Anyone running backing tracks live?

[dsylvianfan]

Hello all,

 

Has anyone here run backing tracks live? I have a bunch of stuff that i've tracked using plug ins that can't be replicated live.

[mrcpro]

Yeah but I use hardware. But there are more progressive types than myself who use a laptop and their plug-ins. It can be done.

[BATCAT]

My band uses backing tracks occasionally... There are a lot of ways to do it.

 

What we do is record the backling track(s) to a digital recorder. They're done to a click. For performance, the click is hard-panned left and the tracks are hard panned right. The right aux send goes the the PA and the drummer can use either just the click (left aux send) or else both the click and the tracks (headphone out) in his headphones or IEM.

 

Just remember, if there are any songs that have parts where the drums drop out, and there isn't a pre-recorded part running through, and he's the only one who can hear the click, then he has to keep time through this part- tapping the hi-hats or whatever...

[Ryst]

My band uses backing tracks. But we don't use a click. My drummer has a Roland SPD-S which he triggers sounds while playing drums. The sounds we use are a lot of intros and outros, ambients sounds, drones....but they all can have a slight deviation so nothing has to be triggered at a specific point. It's very loose. I like the Roland SPD-S. I just make my own samples, import them and assign the to pads. It's very easy. I will start incorperating a laptop too. I am gonna be using a midi foot controller and Ableton Live so i and the drummer can switch off triggering samples and that way his burden isn't so much since he is trying to keep a beat at the same time.

[Blackbelt1]

I'm a one-man act right now, so backing tracks are primary. I'd love to have a couple of band mates but I don't so I'm making do with what I have. And what I have happens to be an iPod with about 500 bass/drum backings on it. I sing all of the vocals and play all of the guitar parts. The only track I use that is an exception to this is Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. On that track there are some keyboards as well, to fill up the sound; all other backings are just plain 'ol bass and drums.

 

I don't use any backings with any vocals or guitar parts on them at all.

 

 

~Blackbelt

[gtrbass]

Had a nice discussion about this a while back on this thread: http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1202244&highlight=backing+tracks+live

[fastplant]

We just started using sequencing. It's true, it's all about the drummer keeping up with the click track. If he goes off, the whole song is done. Just make sure that the drummer can keep up and if he does go off, that he can correct himself back on to the track well enough.

[kayak]

The band that I worked with for the last two years used backing tracks. They were on an iPod. Left channel had mono audio. The right channel had the click track, which was fed to their IEM's.

[bbrunskill]

L click, R track is the easyiest (and Gayest) way to do it How do you get a sterio track and still have a click?

[geoffo]

My band is totally sequenced, basically as I got tired of drummers who couldn't keep in time. So we now have sequenced drums and bass, horns/strings (if req) and occasionally an extra vocal track.

 

IMHO all drummers should learn to play with a click track, same as what we all should have done when learning to play an instrument and timing became an issue. Drummers who have masyered using a click track are just soooo easy to work with, as you know they are going to keep good time and genarally have a solid feel about there drumming.

[geoffo]

we put all our sequences on Mini Disc. A bit outdated, but it works so well for us

[JMS 2]

Bass and drums on a CD for us. Even more outdated.

Yet it still works fine.

 

We might go midi soon though and trigger everything in realtime.

[Tedster]

I occasionally use backing tracks on a CD or iPod, which are rhythm guitar, bass, and backing vocals...all recorded and performed by me.

 

Sequencing drum and keyboard parts is too much like work.

[timrocker]

A variety band I gig with has been using sequences on a laptop. The drummer is smack on with them, as he's been doing this for years. His time is really good anyway. It makes for a really full sound. I wouldn't choose to work this way, myself, but I'm just a sideman on the project. I'd say it's working.

[geoffo]

I agree tedster, Sequencing drums does take a lot of time, with the bulk of it actually listening and trying to recreate what the original drummer was intending. On a typical Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus, Ending song I do the following drum proceedure

 

1) Listen to the song, and write a chord chart detailing the amopunt of bars in the song.

 

2)Work out the basic rythym pattern.

 

3) Lay down a basic drum track for 1 bar only and then loop it for as many bars is the song is long. (I use this to work out the correct speed of the song as to the original)

 

4) Edit the looped drum track to create the first verse and chorus only

 

5) Loop this to make extra verses/choruses in place of the initial loop I put down

 

6) Add in the bridge

 

7) Go back and add any extra cymbals that may have been added to a particular verse/Chorus.

 

I find that once the first verse and chorus is sequenced then the rest can be done in a matter of minutes. This the way it works for me and can be done quite fast when needed too. the key is having an accurate chart to work with.

[GZsound]

I use backing tracks.

 

On nights my band isn't playing and I'm at a Karoake bar with friends.

 

I tried it back when MIDI hardware sequencers first started getting popular.

 

It sucked the life out of the band.. Never looked back.

 

Isn't using backing tracks just another form of Karoake anyway?

[geoffo]

 

Originally posted by GZsound I use backing tracks. Isn't using backing tracks just another form of Karoake anyway?

 

 

It depends on the application. I know of some duo's who just sing to backing tracks so yep I reckon that may as well be Kareoke.

 

I use backing tracks for the band, not particulary because I want too, but more, out of necessity to make our band more appealing and affordable to more venues. Our sequences are typically drums and bass, with the odd Horn/string section put in.

 

It also gives us total control over the sound, for example last sat nite we played in a pub where the DB levels are measured constantly and the band are able to monitor the levels by a small 'traffic light' situation. When ever the band play in the "red" zone for more than 5 seconds, the power is cut to the stage. By using a sequence we are able to stay well below the levels (or push the boundaries) and have no problems. The band in the same venue on Friday night had a live drummer, and when he went to his drum solo, he managed to cut all power to the stage.

 

So yep, depends on the application

[Blackbelt1]

Originally posted by GZsound Isn't using backing tracks just another form of Karoake anyway?

 

 

 

Whether it is or it isn't is up to everyone's opinion I guess.

 

Let's see...if I were in a band, I'd play my guitar and sing. I could be a little "looser" with my playing because my bandmates would adjust with me, and vice-versa. Without a band, I play my guitar and sing. Except that I can't screw up. I have to stay right in synch with the tracks or everybody knows it.

 

The real bottom line for me is, without backing tracks I'd be sitting at home polishing my guitars. With backing tracks I'm applying what meager singing ability I have with what meager guitar playing ability I have, to get off the couch and on the stage again. Maybe I'll wind up in a band again at some point but right now my schedule's too nutty.

 

So call it karaoke if you want...I personally don't but whatever.

 

~Blackbelt

[fastplant]

 

Originally posted by GZsound Isn't using backing tracks just another form of Karoake anyway?

 

 

This is something I addressed in another thread. You have to be careful not to over do it with sequencing. We really only use it for added percussion, a few keyboard parts here and there. Only things that we don't have enough hands/members for. If you do too much, the audience will notice it for one, and it can kill the feel of a song. You should use it very sparingly or not at all.

[sventvkg]

this is an interesting thread..I used tracks for about a year once a month at a very lucrative regular gig that called for them. I got karaoke tracks edited the {censored} out of them so I could take guitar leads, fixed arrangements etc..Spend about a month working on them and got about 200 tracks to play with...It got stale quickly..It just wasn't flexible enough...Now, i'm getting pretty stale playing solo acoustic and I have my feelers out for bandmembers. I'm starting to do the looping thing I like the idea of the spontineity of it and the fact that the song will take on a unique life every time I play it...I just wish there was a way to integrate the looping in with some backing drums and bass as well but I can' t think of how to make it work with the looping other then cutting each part of and making loops out of them for every song, then triggering those specific parts...like section A, B, Chorus, Bridge, etc etc...Lay it out in Ableton Live with each section of the song in your set having their own unique loops. Then you'd have to hit a MIDI Pedal telling Ableton to loop the section you're on While The MIDI Also arms your EDP or My RC-50 Looper and starts it recording....Or you tell LIVE you want a section to loop at the beginning of it so as to give you time to get ready to trigger your looper manually....Or, just do it all within Abelton Live like KID Beyond and lots of folks are doing it......It's a lot to ponder for certain but I would love to do this for certain shows...If anyone is doing anything similar, I'd love to know your method...In fact, I think I 'll post this on the Loopers delight mailing lost as well...