Members SusieP Posted April 11, 2012 Members Share Posted April 11, 2012 I am a new member here and live over in the UK. I've had a look at a few threads on here about Duos and backing tracks etc, and I'd love to join in but I thought I had better start a new thread to say hello first before I wade into discussions with you all. My partner and I are in Nottinghamshire, England and are a Duo using backing tracks. Many Duos here use them. Many have their tracks on a laptop now - we are still dinosaurs and have our tracks on minidisc. It works for us. We use a Tascam player and our tracks have been made for us from scratch. We do two kinds of 'show' - one for dancing. Mainly 80s 'pop' with some 70s, 90s etc thrown in. And we do a dinner music show. And of course, if the gig demands it, we do both shows. Our dinner music tracks are real piano, bass and light drums. Our dancy stuff is a bit more full. The audio samples on our website can't really give a true impression - obviously the samples sound way different [better] when pumping through a 2.5K rig - but the samples give an idea. I sing lead and my partner sings backing vocals and plays Alto sax, bongos, congas, blues harp, keyboards and drums over the tracks. Drum wise, he has a piccolo snare, an 18 inch bass drum - a jazz kit basically and he stands up next to me to play it. And for the 80s show he has bigger drums, rototoms etc. We have been in Bands over the years but got so sick of being let down by other musicians getting drunk, stoned, or both, or just not turning up at all that we took the decision to break into a Duo. We haven't regretted it. We average 3 gigs a week in a variety of venues. The money isn't huge, but we make a living - and most importantly, we love what we do! I'm really interested to get to know all of you over in the USA who are doing the same job as us. So I hope I can join in your community here. My partner and I are full time in the Duo. No day job to pay the bills. So any tips we can pick up about how to get more work is going to be of interest! That's my intro over! :lol: Our website is www.smoothduo.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chemikool Posted April 11, 2012 Members Share Posted April 11, 2012 Hi Susie P! Welcome from the other side of the big pond! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bob Dey Posted April 11, 2012 Members Share Posted April 11, 2012 I'm new here too Susie. Are your backing tracks done with a synth, drum machine or other? I used to actually record the bass parts with a bass guitar, but have been sequencing with synth for about 20 years now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted April 11, 2012 Members Share Posted April 11, 2012 Hi Susie! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members skybluegary Posted April 11, 2012 Members Share Posted April 11, 2012 Hi Suzie! I'm just down the road from you, welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stunningbabe Posted April 12, 2012 Members Share Posted April 12, 2012 Welcome 'SMOOTH". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Terry Allan Hall Posted April 12, 2012 Members Share Posted April 12, 2012 Howdy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SusieP Posted April 12, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 12, 2012 Hi Susie P! Welcome from the other side of the big pond! Thanks for the welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SusieP Posted April 12, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 12, 2012 I'm new here too Susie. Are your backing tracks done with a synth, drum machine or other? I used to actually record the bass parts with a bass guitar, but have been sequencing with synth for about 20 years now. Hello fellow new member! The jazzy tracks for dinner music/restaurant gigs have real piano, real drums and real double bass. I paid some fellow musos to record them for us. The tracks for the louder, livelier dance music show is a real mix of stuff. A friend of ours [a guitarist] made them all from scratch. He was also in a Band and was sick of being let down by other band members, so he decided to go the solo route with tracks. He made his own, we were impressed with them and paid him to make ours. All the guitar parts are real, and there's a mix of synth, drum machine etc on them. I don't really know the technical side of this - I just wrote the cheque! I do so admire those of you who can make your own tracks. I respect that talent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SusieP Posted April 12, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 12, 2012 Hi Susie! Cheers! Hello ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SusieP Posted April 12, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 12, 2012 Hi Suzie! I'm just down the road from you, welcome! Bloody heck! Nice to see a fellow Brit here! Don't you dare scoff at me because I still love my Minidiscs!!!! Bet you've got a bloody mac, haven't you. :) hee hee xxx I'm a dinosaur, I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SusieP Posted April 12, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 12, 2012 Howdy! Double hello!!! Thanks for not ignoring me, folks. Right! Now I feel I can venture into some other threads now some of you know who I am. xxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Notes_Norton Posted April 12, 2012 Members Share Posted April 12, 2012 Hi, welcome to the group. I visited your country a number of years go, when from London to Wales to the Outer Hebrides to Dover and back to London (put 3,000 miles on the rental car). I heard a lot of great music on your island and was treated as a welcome guest by the people. I too am in a duo http://www.s-cats.com with my wife. We met while we were in different bands, when our bands broke up we joined a 5 piece band, then had personnel problems with some of the other members and formed a duo. Since my primary instrument is sax, and I didn't want to leave that home I decided to go with backing tracks. That was in 1985. I recorded our own tracks on a Tascam reel-to-reel 4 track, mixed them to cassette and took a big box of tapes to the gig (I play sax, bass, guitar, drums, wind synth, flute, and keyboard synth - my partner plays synth and guitar - we both sing but she is a much better singer). I don't do cassettes anymore (and haven't for many, many years) and here is how I do it now: http://www.nortonmusic.com/backing_tracks.html Like you, I am fortunate to be making a living doing music, and nothing but music. Other than 2 'day jobs' I took while exploring what the 'real world' was about, I've made my living doing music all my life (so far) and am enjoying life. Backing tracks get a lot of posts here. Some people don't like them, some people do. Personally I can appreciate either as long as the music is good. There has always been more than one right way to make music. Welcome again, I hope you like it here. We are for the most part friendly and respectful of each other. We have one thing in common, we are the social outcasts of the music business - independent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SusieP Posted April 12, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 12, 2012 Hi, welcome to the group.I visited your country a number of years go, when from London to Wales to the Outer Hebrides to Dover and back to London (put 3,000 miles on the rental car). I heard a lot of great music on your island and was treated as a welcome guest by the people.I too am in a duo http://www.s-cats.com with my wife. We met while we were in different bands, when our bands broke up we joined a 5 piece band, then had personnel problems with some of the other members and formed a duo. Since my primary instrument is sax, and I didn't want to leave that home I decided to go with backing tracks. That was in 1985. I recorded our own tracks on a Tascam reel-to-reel 4 track, mixed them to cassette and took a big box of tapes to the gig (I play sax, bass, guitar, drums, wind synth, flute, and keyboard synth - my partner plays synth and guitar - we both sing but she is a much better singer).I don't do cassettes anymore (and haven't for many, many years) and here is how I do it now: http://www.nortonmusic.com/backing_tracks.htmlLike you, I am fortunate to be making a living doing music, and nothing but music. Other than 2 'day jobs' I took while exploring what the 'real world' was about, I've made my living doing music all my life (so far) and am enjoying life.Backing tracks get a lot of posts here. Some people don't like them, some people do. Personally I can appreciate either as long as the music is good. There has always been more than one right way to make music.Welcome again, I hope you like it here. We are for the most part friendly and respectful of each other. We have one thing in common, we are the social outcasts of the music business - independent. I guess your duo and ours have a fair bit in common - the Sax for starters.If your piano player keeps missing gigs and your guitarist keeps on turning his volume up and up and UP and everything is just a nightmare, then backing tracks win every time. Especially for the sax player. My partner, like you is a multi instrumentalist - so while he's riffing his sax - who's going to play the keyboards/drums etc. He can't play everything all at once. So that's why we use tracks. A lot of outfits use them over here, so it's not such a major problem as it seems to be here. [i've read through the backing track threads on here] - even some bands are using tracks to fill out their sound and save money. For instance, they'll have a six piece brass section on track but only have two guys on stage playing over it. Our take on tracks is as long as you aren't miming/pretending to play the instrument on the track...................no problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dboomer Posted April 12, 2012 Members Share Posted April 12, 2012 Hi SusieP Sounds like we have similar setups. My duo is a vocalist with a live drummer (and vocals) but we strictly have a dance show. We do backing tracks on a MacBook using Reason 6 and use the laptop as both the backing track player and live mixer. The drums are a Roland V-drum setup which I also play standing up. I'm a total gear freak (and my day job is designing sound gear) so I use every gadget I can get a hold of (mostly everything is already included in Reason) My take on tracks (and everything else) is ... it's a show. As long as you are entertaining what else matters. Magicians don't really saw people in half (sorry to break it to y'all) ... it's an illusion;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted April 12, 2012 Moderators Share Posted April 12, 2012 Now I feel I can venture into some other threads now some of you know who I am. xxx Susie, absolutely, please, feel free to post...that is the whole point here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stunningbabe Posted April 13, 2012 Members Share Posted April 13, 2012 Su...we dont have enough women here....so it's good to know that I am not alone here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members skybluegary Posted April 13, 2012 Members Share Posted April 13, 2012 Bloody heck! Nice to see a fellow Brit here! Don't you dare scoff at me because I still love my Minidiscs!!!! Bet you've got a bloody mac, haven't you. :) hee hee xxx I'm a dinosaur, I know. I would never scoff, whatever works best for you! (iPad not mac). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members richardmac Posted April 13, 2012 Members Share Posted April 13, 2012 Welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Voltan Posted April 14, 2012 Members Share Posted April 14, 2012 hi susieP... i'm the quiet one of the bunch... greetings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Surrealistic Posted April 14, 2012 Members Share Posted April 14, 2012 Hi Susie. I don't post here as often as I'd like - life's a little too hectic lately - but I'm another down the road from you, admittedly quite a long way down the road in Hastings, East Sussex. Welcome to the forums. [temporary thread derail]skybluegary: Wow, I didn't reckon on bumping into another follower of the mighty Sky Blues (hey now, stop laughing at the back there) here on HC. I'm from Cov originally.[/temporary thread derail] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members skybluegary Posted April 14, 2012 Members Share Posted April 14, 2012 So YOU'RE the other one! Big day today, win or bust! Good to know, small world! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SusieP Posted April 15, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 15, 2012 So YOU'RE the other one! Big day today, win or bust!Good to know, small world! So am I now only the third Brit here? I will certainly join in now I've had a little look around and 'met' a few of you.xxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted April 15, 2012 Moderators Share Posted April 15, 2012 As you expand into other forums you will find this is a fairly international place...we have people from literally all over the globe...and we have a Spanish language forum (Nuestro Foro, moderated by the great Gus Lozada). In here I have noticed some Brits, a Canadian or two, an Irishman, and Indonesian, an Indian, and of course a whole bunch of Yanks... In some of the other forums I mod, I've met Nipponese, Filipinos, South Afrikans, Aussies, Kiwis, Finns, Swedes, Swiss, French, ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SusieP Posted April 15, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 15, 2012 It's good to talk to people experiencing the same issues but in different cultures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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