Running live backing tracks

[Stratman68]

Did that for about 20 years duos, trios, 5 piece, etc. Only drawback I saw besides a bunch of work was you cannot skip a beat, extend a solo, etc. You are locked into it and there is no getting out. We did fine and made a fine living for 20+ years as stated.
This was in the 80's & 90's and we used mainly midi backing tracks, created by me mostly with help from the keyboard players once in a while. That was OK-I was the midi guy so................

Lately done some backing audio stuff-so simple; We used dedicated sequencers in the 80's like Kawai Q-80 to mention 1-first one with a floppy drive. Cassettes was the other way and that was a pain. Alesis Drum machines But NOW-with daws and laptops it's a breeze' I mean with ableton, don't know if I got that right you can do things on the fly.

But bottom line is -pretty locked into what it is. Tell you what. I have incredible timing after all those years of machines. Still do weddings, etc by myself with my laptop and backing tracks I create. I enjoy it and I am very use to doing a song the way it was rehearsed
HTH

Actually today I saw advertised a $1,600 sequencer. This thing did everything midi, mp3 and waves. All kinds of ins and outs. No need for a laptop

Well, my band is making a jump into some technology, or at least we are planning on it. We have reached a decision to go 100% IEM, and also that we are going to augment our on stage sound with some tracks. I am now in a 1 guitar band which has some real advantages for me, and a few drawbacks that are obvious. We have a great keys player, and we play a lot of keys/synth heavy music. We are going to run tracks of backup guitar, synth, synth bass, or percussion as required by song. This also means we have to play to a click, or at least our drummer does. We are a 5 piece band right now.

SO... who else does this? How do you do it? Do you just run the tracks on a MAC out to your board? Do you use a hardware sequencer? What software do you use or prefer? I'm sure there are many approaches to this, and I'd like to learn as much as I can before making the jump. But... I'm in shopping mode and need to get this project going.. so... help a dude out with your info. Thanks my Axe-brotha's!

 

[Muso4142]

Couldn't pay me enough to use Logic Event Editor again for MIDI Program Changes. Showbuddy actually winds up making Logic the cumbersome and less accurate one. That's coming from a Logic slut. I love Logic. But SB is so intuitive in the way it handles MIDI. Such a plus to be able to drag a MIDI event while looking at the expanded waveform you're about to drop it on. You can align your MIDI events to beats, transients, starts, stops far easier. As well your Program Changes (Patches) wind up literally being presets whereas you basically drag and drop a PC or CC that you have created right to the location on the track you want. Then fine tune it while you play. If your lead effect switches a bit early or late it's so much more visible to adjust than the event editor or the little symbol that shows up on the MIDI instrument track in Logic.

Stability: In use yes... very stable. After upgrading to Yosemite the program gives a crash message when you actually get through with it and shut down but it's a non-issue since you just quit. Something in Mavericks broke a key USB factor that SB had to do a workaround. But it has never let us down.



Can't answer that but I don't think you would have a problem. I have controlled MIDI devices from 2 sources simultaneously before. As in automatically while still having manual input.

I've always wanted to try controlling my guitar & backing via midi but never really sat down & tried it.

I'm assuming that its a very time consuming task for each track, but once done & proved, you would get the same 100% of the time.

I also use Logic Pro X, i'll have to read up on this.

I will soon have a full DMX lighting system & so i'll look into this.

A question about linking it all together: If i'm going to midi control, guitar, & lighting via Logic Pro X. Is it best to program guitar & then lighting or is it simple enough to do it all with Showbuddy?

Do anyone know any good tutorials for midi sequencing? or website links with good information for the novice?

Thanks

 

[mwd]

A question about linking it all together: If i'm going to midi control, guitar, & lighting via Logic Pro X. Is it best to program guitar & then lighting or is it simple enough to do it all with Showbuddy?
Thanks

If you are going to own Showbuddy I wouldn't waste the time with Logic. Both lights and instrument cues are far simpler in Showbuddy than in Logic. Further Showbuddy has an export feature so it even pays off to do it all in Showbuddy and then export the MIDI control track and drop it into logic. You can then use Logic as a backup or (in my case) I can practice at home, on Logic, with my guitar cues in place.

Only drawback I saw besides a bunch of work was you cannot skip a beat, extend a solo, etc. You are locked into it and there is no getting out.

Stratman is right it is a very structured, consistent world you throw yourself into. I thrive on that. I want it the same everytime. Further I use a simple footswitch feature that Showbuddy has. I can noodle prior to the song and then switch on the track and take off. I can also start/stop with the switch. So it's not too hard to get creative and at least leave your some room for improvising.

I've been playing in bands for 43 years. This back track combo we have now is the most intense, best sounding, most difficult, yet most rewarding gig I have ever been involved with.

 

[Sleestak]

Playing to backing tracks requires a very disciplined approach, and you need to be aware of where you are in the arrangement. It can sound amazing, and there is also some risk of disaster (track failure, getting lost, etc). I've done it, and with good band preparation it's fantastic.

In my current projects, we're 100% live. That approach also has pitfalls.

 

[grammar]

Pro tip - get QLab

 

[mwd]

Grammar will QLab allow you to control a light show via MIDI and cue your instruments? I started having a few issues after updating to Yosemite which I confirmed last night. Waiting to see if they're resolved and still trouble shooting as it may not be SB at all. Not show-stoppers but irritating.

Interesting to know some alternatives. Do you use QLab and have you used Showbuddy?

 

[solo-act]

Not sure if this helps, but run Digital Performer on a mac mini and cue/play tracks from a midi footswitch.

I have everything set up for instant random access, and the audio tracks have a midi track that triggers axe-fx scenes during the song.

 

[Jackthehat]

Im in a band that has been running backing tracks for about 5 years, we started out with Sd card player with the track and click panned right and left we then ran these into a 4 way slitter so each member could control the level of each in their IEM's. Since this though we've switched to a product made by a company called Cymatic Audio - Live Player 16 which can run 16 tracks of backing through its 16 outs. We keep it simple by just using stereo backing and a click and cues track so 4 outs in total if needs be we can have any instrument lined up with the track in case someone cant make rehearsal eg vocals. We send this through our X32 rack so no need for a spllitter now and we can all control our IEM mix from our phones for what we do this works great and just having stereo backing makes a massive difference that cannot be underestimated. The player also supports midi out which i might look into in the future for programming a light show off.

 

[grammar]

Grammar will QLab allow you to control a light show via MIDI and cue your instruments? I started having a few issues after updating to Yosemite which I confirmed last night. Waiting to see if they're resolved and still trouble shooting as it may not be SB at all. Not show-stoppers but irritating.

Interesting to know some alternatives. Do you use QLab and have you used Showbuddy?

Hi yes, Qlab can do all of that. It's very stable vs running a massive DAW session.

Your problems are likely OSX issues, unfortunately Mavericks and Yosemite are not great for audio at the moment. Some interface drivers are better than other though. Motu have been pretty useless if I'm honest.

 

[Jayir]

Im running something similar you think you can help me out

With my recent Prog/Pop/Synth-Metal Project CHAOS INSIDE we run a lot of preproduced synth tracks.

I use a Laptop with Studio One 2 Professional with a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, which also delievers three different Stereo InEar Mixes for my drummer (including click) my bassplayer and me (vocals, guitar) and a Stereo mix for the FOH-Mixer.

The dsp-powered mixing Engine works latency- free and all of the in- and outputs of the interface are balanced.
Until now the unit hasn't even one breakdown, it's rock-solid, the FOH-Desk can have each of our Signals balanced without disturbing our monitor mix......

 

[Valhallir]

Im running something similar you think you can help me out

Hi Jayir,
I'm not using the setup with laptop/Scarlett/Studio One anymore.
I'm using a Behringer XR18, with Ipad (loaded with the Auria Pro-App). Way more possibilities. Our complete In-Ear-Mixing/Synth Playback section suits in a 25 cm deep 6 HE Rack from Gator.
EQs, Kompression, FX...with the XR18 I have everything, that would not be possible with the Scarlett without using a computer host. And there are no latency issues.