One Man Band

J

Jipps0525

Power User
Anyone here run a one man band show Aside from just playing acoustic and singing (which is awesome by the way just not something I have a repertoire for do solo). I’ve been playing in cover bands as a guitarist for awhile but every so often I’ll get asked to do a solo acoustic show, which is something I’m not prepared for, since I don’t really sing enough or practice for that type of gig. Def on my list of things to do though! However I can play guitar to a lot of other songs so was thinking of trying a one man band idea where I get tracks and remove the guitar and just fill in with my guitar and then have a run of show with transitions going in my ears so it’s seamless. Can do this for pretty much any song. Can also include DJ stuff like remixes, dance mixes, edm, whatever. Just an idea. Came here wondering about other one man band experiences or ideas!
 
I have a 'two man band', which is logistically similar to what (I think) you're wanting to do. We only have two live instruments (guitar & keys) and two voices, but want to play lots of different types of rock and pop covers (not just 'duo music'). Therefore we spend a lot of time crafting the backing tracks that we accompany live. Mostly we start with MIDI covers (purchased if available, for better quality) then produce them as audio files ourselves with a DAW, also recording whatever of our own playing or vocals we want to include. My partner and I played for years in a full band, so we're now just playing/singing the same parts, but with a pre-recorded 'rest of band'. It's allowed us to have great fun playing live occasionally for small gigs / venues, whereas neither of us are at a point where being a full band would make sense.

We prefer 'build your own' backing tracks over using commercial tracks with removed parts, but the later would sure be a faster boostrap if the quality is good enough for a live performance (though I'm skeptical).

We use the iPad-based Bandhelper app to manage and play the backing tracks, as well as automation of Axe functions via MIDI.

BTW when we did weddings, this kind of configuration worked well in shifting between live numbers and the 'DJ tracks' necessary to satisfy the customer.

In summary, it's a lot of fun but it involved an enormous amount of 'prep work' as we did it.
 
Fotukito said:
I have a 'two man band', which is logistically similar to what (I think) you're wanting to do. We only have two live instruments (guitar & keys) and two voices, but want to play lots of different types of rock and pop covers (not just 'duo music'). Therefore we spend a lot of time crafting the backing tracks that we accompany live. Mostly we start with MIDI covers (purchased if available, for better quality) then produce them as audio files ourselves with a DAW, also recording whatever of our own playing or vocals we want to include. My partner and I played for years in a full band, so we're now just playing/singing the same parts, but with a pre-recorded 'rest of band'. It's allowed us to have great fun playing live occasionally for small gigs / venues, whereas neither of us are at a point where being a full band would make sense.

We prefer 'build your own' backing tracks over using commercial tracks with removed parts, but the later would sure be a faster boostrap if the quality is good enough for a live performance (though I'm skeptical).

We use the iPad-based Bandhelper app to manage and play the backing tracks, as well as automation of Axe functions via MIDI.

BTW when we did weddings, this kind of configuration worked well in shifting between live numbers and the 'DJ tracks' necessary to satisfy the customer.

In summary, it's a lot of fun but it involved an enormous amount of 'prep work' as we did it.
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wow guitar and keyboardist with tracks is a great idea. This sounds awesome. Do you have any videos?
 
Jipps0525 said:
Anyone here run a one man band show Aside from just playing acoustic and singing (which is awesome by the way just not something I have a repertoire for do solo). I’ve been playing in cover bands as a guitarist for awhile but every so often I’ll get asked to do a solo acoustic show, which is something I’m not prepared for, since I don’t really sing enough or practice for that type of gig. Def on my list of things to do though! However I can play guitar to a lot of other songs so was thinking of trying a one man band idea where I get tracks and remove the guitar and just fill in with my guitar and then have a run of show with transitions going in my ears so it’s seamless. Can do this for pretty much any song. Can also include DJ stuff like remixes, dance mixes, edm, whatever. Just an idea. Came here wondering about other one man band experiences or ideas!
Click to expand...
so just guitar? no singing?

many, many people use backing tracks and play live guitar to it and sing. it's common. i have a few for live gigs, and personally i choose to just put bass and drums, so it doesn't sound like an orchestra behind 1 person on stage. but others fill it up with vocals and every instrument like the original. it depends on how you want to come across and what the venue wants.

but just guitar, it depends on the venue. for my gigs, they want singing. but there are places where background music like that could work, but it's not too common i think.
 
We do three piece hybrid. Have done 2 piece and could do 1 under the same concept. Begin our backing tracks with free cheesy midi drums for timing. Record bass, special FX or Keyboards, sometimes acoustic guitar, send to drummer who replaces cheesy MIDI with live MIDI and pipe it back thru Superior Drummer. Then play 2 guitars and vocals live to the backing track via Showbuddy and a MacBook.
 
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