Backing tracks for a duo.

[Stinsok]

My guitarist and I have been knocking around the idea of doing a duo-but not an acoustic duo. He would play his electric and I could play bass or drums. Neither of us are up to speed on what we would need to pull this off? What do you recommend?

[MatticusMania]

Get a drummer and form a trio.

Though, thats a biased opinion of a bassist who has never enjoyed watching a band play to backing tracks. YMMV.

[Stinsok]

People suck. The less in the band, the better.

[MonetBass]

Get a sequencer/workstation. You can program the drums, keyboards, or anything else so you two can focus on bass and guitar.

[ForSix]

Originally Posted by Stinsok

People suck.

... and therein lies the art of live performance.

[Stinsok]

We're just looking for a way to play smaller gigs/keep busy. A machine doesn't replace a human, but a machine won't resist practicing and learning new stuff.

[agreatheight]

I have done a few projects with limited members playing with backing tracks live, and they have worked pretty well. The smaller the band, the easier it is to keep it all together, lol. Be aware that creating good backing tracks takes time, and that learning to play to them is also time consuming, unless you are already practiced at playing to a click.

[crijan]

If you have a way to create the tracks (digital recording setup) in mp3 format, then all you need for the live performance are in-ear monitors, an ipod, a 1/8"stereo-to-1/4"mono cable, and a small format mixer to split the click track and the backing track.

The click track and backing track would be created hard-panned left and right on the mp3.

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by Stinsok

People suck. The less in the band, the better.

3 is a pretty small number. And playing with a live drummer just sounds so much better, less mechanical.

[agreatheight]

Here's how we did it:

1. Make a click track
2. Record the audio backing tracks in a DAW
3. Bounce down the backing tracks to stereo pairs
4. Set up a bus to playback the stereo pairs through the main output of our interface into the PA mains
5. Set up a bus to playback the click track and the backing tracks through another output of the interface into monitor / headphone mix (we have the click track loud in this mix)

Let me know if you have any questions!

[quincy_j_clomo]

...or you could just be a duo. 2 instruments. no backing tracks or machines, just 2 instruments.

think about it.

[MonetBass]

Originally Posted by quincy_j_clomo

...or you could just be a duo. 2 instruments. no backing tracks or machines, just 2 instruments.

think about it.

That works too. I've done a three-piece of guitar, bass, and mandolin with all three of us singing. It sounded very good.

[MNAirHead]

I do trio and duo work as my preferred.

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Couple of notes.

1-Get an Acoustic Guitar... electrics in a duo either turn into an effects circus OR sound thin. There's also an uplugged vibe that an acoustic duo gets.

In this setting I play a 7 string, with compression, chorus and presence allows me to chord behind my partner and play solos when absolutley necessary.

Drums without a drummer are a funky vibe... light droning thud is OK.. we tried Ableton type tracks..

learned that the duo format was most successful when I could look at a gramma age lady and say to the partner (during a song... "dedicate raindrops keep falling on my head to the green shirt woman at 10 oclock" back tracks are not this tight and nimble when doing an intimate performance.

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When going trio - get a drummer.. it's a visual..

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I'd do purchased backtracks for a trio.. have the dummer trigger thenm.. Duo.. wouldn't bother.

I'd focus more attention on vocals and vocal harmony than backtracks.

[pointbass]

Originally Posted by MNAirHead

I do trio and duo work as my preferred.

------

Couple of notes.

1-Get an Acoustic Guitar... electrics in a duo either turn into an effects circus OR sound thin. There's also an uplugged vibe that an acoustic duo gets.

In this setting I play a 7 string, with compression, chorus and presence allows me to chord behind my partner and play solos when absolutley necessary.

Drums without a drummer are a funky vibe... light droning thud is OK.. we tried Ableton type tracks..

learned that the duo format was most successful when I could look at a gramma age lady and say to the partner (during a song... "dedicate raindrops keep falling on my head to the green shirt woman at 10 oclock" back tracks are not this tight and nimble when doing an intimate performance.

-----

When going trio - get a drummer.. it's a visual..

I completely agree with all of the above .... my most consistent gig this year has been with my (full) band partner/guitar player. Things have been going very well, we actually make more $$$ per man as a duo, and we get more dates because we DON"T have a drummer .....

I also agree with the 7 string thinking .... so much versatility ...

[Raymeous]

I'm in a somewhat similar situation...

A friend of mine is working on his second CD, an album in which he played all the instruments, did all the vocals, and tackled the engineering as well. The short of it is that as cool as it would be to do a full band neither one of us really has the time to make a 5 or 6 piece unit happen. So we are currently figuring out how to approach this as a duo; 1 guitar, 1 bass/keys. Fortunately his style is very song oriented and work as a solo guitar/vox act so adding a second or third musician is simply gravy. Although layering two guitars can be cool we both feel that not only are his bass lines pretty integral to the overall sound, the separation of frequencies will help to fill up the space a bit better while not stepping on eachothers toes.

As for the original question about backing tracks, I guess it all depends on the style of music you're playing. I feel any of the high energy metal, screamo, punk, hardcore genres will lose a lot without having a real drummer in place, while a more relaxed coffee shop duo or smooth jazz gig could probably get away with it a little better.

My current ideal line up would be a trio like Rush. The less personality and scheduling issues the better. Truth be told if I could find 2 guys that show up on time and are fairly competent on their instruments I would be a happy man.

Good luck brother.

[quincy_j_clomo]

Originally Posted by Raymeous

Truth be told if I could find 2 guys that show up on time and are fairly competent on their instruments I would be a happy man.

...that really does say it all, doesn't it?