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Backing-Trackers crew


amx13

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i've been using an Ensoniq ASR-10 sampling workstation keyboard for my backing tracks since the mid 90s. it has 8 tracks and i can use a compact flash card to store my sounds and songs. i can transpose just the tracks i want, i can adjust the tempo, and look for the next song while the current song is playing. i can play any of my songs anytime. plus i can load 3-4 songs in the sequencer to get me kickstartred before i starting picking songs to play off the cuff.

 

its not really setup for general midi since the drums are on midi channel 1 and general midi puts drums on channel 10. the drum notes dont match up either with GM. ensoniq has its own mapping of drum notes. guess thats why i made all my own sequences. transferring them over to GM would be a pain since i've made over 1100 songs with these keyboards. i currently own 2 of these keyboards and 1 rackmount version. i also bought up 2 non-working keyboards so i will have spare parts when they break down.

 

the keyboard is setup in front of me on stage and is easy to access while i'm playing guitar. i can usually push a few buttons to get the next song ready in the time it takes me to hammer-on or pull-off a note on my guitar without a drop off of my guitar playing.

 

been using this setup for 18+ years and havent found anything that will take its place without spending big $$$ to duplicate all it can do. plus the headache of transferring all the songs to another format. YIKES!!!

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In before the ban. :o

 

 

Oh wait, this isn't Open Jam? :D

 

 

I sequence or record all my own backing tracks using Reaper as the DAW, with samples/synths provided by:

 

Garritan Jazz and Big Band

ViOne

Reason

EZ-Drummer (with various add-ons)

Stephen Slate Drums

Various other synths and samplers as needed

 

I used to take my computer rig to gigs and have the sequencer play all this stuff live, but I decided to stop being such a purist and mixed all my tracks down to stereo high-bitrate mp3s for easy playback.

 

I do play all guitars and sing all vocals live, and this is everything from Sinatra to Sabbath, Mathis to Metallica. It seems to be enough to satisfy an audience that there is "live" music going on and not karaoke.

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also, i always carry my laptop with about 400 of my sequences that i recorded into mp3s just incase my keyboard takes a dump on stage.

 

and if thats not enough, my iphone has the same 400 songs on it and i downloaded the back-trax app so i can access each song whenever i want on the fly.

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I sequenced extensively on the ensoniq vfxsd for about 10 years. I loved the layout. I was fast and got great results. The newer DAW are tedious and time consuming in comparison.

 

Oh, I rework any midi tracks I can find on the net. Many of them have errors, but if you are handy with midi, they can be propped up in short order. Sometimes I add vox or guitar, etc...

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I create tracks a few different ways. I'll do a Google search for a midi file for a song, download them, and preview them in Quicktime Player 7. If they sound like they might have promise, I'll import them into Logic Pro 9, assign good samples to each track, yank out the cheesy tracks, and work on making the other tracks sound good. Usually that means stripping it down to just drums and bass... maybe leave a little keyboard in if it's not too over the top.

 

But sometimes I can't find the file at all, or the files I find all suck badly. In that case, I'll record the drums and bass myself in Logic.

 

My biggest problem is that although I spend some time on my backing tracks, I sometimes will get a little lazy and leave in that one campy drum fill that will annoy the hell out of me each time I hear it, until I can't stand it any more and I have to go back in and get rid of it.

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Well, since i'm a keyboard player, i've already got the keyboard right there for playing MIDI tracks. Most of the tracks i'm still using were actually written in a C-language program i wrote back around 1990, using ASCII strings for each part (this actually works well for drums, similar to the XOXOX grid on old-stlye drum machines). Currently i use Abelton Live, though for drum parts at least i still use grid-style programming on Ableton's arranger (piano-roll) view. Occasionally if i don't feel like programming a song from scratch and can find a decent MIDI file on the net i'll import that into Ableton and strip it down to what i need. When i'm done, i export from Ableton, use a simple utility to combine the tracks (one bummer about Ableton is that you can only export MIDI as separate files for each track), then load the finished track onto the keyboard.

 

- Jimbo

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I have been using Showplay since 2004 and it's by far the best software for "live" midi gigging. It is set up so you can make fast changes on the fly. You can change keys, tempo, change patches, mute parts, alter velocities, add reverb & chorus....all while the sequence is playing so you can instanly hear the changes you're making. Once you get it like you want, simply save and away you go. A fluo-search function is also included which allows you type in the name of the sequence and it populates a list until you see the song you want to play. I tag my edited sequences with "DD" behind the title so I'll know for sure that the file I pull up is the one with the correct edits. I may have 5 different versions of the same song and I needed to have a way to identify the correct sequence (file). You can make set lists, add special requests, and quickies (most requested tunes that you know will get the audience moving). Only catch to all of this is that the mixer in Showplay is GM based. I know how some folks feel about GM (general midi) but if you have a good GM sound module...i.e. Roland SC-88Pro, Yamaha MU128, or Yamaha QY700 (which is what I use) the sound is awesome. I could go on and on about Showplay, but here's the link so you can see for yourself. http://www.pride-corp.com One note to mention also is that you are NOT tied down to GM while running Showplay, however you will have to make patch changes to access the upper level sounds in a given module. A lot of my buddies are running Showplay with a Roland XV5050 using the upper level sounds and not the GM bank....which is puny compared to the GM based modules I listed above. It's a little pricey and it comes from Canada, but it is by far the best investment I have ever made. The latest version of SP also contains a soft synth which you can use if your module freaked out. And, the tech support is awesome. E-mails get answered in hours, not days. You cant go wrong with this software.

 

Charlie

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After years of trial and error here's how I do it now. I can write a pro sounding track from scratch in about two hours depending on how complex it is. Lets say I'm writing one from scratch because I haven't been able to find a good midi for it on the net. I have used Sonar, Cubase and other packages it just depends what suits you better.

 

1) Load the original mp3 into your DAW, I play along with it on the guitar and figure out the key/chords/format/BPM etc

2) By hand I create a bass verse and chorus, use some randomisation to vary the velocity of individual notes within certain ranges to make it more 'human like'

3) By hand I create the drum track - I use BFD so I can see exactly what is being hit and where and then I copy and paste bass and drums 'blocks' over to create the 'song' and then add any drum fills and snare rolls and map the velocities correctly so it sounds 'human'

4) Add any percussion (tambourine, handclaps etc) to a seperate track

5) Add any keyboard/synth and other instruments

 

What makes or breaks the backing is the instruments used and despite what people say the GM sounds just don't cut it. Drums are the biggest offender and that's why you must use a dedicated drum virtual instrument like BFD to make your tracks sound professional. Other standouts are analog instruments like the bass. No GM module I have heard can reproduce it so you need to use a module like Trillian or other professional bass VI.

 

Importantly is using a template so that you have a framework to know that the bass, drums, and other instruments all have note velocities within certain ranges. By using a template in your DAW of choice you write tracks so that the kick drum always fall between a velocity range of say 100-110 and the bass always plays as 90-105 etc. This point is uber important because without it and a workflow that promotes consistency in instrument velocity mapping you will end up with backing tracks that all play at completely different volume levels and its very time consuming to fix this afterwards.

 

Editing a midi from the net requires a similar process.

1) Load the original, compare the structure sequence - I often find that people have the structure wrong - missing verses - missing bridges etc (midi's are like guitar tab - it seems that generally only idiots publish them and the people that know what they're doing keep to themselves)

2) Fix drum rolls - most people simply write cheesy over the top rolls that sound ridiculous - enough said.

3) Remove unwanted events - again, a lot of people write bends and instrument changes and all sorts of rubbish that just does not get reproduced in midi authentically and uncheesily and I remove 99.9% of this - once you use a great instrument module you do not need this and won't notice it gone.

4) I remove all instrument panning and individual volume levels so that everything fits MY template

 

Finally I record them as mp3 and then I use a program called mp3gain to bring them to a set gain level so they all play at the same volume.

 

I use mp3s because then you can play your backing into a PA from anything - Laptop, mp3 player even a mobile phone (joke). If you look on the net there also plugins for winamp that allow you to scroll lyrics synchronised to the mp3. This is a godsend for not only not forgetting words but also for putting song structure information on there to help you learn the song in no time (and remember) where there are bridges / keychanges etc.

 

Here's what a couple of hours can do recorded at home on a not very powerful pc

http://www.box.net/shared/xj68s04on9fcyod2najq

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I record my tracks using Reason/Record (and then later use Reason/Record as my live mixer). I then just record in the same manner as you would expect if you were making a straight recording of the song. I use a MIDi keyboard to trigger the synth modules inside Reason and sometimes play a track or two on guitar or bass. I'm probably doing something that no one else here is doing ... I'm playing the drum parts live during the show so when we gig as a duo it's drummer and singer (who rarely plays keys live). Everything else I've pre-recorded. When we play as a trio we add a guitar (through a POD HD500).

 

For shows I mix down the multi-tracks to stereo and play them back on a laptop (as 48k/24bit files) inside Record/Reason. All the vocal effects are programed as well and even the mix. So the live part of the show basically works like you were "tracking" more recordings. I have all the files backed up as mp3s on a thumb drive and in case I were to have a computer failure they can just play back through my Roland TD-12 drum module. There are no amps on stage ... everything goes through the system (which is the laptop, a I/O box, a headphone amp and a DSP unit that sends out the mixes with appropriate EQ and limiting. I have a QSC speaker system (K10s over Ksubs) that performs nicely for clubs up to about 200 people.

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I'm running Addictive drums thru my daw. They had a deal going for under a hundred bucks; you get a few different sets. You can make it sound as real as you want, and it does not take too long. Find the main beat, chorus, middle 8 and drag it to a midi track... split it and modify the midi for non-standard hits. Then render the track to an mp3. The only prob is if you have a song where the drums don't come in until mid-song, so u need to use some barely audible perc until the main part kicks in.

I also use Amplitube AmpegSVX for basses. It is essentially a bass guitar modeling vst, so you can get a pretty good sound from midi, and change the amps from song to song so each one has it's own sound. For some stuff I just use a p-bass synth from my Juno-G that sounds pretty good too.

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Do any of you play stereo tracks in your live show?.

 

 

Even though the show is "stereo" it is mostly mono. Basically just reverbs and echos are panned much and maybe some special effects. If you are worried about it you can utilize the Hass effect to compensate (if you've got the equipment ... digital can be your friend)

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Thanks for the link Charlie! I've been trying to find a cheap way to play midi files on a Mac, but still havent found a good software for it, guess logic express would do the work, but still on the high price range...maybe its time to take the dust out of the old pc laptop and give showplay a try.

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