I'm working on this weird tune, kind of inspired by schoenberg, stravinsky, horror film scores and all that weird stuff... and it's very slow with no clear beat to latch on to (rubato, I think that's called). I have the main part down, but I'm trying to overdub other instruments (all using the keyboard) and it's tricky. I'm having a real hard time adding parts on top because there's no defined rhythm to use as reference. I tried giving it a set tempo, just really slow, and figuring out what the rhythm could be.. but when I do that, it sounds more rigid and stiff and kind of changes the vibe of the thing. Have you ever recorded anything that had multiple tracks, but no defined beat or rhythm?
yes. what you might want to do is make some temporary count-offs, manually, for certain parts. many of the jingles i've done for videos aren't in time, and i often record a couple of count-off clicks in certain places. the tempo is almost arbitrary, but it helps. and plan on adjusting the hell out of everything also