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Using Backing Tracks


Opus Antics

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We have recently decided after losing yet our second keyboardist and being unable to find the ever-elusive replacement to go the backing track route. I've seen that there are several options available on the iPad. Has anyone used these? If so, can you share your feedback.

 

Are there other backing track options I should explore that work well but keep it simple?

 

Thanks!

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Been unable to respond on my iphone because this site sucks...Finally at a computer. Here's the deal. playing with tracks in a typical bar band is more trouble then it's worth. You need to play to click on every song and everything you do needs to be prepared in advance. AND no one will care or hear the difference!!! So the cost benefit/reward ratio is a wash. Why bother? Just get another guitarist if you can't find a keyboardist and have him play the important parts or the horn parts on a GTR synth. If you were doing higher end gigs, it would be a different story.

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Incidentally' date=' I think professional tracks trump lousy band anytime. [/quote']

 

It's rarely an either/or though. It takes good musicians to know how to put together and work with tracks and make it sound good. In my experience, bands that sound great with tracks would also be great without them. They'd just be different. And adding tracks never makes a lousy band better. Now they are just a lousy band with lousy tracks.

 

 

 

 

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Is playing to a click really that onerous of a requirement?

 

For a solo artist or duo without a drummer, probably not. The track provides the rhythm of the song, and they're just following it. But if you're working with a drummer, then I would say a resounding YES.

 

One of my bands once tried using tracks with no click, and it was a disaster. We rarely made it past the second verse before getting out of sync and having to kill the tracks. Our drummer a decent enough player....but like many rock drummers, he would occasionally speed up or slow down by a couple BPM over the course of a song. Under normal circumstances, such a minor fluctuation is basically unnoticeable....but add tracks to the mix, and that tiny fluctuation turns into a major train wreck after just a few bars.

 

Let's say the band is playing along to a track at 120 BPM...500 ms per beat. Coming out of a fill, the drummer speeds up just a bit and ends up at 123 BPM...or 487 ms/beat. This isn't a huge change....only about 13 ms per beat, which is basically unnoticeable. But after only 4 measures (16 beats) with the band at 123 BPM and the track at 120 BPM...now that gap has grown to 208 ms, which is VERY noticeable. Just a couple BPM out of sync for only a few seconds, and now the track is almost a full half-beat behind the rest of the band. (The crowd won't know exactly what happened....they'll just know the band doesn't sound right.) So it's absolutely critical that there's something to keep the drummer perfectly in time for the entire track.

 

It doesn't necessarily have to be a totally sterile click sound, which many people find annoying; you could choose a programmed hi-hat, tambourine, or cowbell. There just has to be something in the track that has a very sharp and defined beat for the drummer to follow.

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So, from these responses, I take it nobody is really using tracks? For songs with tracks you would absolutely have to have a click track feeding to the drummer's monitor. And then everyone would have to be tight with the drummer and you are playing that song exactly to the structure of the track.

 

What I'm asking is whether anyone is doing that. If so, how. What equipment/software/apps are you using? What is your setup? How is it working for you? What is the prep? That's the feedback I was hoping to find.

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For a solo artist or duo without a drummer, probably not. The track provides the rhythm of the song, and they're just following it. But if you're working with a drummer, then I would say a resounding YES.

 

One of my bands once tried using tracks with no click, and it was a disaster. We rarely made it past the second verse before getting out of sync and having to kill the tracks. Our drummer a decent enough player....but like many rock drummers, he would occasionally speed up or slow down by a couple BPM over the course of a song. Under normal circumstances, such a minor fluctuation is basically unnoticeable....but add tracks to the mix, and that tiny fluctuation turns into a major train wreck after just a few bars.

 

Let's say the band is playing along to a track at 120 BPM...500 ms per beat. Coming out of a fill, the drummer speeds up just a bit and ends up at 123 BPM...or 487 ms/beat. This isn't a huge change....only about 13 ms per beat, which is basically unnoticeable. But after only 4 measures (16 beats) with the band at 123 BPM and the track at 120 BPM...now that gap has grown to 208 ms, which is VERY noticeable. Just a couple BPM out of sync for only a few seconds, and now the track is almost a full half-beat behind the rest of the band. (The crowd won't know exactly what happened....they'll just know the band doesn't sound right.) So it's absolutely critical that there's something to keep the drummer perfectly in time for the entire track.

 

It doesn't necessarily have to be a totally sterile click sound, which many people find annoying; you could choose a programmed hi-hat, tambourine, or cowbell. There just has to be something in the track that has a very sharp and defined beat for the drummer to follow.

 

I think you misunderstood what I was meaning by "onerous".

 

Put another way, I don't think that any experienced musician should really have a problem using a click (it does take some initial getting used to, much like hearing your own recorded voice played back for the first time takes some time getting used to). If not everyone has IEMs, at least the drummer will benefit from it (and, by proxy, everyone else will).

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Oh, and I was thinking, too, the other benefit to using a click is that you can sync to lights and video. Sure it requires some additional skills above and beyond just learning songs and putting a DMX controller on auto, but, the result can be phenomenal.

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Oh' date=' and I was thinking, too, the other benefit to using a click is that you can sync to lights and video. Sure it requires some additional skills above and beyond just learning songs and putting a DMX controller on auto, but, the result can be phenomenal.[/quote']

 

 

I would love to learn how to do more with lights than just twist the dial to set how quickly they change color...

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We toyed with backing tracks after having similar keyboard issues. We decided against it and instead went with a "stripped down" sound. We still do a lot of new pop tunes. We just rearrange them to make it fit our instrumentation and it works great. I will say that many songs just don't work. Uptown Funk, for example, was OK. But we decided that it didn't "pop" the way we wanted, so we passed.

 

It's a personal preference thing, but we prefer the flexibility of being able to stop/start songs in the middle, call out songs on the fly and extend songs as needed. Tracks eliminates the ability to do all that.

 

 

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The band I saw last night has been in Denver for quite a few years. They were 6 piece and using backing tracks. (2 or 3 per set.) They had one female singer only, one singer/sax player, one singer/conga player, bass, drums, guitar/backing track controller/singer. So all the backing horn parts and keyboards were on backing tracks. (Conga over keyboards?) My own thoughts? might have been better with a sound engineer out front. (Very small club near my home.) The backing tracks were about 5 db too loud. (Equal to the vocals and smothering the drums and guitar.) And for me, that loses some respect, but the audience probably didn't notice it. There was also some distortion in the PA. Not sure what was causing it. (I think the backing tracks being too hot.) The PA was Behringer analog mixing board and speakers on tri-pods. Speakers sounded decent. Bit too loud for my tastes. (I like 95 dbc in the audience and they were close to 105dbc)

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I would use a larger computer such as a small laptop.

Ipads and tablets are kinda small,

are error prone due to user error and human erogonomics....humans have too big finger size to work with perfection on tablets and cells doing complicated work.

 

I would look at laptops.

 

Backing tracks...midi or audio (wav format ect) or a recorded audio preformance that is a playback.

 

Audio format (wav..giga..aiff ect ect) is going to take the most computing power, midi takes little computing power..pre recorded audio tracks played back take the least.

 

For just audio playback..any cell phone or tablet would work fine.

 

Midi will work well on Drums, Keyboard and Bass. Midi usually sounds bad on guitar parts and vocals. Buy professional midi tracks if possible.

 

You will need to learn Cubase or Cakewalk. You just need a sequencer..not the fanciest cubase or cakewalk..just the basic version of a daw. You also will need to learn midi. Its a lot

of work..but worth it usually.

 

You might consider just buying a keyboard. Astonishing power and versitility.

Yamaha Motif,Roland Fantom..Korg Triton..all will do drums,bass, piano ect..and a whole lot more !!!!

 

Especially with midi..you can play guitar or sing and let midi play the keyboard..drum..bass.piano...synth...exotic instruments..

 

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Learning curves..

Learn Pro grade keyboard..60 days just to become familiar

Digital Audio Workstation software...30 days with manual and a book

Midi..45 days with DAW software and a book on midi

 

Does anyone use backing tracks? Yes..but the very best musicians use them the least(and maybe the most)

Real musicians are always better..

 

A keybord allows you to pick sounds you like and sequences you like..you can play some things with just one finger to activate a semi automatic sequence.

 

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I would use a larger computer such as a small laptop.

Ipads and tablets are kinda small,

are error prone due to user error and human erogonomics....humans have too big finger size to work with perfection on tablets and cells doing complicated work.

 

I would look at laptops.

 

Backing tracks...midi or audio (wav format ect) or a recorded audio preformance that is a playback.

 

Audio format (wav..giga..aiff ect ect) is going to take the most computing power, midi takes little computing power..pre recorded audio tracks played back take the least.

 

For just audio playback..any cell phone or tablet would work fine.

 

Midi will work well on Drums, Keyboard and Bass. Midi usually sounds bad on guitar parts and vocals. Buy professional midi tracks if possible.

 

You will need to learn Cubase or Cakewalk. You just need a sequencer..not the fanciest cubase or cakewalk..just the basic version of a daw. You also will need to learn midi. Its a lot

of work..but worth it usually.

 

You might consider just buying a keyboard. Astonishing power and versitility.

Yamaha Motif,Roland Fantom..Korg Triton..all will do drums,bass, piano ect..and a whole lot more !!!!

 

Especially with midi..you can play guitar or sing and let midi play the keyboard..drum..bass.piano...synth...exotic instruments..

 

I have Cakewalk Sonar and a Yamaha Motif. Familiar with both except as it pertains to midi. Never touched midi. That would be where the learning curve would be for me if I went that direction.

 

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You need to get the Cakewalk instrument definition for the Yamaha Motif. It is a cakewalk or Yamaha download. It will list each sound bank in a keyboard..motif..triton..fantom ..ect.

 

Then you need a midi song file for each song in your setlist. You load the midi file into the sequencer and separate the tracks into drums,keys bass ect..that may already be done depending on the type of midi file..

 

You hit play and then listen to the drum part..basss part ect.. you use Cakewalk instrument definition to select a soundset to use for each part.

 

You can usually download an instrument definition for any keyboard..or make your own..(see tweakheads..instrument definition guide)

 

To get started:

 

I would join (free) Classical Archives and download a Piano concerto by Rachmaninov and let Cakewalk play it to see the full power of midi.

 

See ISBN-10: 0132624036, Midi Files, by Rob Young..used Amazon

ISBN-10: 1598630849, Midi Power, by Guren..great book !! A must have.

 

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You need to get the Cakewalk instrument definition for the Yamaha Motif. It is a cakewalk or Yamaha download. It will list each sound bank in a keyboard..motif..triton..fantom ..ect.

 

Then you need a midi song file for each song in your setlist. You load the midi file into the sequencer and separate the tracks into drums,keys bass ect..that may already be done depending on the type of midi file..

 

You hit play and then listen to the drum part..basss part ect.. you use Cakewalk instrument definition to select a soundset to use for each part.

 

You can usually download an instrument definition for any keyboard..or make your own..(see tweakheads..instrument definition guide)

 

To get started:

 

I would join (free) Classical Archives and download a Piano concerto by Rachmaninov and let Cakewalk play it to see the full power of midi.

 

See ISBN-10: 0132624036, Midi Files, by Rob Young..used Amazon

ISBN-10: 1598630849, Midi Power, by Guren..great book !! A must have.

 

 

Thanks, happ!!!

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