Members ben_allison Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 Arguably every dj and almost every electronic artist does this. And plenty of bands include loops. But for some reason the idea of a singer-songwriter playing live with loops or backing tracks seems karaoke-ish to me. What do peeps here think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members deanmass Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 If it pays, anything that keeps you gigging is doable. You always have the chance to make it unique. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryan. Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 Anytime I've seen it done live, the crowd response never seems to be favorable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lz4005 Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 I think there's a big difference between loops and backing tracks, if the loops aren't pre-recorded. Backing tracks turn a solo act into karaoke. Live looping can be a fun and entertaining thing if done well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HP Hovercraft Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 I think live looping can be badass. See: El Ten Eleven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jhamnett Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 Anytime I've seen it done live, the crowd response never seems to be favorable. Yuuuuuup. "Hey guys, I'm gonna play a 3 minute song but need 5 minutes of set-up/looping before I can start actually playing the damn song!" Asleep after 2 minutes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pedaltones Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 No Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pbone Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 That just kind of screams "I can't put a band together" to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onyxrhino Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 Maybe it would cool if you're doing something unique and interesting that couldn't be accomplished any other way. But if you're just playing something that would be better with a full band, yeah, it's just stupid. And to be fair, it looks stupid when electronica guys do this too. A friend of mine used to date a guy in this industrial/electronic act. Went to one of his shows. His "band"was just him and a female singer. She would sing and he would hit a button at the beginning of a song and maybe a couple of times during a song, and the rest of the time just bob his head to the beat. It looked ridiculous. The music wasn't even bad, but after the show, all anyone was talking about was how silly it looked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChuckNorris1982 Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 I wouldn't stop to watch some dude playing an acoustic guitar along to backing tracks. Totally lame. I'd much rather than see it stripped down just the guitar if you don't have a band to play with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dr.Picklebottom Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 kt tunstall does it well. she also plays with a band though so its not so 5th grade talent showish. someone would have to be phenomenal for me to want to sit there and listen to a guy with a pedal and a guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HP Hovercraft Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 Yuuuuuup. "Hey guys, I'm gonna play a 3 minute song but need 5 minutes of set-up/looping before I can start actually playing the damn song!"Asleep after 2 minutes... Do people actually do that? I'm talking about looping as you play and building a track. [video=youtube;fD2xS91Mi84] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Collapse Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 DJs and electronic acts can get away with it because everyone shows up to dance, not watch the band. Not so much with singer/songwriter/rock acts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members juri Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 Mostly yes, it's lame... depends on how and what you do. I really like this guy...[video=youtube;CzqcuwP6D9c] Bonus banana man at 1:50 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members OMTerria Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 Solo sets that use a lot of live looping can be really cool, but it definitely takes a decent bit of talent to stand out in that crowd since everyone and their mother can post videos of themselves doing it on Youtube. I've been really blown away by a couple sets of that before though. Backing tracks are really, really lame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PunkRocker33133 Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 That was ridiculously cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members evets618 Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 So, explain why I should pay a bass player and drummer, and split the money five ways, when they can be replaced by Pro Tools. Now the dough is a three way split, and I don't need to deal with two more "artists" who are in twelve other bands. And don't help with the P.A., anyway. Check out http://www.cheapsuit.net/tunes.cfm No drummers (or bassists) were harmed in the making of these recordings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vinnies Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 keller williams is ridiculously talented at this, but yes, seems like it takes 5 minutes of setup to get the song to where it needs to be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bieke Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 if it has a function, then it's OK I guessI used to play (well still do, but haven't gigged in a while) with a dreampop band where the whole set basically is a backtrack and we add live guitars, bass and vocals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pbone Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 So, explain why I should pay a bass player and drummer, and split the money five ways, when they can be replaced by Pro Tools. Because music is about soul, not efficiency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hotmess Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 The Cars use a pre-recorded bass track now because they don't want any non-original members in the band. Mascis uses looping very well at solo shows. A LOT of Pittsburgh artists use backing tracks. Lots of shows that are kind of like karaoke, but some of them are pretty tight, like Weird Paul and such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pewtershmit Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 Bonus banana man at 1:50 this is was very bad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BAXANDALL Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 As long as you wear a floppy sleeve pirate shirt and have a big fan blow your long hair under lots of stage lights it's fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members goodhonk Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 if you can create the loop in front of them they will go gaga. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members diocide Posted April 17, 2012 Members Share Posted April 17, 2012 I play in a duo. We make heavily electronic music, with guitar and vocals over it. We use tracks and play out around once a month. Some people are like, "That's not real music" while others say, "That was {censored}in awesome!" I'll take former, as long as I keep hearing the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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