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Tips and suggestions for playing with tracks


Vito Corleone

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One of the advances we want to make this year is to upgrade the light show and integrate it more fully with the music.   To go full-scale on this will almost certainly mean tracking the show to a midi sequencer.....right??

And if we end up going down this road, then we very likely will end up sequencing some percussion and keyboard parts because...why not since the sequencer is already there.

My questions stem from this:   I'm about 15 years from the last time I did any serious sequencing.  So I can imagine a few improvements and changes have come along since then.

So what are your setups and how do you use them?

The DAW I use for my home studio is StudioOne.   I presume this would work just fine for a click track, a midi track for the lighting and the occassional keyboard and percussion part.   Any minimum requirements I should be looking for from a PC laptop?  

Any pitfalls to look out for?   How you do you guys best cue the drummer to start the next song?   What's the best way to set up a setlist?  To start and stop the next song?  To run songs together consecutively?   To stop a song midway and restart it?   

While I'm pretty sure all of this stuff is really simple and basic and most will flow naturally as I go along and come up with my own system for doing things....I'm just looking to hear how those of you who use such setups use them.  What gear do you use?  What lessons have you learned along the way?

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No pro advice; just a caution for anybody out there toying with the idea. I practice a lot with precorded material. There's a ton of experience in there if you're diligent enough. The danger for live performance?

Tracks don't budge. Tracks can turn your finely honed playing feel into timing glitches. The dancier the tune the more unforgiving. You won't have the luxury of the replay button either.

 

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1001gear wrote:

 

 

No pro advice; just a caution for anybody out there toying with the idea. I practice a lot with precorded material. There's a ton of experience in there if you're diligent enough. The danger for live performance?

 

Tracks don't budge. Tracks can turn your finely honed playing feel into timing glitches. The dancier the tune the more unforgiving. You won't have the luxury of the replay button either.

 

 

 

It all comes down to how comfortable your drummer is playing to a click. If the click makes him stiff like a board, thats how its going to sound. A few years ago I did a multi track recording of our show. After listening to the playback along with the click track I couldn't believe how much we drifted in and out of the click. Our drummer said he doesn't even know the click is there and just plays by feel. Obviously the click keeps him reigned in, but it rarely has ever felt stiff.

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Forget sequencing these days..EVERYONE uses tracks, especially the major artists out there so you'll sound out of place with MIDI..Track the parts and use the stems in Abelton's Live..it can run all the MIDI for lights, Visuals and your stems very easily..THAT's the way to go nowadays :)

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