians:

• Independent Output Routing: Ecasound can map audio to multi-channel sound cards. For example, you can route the click track to hardware outputs 3 and 4 (the musician's headphone amplifier) while routing master playback without click to outputs 1 and 2 (the control room monitors).
• Level Control: You can adjust the click level independently during tracking using the volume gain controller -ea:volume_percent attached to the click chain, without altering recording input gain.
• Synchronized Overdubs: When overdubbing against existing tracks, simply add another chain reading the previously recorded backing tracks and output them to the same headphone monitor channel alongside the looped click.