Live bands playing along to karaoke tracks - Moral Issue?

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boogieman75

Experienced
I stumbled upon a you tube video today where a cover band was blatantly playing along to a karaoke track live. 4 piece country band that has Vox, Bass, Drums and Guitar. I heard fiddle, banjo and female harmonies when the "guys' were not singing. I hear they played one of my local venues that my band also plays at and people were raving about them. This offends me not only as a musician but as someone who works his ass off singing harmonies, and playing guitar in a power trio. I can't verify that they used ableton or some sort of custom back tracks. But my gut tells me they ripped of a karaoke track.

I use a looper on occasion sometimes in my acoustic shows, but I am still working and put in the work recording MY OWN guitar tracks.

Am I alone here? What say you Fractal peeps?

False advertising?

Flame away :)
 
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There are bands that I've seen do this with different levels of success, some tastefully, others not so much. I've been in bands that have used sequenced tracks (home brew, not a karaoke backing track) for sonic augmentation. I've also seen some top notch major label acts who played local clubs that were obviously "on the clock" with support keyboards, percussion, backup vocals, etc. I'm sure this was done in an attempt to guarantee that the live "product" was up to the record label's expectations, and so that the consumers at their shows got the best representation possible of their new music. And these are among some of the finest rock musicians I've ever encountered anywhere at any level - true top notch performers and artists. Nobody would ever argue that these players were slouches for doing so.

On the flip side, you sometimes see cover bands reduce this to total cheese, and just do a poor job of implementing the backing tracks. It doesn't matter to most people if they are having a good time. Where I draw the line is that if a band can't perform as a group without the backing tracks, and still come across as a quality act, then that isn't cool in my book. Again, to the teeny boppers on the dance floor, they could not care less. When the backing tracks become a substitute for actually having talent, that's when I say "nay".

Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous club managers willing to hire anything that puts bodies in the room and sells booze. It matters not to them whether the band is loaded with virtuoso musicians, or if some a**hole is up there spitting wooden nickels. If it attracts bodies, they'll hire it.
 
My guess and hope would be they were at least using tracks. I'm in a complete "Live" band myself. We compete with tons of "Track" guys as well. Most people think it's jealousy when you explain to them that the band isn't live. I've given up, your average bar goer has no idea. They just want to hear the song. You're better off just concentrating on your own band and being positive about that.
 
Usually people who lack the talent to do their own backing tracks…lack talent, and it shows in their live performances.

If venues paid a living wage for real musicians, we'd probably see a lot less of this.
 
solo-act said:
Usually people who lack the talent to do their own backing tracks…lack talent, and it shows in their live performances.

If venues paid a living wage for real musicians, we'd probably see a lot less of this.
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It ain't about the money. It's about integrity.

When you're too unskilled or lazy to even create your own backing tracks, or to mangle someone else's stuff into a new creative art form, I say you need to have your instrument shoved up your ass. Milli Vanilli got crucified for a reason.
 
Playing with backing tracks to add extra parts is 100% fine in my book. If you play in a cover band trying my make some cash it makes a great deal of sense - cuts down on the number of mouths to feed and speeds up practice sessions..

After all, if you play music in front of people it's only entertainment.. That's all. The same goes for original music too - in my book!

Totally miming is a whole other story!!
 
I try to just judge the whole show and not the tech.

I either dig what they are doing or not. Doesn't matter to me about tracks etc.

Lot's of folks are just trying to scratch out a living with music. I don't fault them for that.
 
barhrecords said:
I try to just judge the whole show and not the tech.

I either dig what they are doing or not. Doesn't matter to me about tracks etc.

Lot's of folks are just trying to scratch out a living with music. I don't fault them for that.
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No, I don't fault musicians for doing what they need to do to eek out a buck, either. As I said, I did the whole MIDI/sequencer techno thing in the 1980s, as did many other cover and original bands back then, to add icing on the cake, and especially for improved drum sonics during a dance set. But I think the OP is referring to these acts that don't even seem to be trying, just pulling karaoke tracks off the internet and letting it rip. That don't play in my book.
 
jimfist said:
No, I don't fault musicians for doing what they need to do to eek out a buck, either. As I said, I did the whole MIDI/sequencer techno thing in the 1980s, as did many other cover and original bands back then, to add icing on the cake, and especially for improved drum sonics during a dance set. But I think the OP is referring to these acts that don't even seem to be trying, just pulling karaoke tracks off the internet and letting it rip. That don't play in my book.
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I have softened up my personal opinion on this.

It used to be acts with backing tracks, pitch correctors etc. were taking money out of the pockets of "legit" acts.

But that's really not the case these days. For most local venues, it's a matter of a labor of love to play out. The pay is 300-400 US$ to split.

I don't see the backing tracks folks are taking food off the table for legit musicians any more. It's the sad state of live music in general in the US.

So how good the tracks are or where they got the tracks from is somewhat a "so what" to me. I can still enjoy it... or not if they suck :)
 
I hear ya...but I'm still fighting the dreadful changes to the club scene, kicking and screaming the whole way. It really is awful. :fatigue:
 
When I started playing 40 years ago, the groups in my area were all 7/8-piece horn bands and sounded huge. Then along came keyboards/synths w/horns, strings, etc. The groups got smaller and smaller...now most in my area are 3-4 pieces, many play w/sequenced parts. Still, I would love to see the return of bigger groups...there's nothing like a lot of great musicians playing well together...
 
I agree, the pay for us is usually $400 a night and we're a four piece dealing with flakey unreliable agents. Generally we track all our keyboard parts and I don't have an issue with it, that process of making the click track is quite labour intensive in itself and includes usually some rehearsal time to get the track levels correct.

When you consider that with most pubs the live entertainment seems to be mostly an afterthought: search for power outlets, tiny stage area, poor pay - a drummer, guitarist, bassist, vocalist, tracked keyboards, a PA all providing 3 sets of entertainment - the bar owner and patrons are getting pretty good value for their money, the band isn't. Not to mention each of the band members has a serious investment in their kit and time learning the material. So when it comes down to it, it's really only for fun so give the bands a break when you go out to your local pub to watch music for the price of buying a pint of lager. You could pay $600 to watch the Stones.
 
If I had to do this in order to play a club or book a gig of any type I doubt I would do it. I think I would rather be mediocre at trying to pull it off using real people then adding tech.
 
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every big act pushes stems to some degree...whether it be perc/click and synth pads and stuff to full blown instrumentation. as long you arent faking like you are playing the part or pantomiming i have zero issue with it whatsoever.

it's meant to enhance the performance, not trick or fool anyone....
 
I've seen bands so bad I wish they would use karaoke tracks to hide their low talent reality.
I actually just discovered Karaoke Jamtracks. My band uses several guest singers that only want show up for a couple of run-throughs prior to the gig. Then there's always the band member that occasionally can't make practice for some reason. Having those customizable karaoke tracks covering only the missing talent are just killer for keeping practices on schedule and productive. I'd never use them for the gigs.....but I'll use the heck out of them to keep from canceling practice.
 
I used to play in a Duran Duran cover band and we played to a click, had backing tracks. If there were instruments in front of someone, they were playing, when we played live. But there was always more than that going on. The music was impossible to perform any other way. We produced all the backing material -- it's not like someone from the band *didn't* play the stuff, it just wasn't replayed live.

Ultimately I take the "if a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?" side of the debate: if I don't know, I don't care. If it becomes apparent to me that the guitar player in miming a solo, I'll probably throw some jokes their way.
 
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