Practicing to backing tracks

[plclancy]

Hi All,

I haven't been around here for a long time but I remember it as a great pace to get advise and chat to other keyboard players. 

I used to play with Soul, Rock and Blues bands and over the years kids and mortgages came along as they do and my focus shifted away from music. 

Now I've finally got myself a synth again and keen to get back into it, but this time on my own terms, not on the road with a band, just in my bedroom  

So my question is what are you guys using these days to practice your rhythm and solo parts when you're not with your bandmates. I used to have a big ton of Midi files but is there some way better method these days? For example I want to go back and learn the Dark Side of the Moon end to end, lots of Doors stuff, and maybe some Rock stuff too. I have no interest in recording what I play, just want to hear the rest of the band in my headphone as I play. Took a look at Bandlab and GarageBand but seems too heavy. I also need a Windows compatible program. 

So please advise this old-timer (well i'm only just turning 40) what everyone is using these days to practice and learn songs that you love? 

Cheers All

[JazzMastaJim]

Well, from one "old-timer" to another (I just turned 66 last month) -- I just have a big folder on my laptop's hard drive containing MP3s of all the songs my band plays, or that I want to learn. The laptop's and keyboard's audio outputs are connected to a fairly loud stereo via a mixer.

I  just drag & drop to create a playlist in VLC or Winamp and then play along. If I will need to slow a song down, I drop it into Reaper, where it's easy to change the tempo without changing the pitch (any audio program that can do that on the fly will work).

[1001gear]

I rip CD tracks to wav or mp3 and slow 'em down with Transcribe! I'm not too concerned with learning the tracks themselves although a lot of that rubs off anyway. I mostly work melody and improvising; lead bedroom so to speak.

[thelurker]

I want to look for Transcribe, I'd like that functionality.  I hate learning songs from the strange scrolling blobs on youtube, and most songs don't seem to have good keyboard parts written out. The life of the keyboard player, gotta know stuff, gotta figure stuff out.

[1001gear]

18 minutes ago, thelurker said:

I want to look for Transcribe, I'd like that functionality.  I hate learning songs from the strange scrolling blobs on youtube, and most songs don't seem to have good keyboard parts written out. The life of the keyboard player, gotta know stuff, gotta figure stuff out.

Transcribe! (the exclamation is part of the trademark) is marketed by Seventh String. It won't rip and convert but there's a ton of free stuff that will. What Transcribe will do besides slow down and export files for burning, is staggering. 30 bucks when I bought.

[koolkat]

I use Band In A Box quite often if I just want a fairly generic practice tool.  I rarely use midi files and mainly use the Realband features of BIAB.

[Music Bird]

I use a Casio CT-X3000 arranger keyboard.