Metronome in Musical Recording

Most MIDI Sequencers give you some method of playing to Tempo by using a Metronome or Click Track, which are both something that produce a steady sound (beep or click) to play against. Long ago, you had to use a physical Track on which a click sound would be at first created, then later just progressed into the events of what is now called "Click Track". Now these are virtual in that they do not even actually take up track space on the sequence. Most of the time the Click are the same as whatever the beat is such 120 BPM, you will hear 120 clicks per minute or 1 every 500ms, etc. Modern devices may allow you to use a different scale for your Click. For example,  you might want to hear 8th notes being clicked if the tempo is slow. The click track typically uses one of your MIDI Channels to produce sound.  Traditionally, drum/percussion sounds are put on channel 10, and the click is set to that channel as well. You can set it to any channel you want, but for consistency it is best to use channel 10. You are  usually offered the option of having a count-off wherein the clicks for a number of measures are usually 2 before recording begins. Additionally, you may the option of hearing the click either only while recording, only during playback, both or neither(off). Knowing where the beat location is important in MIDI because of quantization. Quantization will be dicussed in another upcoming post.