Digital backing track MIDI controlled

robertolopes

robertolopes

Member
Hi,

Do you guys know any backing track hardware that I could control via MIDI? We are looking for a (non-computer) solution that could be triggered by a MIDI foot-controller, ideally providing the tempo beats for the drummer.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Rob
 
The tradtional ADATS are midi triggerable I believe. . But there has to be something more efficient and better suited for the road these days. Not that I haven't Lugged ADATS around for years doing live recording. I Looked through tascams site but they dont seem to have anything that is midi enabled.

Would a tablet based solution possibly work? or is that still too computerish for you?
 
Be aware that ADAT is linear on magnetic tape, so you can't quickly jump to a specific spot. I've seen solid state backing track systems used on cruise ship theaters, but I researched them and really it was just quality hardware running an embedded version of Linux.

Maybe this ventures a bit off topic, but may I ask you about the non-computer requirement? Ableton Live is rock solid. For about 4 years now, I've used it weekly on a Mac mini (with the internal drive even!) to play backing tracks that span anywhere from 5 to 15 separate stems per song. Those are multitracked out to the console and MIDI triggered with an 8-button footswitch. In all that time, I've only had issues once and it turned out to be a corrupt set of stems.

The Mac mini is dedicated to the task, with all screensavers/backups/scanning/indexing/notifications/etc disabled, as is the thing to do on any production machine for live music.

I also sometimes play raw tracks from Logic and Reason on a 2013 Retina MacBook Pro. That's been reliable. Except for the very-synth-heavy songs that I haven't printed to audio yet - those can get a little hairy on the CPU. =)
 
philipacamaniac said:
Be aware that ADAT is linear on magnetic tape, so you can't quickly jump to a specific spot. I've seen solid state backing track systems used on cruise ship theaters, but I researched them and really it was just quality hardware running an embedded version of Linux.

Maybe this ventures a bit off topic, but may I ask you about the non-computer requirement? Ableton Live is rock solid. For about 4 years now, I've used it weekly on a Mac mini (with the internal drive even!) to play backing tracks that span anywhere from 5 to 15 separate stems per song. Those are multitracked out to the console and MIDI triggered with an 8-button footswitch. In all that time, I've only had issues once and it turned out to be a corrupt set of stems.

The Mac mini is dedicated to the task, with all screensavers/backups/scanning/indexing/notifications/etc disabled, as is the thing to do on any production machine for live music.

I also sometimes play raw tracks from Logic and Reason on a 2013 Retina MacBook Pro. That's been reliable. Except for the very-synth-heavy songs that I haven't printed to audio yet - those can get a little hairy on the CPU. =)
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The one i use for live recording is actually dual hard drives and 24 tracks. The 8's get knocked out of adjustment too fast generally for traveling i have found.
 
You know what might be the best these days would be to get someone to mod a 2 channel solid state recorder for you, so that the switches are midi controllable. Thats likely to be much more reliable than some of the adats or even other older technology.
 
philipacamaniac said:
Be aware that ADAT is linear on magnetic tape, so you can't quickly jump to a specific spot. I've seen solid state backing track systems used on cruise ship theaters, but I researched them and really it was just quality hardware running an embedded version of Linux.

Maybe this ventures a bit off topic, but may I ask you about the non-computer requirement? Ableton Live is rock solid. For about 4 years now, I've used it weekly on a Mac mini (with the internal drive even!) to play backing tracks that span anywhere from 5 to 15 separate stems per song. Those are multitracked out to the console and MIDI triggered with an 8-button footswitch. In all that time, I've only had issues once and it turned out to be a corrupt set of stems.

The Mac mini is dedicated to the task, with all screensavers/backups/scanning/indexing/notifications/etc disabled, as is the thing to do on any production machine for live music.

I also sometimes play raw tracks from Logic and Reason on a 2013 Retina MacBook Pro. That's been reliable. Except for the very-synth-heavy songs that I haven't printed to audio yet - those can get a little hairy on the CPU. =)
Click to expand...
The non-computer is just because we were thinking that nowadays should have dedicated piece of hardware that we could stick to a rack with axe fx just to do that, however doesn't seems to be the case.
Thenks for the detailed description!
 
I have a rack that contains my Axe, GR-55, VL-2, X-32 and it's all triggered by a MacBook sitting on top via USB. The software is Showbuddy. I've controlled up to around 10 or 12 devices with it and run a pre-programmed light show.

Only my opinion but I would think you are really limiting your options by eliminating the computer. I haven't stepped on a foot switch in 5 years except to start the song. However drums are part of our backing track so not sure on the click track usage although I know some folks are pulling it off.
 
mwd said:
I have a rack that contains my Axe, GR-55, VL-2, X-32 and it's all triggered by a MacBook sitting on top via USB. The software is Showbuddy. I've controlled up to around 10 or 12 devices with it and run a pre-programmed light show.

Only my opinion but I would think you are really limiting your options by eliminating the computer. I haven't stepped on a foot switch in 5 years except to start the song. However drums are part of our backing track so not sure on the click track usage although I know some folks are pulling it off.
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Wow, that sounds great. Thanks for sharing.
Sorry if I wasn't clear in my question, but we are not discarding the computer option. We were just wondering if there was a common piece of hardware that people was using, and we didn't know, what doesn't seems to be the case.
Thank you very much to detail your set. I will definitely check out the devices.
Cheers,
Rob
 
dpeterson said:
Guy who makes LiquidFoot controllers has a thing called Liquid Tracks, famcmusic.com.

http://www.famcmusic.com/store/Liquid-Tracks/LiquidTracks
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I have one of these in the mail that I am going to learn how to use for live use. I'll be happy to post again once I figure out what I'm doing so I can report on how this thing works.


For the OP I plan on triggering tracks via either my foot controller or a drum pad. The tracks will be both audio (left to foh, right to IEM's with click) and also a midi track. Sometimes the midi will control my axe, and sometimes it will be run into a synth as an arppegiator.

Hopefully the LT can do all this.
 
flump said:
I have one of these in the mail that I am going to learn how to use for live use. I'll be happy to post again once I figure out what I'm doing so I can report on how this thing works.


For the OP I plan on triggering tracks via either my foot controller or a drum pad. The tracks will be both audio (left to foh, right to IEM's with click) and also a midi track. Sometimes the midi will control my axe, and sometimes it will be run into a synth as an arppegiator.

Hopefully the LT can do all this.
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What a coincidence... I am willing to hear your thoughts on this. Why hardware instead a computer, any particular reason?
BTW, this setup sounds really fun to do.
 
robertolopes said:
What a coincidence... I am willing to hear your thoughts on this. Why hardware instead a computer, any particular reason?
BTW, this setup sounds really fun to do.
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Mainly because of portability and robustness. I just don't really trust anything that has to run an operating system like windows or mac os at a show. Plus you have to drag along some kind of interface.
 
robertolopes said:
I checked few, but they weren't MIDI triggerable.
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I daisy chained my floorboard, axe and electribe. The axe responds to channel 1 and the tribe to channel 2. Both are under floorboard control: three controls in a row for axe scenes and two with program changes for the electribe to play different patterns. If I send notes to the tribe, it will trigger individual samplers
I'm just getting the hang of this, but midi controlling both is a piece of cake! (i do need to press play on the tribe once tho).

And have you seen machines like the Akai MPX 16 and MPX8 SD? Take WAV samples from an SD card, are midi operable..
 
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Not sure what your gear setup is. I put this together because it was portable. Houses a router, dmxis light controller, Sennheiser IEM system, wireless Shure Mic receiver, wireless guitar unit, Axe FX, Strymon Bigsky, MIDI interface, X32 rack mixer, power strip, Roland GR55 and Voicelive 2 with a Macbook on top. Makes for a clean stage and has been rock solid for 5 years now.

axe_rig.jpg
 
So I got one of these, and I'm having issues getting my first preset setup. The unit is not recognizing the audio track on the USB stick. After watching all the youtube vids and reading a good chunk of the manual I opened a support ticket with FAMC. It's certainly not as easy to do as I thought it would be.

Edit Update: Figured out how to get the damn thing to read new audio files totally by accident. I didn't see it anywhere in the manual and I still have yet to get a response to FAMC. Now trying to figure out how to get it to read my midi tracks.

Moral of this story so far. It seems like a good product that is much harder to use than I thought and customer service seems to be quite poor. Still want to use it if I can figure it out.
 
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flump said:
So I got one of these, and I'm having issues getting my first preset setup. The unit is not recognizing the audio track on the USB stick. After watching all the youtube vids and reading a good chunk of the manual I opened a support ticket with FAMC. It's certainly not as easy to do as I thought it would be.

Edit Update: Figured out how to get the damn thing to read new audio files totally by accident. I didn't see it anywhere in the manual and I still have yet to get a response to FAMC. Now trying to figure out how to get it to read my midi tracks.

Moral of this story so far. It seems like a good product that is much harder to use than I thought and customer service seems to be quite poor. Still want to use it if I can figure it out.
Click to expand...

How did you try FAMC? if you emailed you may never get an answer. If you use the ticket support on their website you should get a quick answer. I always did that way....
 
martijne said:
I daisy chained my floorboard, axe and electribe. The axe responds to channel 1 and the tribe to channel 2. Both are under floorboard control: three controls in a row for axe scenes and two with program changes for the electribe to play different patterns. If I send notes to the tribe, it will trigger individual samplers
I'm just getting the hang of this, but midi controlling both is a piece of cake! (i do need to press play on the tribe once tho).

And have you seen machines like the Akai MPX 16 and MPX8 SD? Take WAV samples from an SD card, are midi operable..
Click to expand...

I'm using the MPX16 to trigger a few intros and in-song sound effects. Would not recommend due to the long load times when powering on or switching banks. Sample editing is also a bit on the painful side, and I'm a front-panel man on my AxeFX.
 
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