I got these great questions in my inbox and think sharing my answers would be helpful:
I have several questions regarding the use of Metronomes/click tracks (I compose ambient music using Logic 8):
When composing a melody, is it common practice to have the metronome ON — to dictate the tempo? Or do you think this would restrict the feel of the melody?
This is reliant on asking yourself: what kind of music am I making and what is my intent? Most modern music, especially dance/electronic stuff, is locked to a groove and stays one constant tempo throughout. So yes, it's common. It's common for drummers to play to a click track to guide them while they maintain a unique feel.
I work with Ableton Live, which treats audio elastically. If I record something too fast, I can slow it down, or vice-versa. I've not felt it restricts the feel of the melody — rigid quantizing can, but sometimes you want a looser "swing" feel, other times you want a tighter rhythm.
The most important thing is that your tools work with your flow and are flexible. More DAWs are adding elastic audio features (including Logic 9, as I peeked earlier today). If you can undo and experiment with different variations without feeling overwhelmed and change the tempo later, then you're in the right spot. I suggest checking out Pete "Boxsta" Martin's "Sliide" for a fluid-tempo approach to contemporary club music… pretty rare!
Hopefully I'll have some new productions up in the near future to show you what I mean.
I'm asking this because a while back someone commented that one of my melodies sounded Quantized: too precise. And I remember composing that piano melody to a drum loop, but later I removed that drum loop in the final mix.
That leans on your intent as the artist vs. the listener's perception. You can learn some things from constructive criticism but if your goal is to make something that sounds more natural, then don't overdo the quantization.
I find it a powerful contrast to layer a free-flowing melody over a quantized, mechanical drum loop. It's like a flag tied to a pole on a solid foundation. Enjoy the wind but stay grounded.
So is it good to initially compose without a click track? And only use a metronome to record the final product: But at this recording stage how closely do I follow the metronome? Just as a one bar count in, or should it play continuously in the background?
I almost always have a click track unless I'm doing ambient or solo piano. And even if I play something without a metronome, I can insert warp markers in Live to time-correct it. (Again, flexibility.) I DO wish Live had a better way to auto-detect tempos based on a beatless performance; some DAWs can.
I like a 1-bar count-in. (My old Opcode Studio Vision used to have a "record on played note" but I've gotten used to the count-in.) On dancier tracks I start with the drums, because then, I can disable the metronome and trust the beats I've built up.
There are many right approaches to this and perhaps an experiential joy is in doing something different for each song you make, then incrementally learning from that. 