• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Backtracking live

G

grosdan57

Feb 19, 2025
38
17
#1
Hello
I need some advice, please.
I play guitar in a band without a drummer. We use Moises to send the drum track to the mixing board from a PC.

We also use the lyrics playback feature in Moises.
I would now like to be able to start the drum track and subsequent tracks using a footswitch and to be able to sync the beginning of the track to the first kick drum (when there's a guitar intro, for example).
I would still like to be able to play the lyrics automatically, like with Moises.
In your opinion, what free or paid app could do this from a WAV export from Moises, or is there an app like Moises but that allows precise positioning of the start point and has footswitch control and lyrics playback?
Thanks in advance.
 
#4
BaltBass5 said:
My opinion which is gonna be harsh is find a drummer, and stop using tracks. Tracks are lame.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice, but I completely disagree with you. With Moises, the drum track can be very good; it depends on the recording. We've improved a lot since we started playing with Moises. We have a drummer who comes in from time to time, and even he's noticed the difference. I recommend that all amateur bands use him to achieve what we amateurs so desperately need: the drumming.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrWolf14 and Quadzilla
#5
buldog5151bass said:
No drummer, other backing tracks. How many other tracks, and for what?
Click to expand...
Just the drum track, no click track needed.
About thirty songs, for rehearsals and maybe a small live performance. I'm thinking of using a footswitch.
According to GPT, it's impossible to find an app that does:
- WAV import (from Moises)
- automatic and synchronized lyrics playback
- footswitch control
- precise starting point adjustment
- works on Windows

GPT recommends Moises to Stage Traxx and manually managing the lyrics import.
Thanks
 
#7
grosdan57 said:
Hello
I need some advice, please.
I play guitar in a band without a drummer. We use Moises to send the drum track to the mixing board from a PC.

We also use the lyrics playback feature in Moises.
I would now like to be able to start the drum track and subsequent tracks using a footswitch and to be able to sync the beginning of the track to the first kick drum (when there's a guitar intro, for example).
I would still like to be able to play the lyrics automatically, like with Moises.
In your opinion, what free or paid app could do this from a WAV export from Moises, or is there an app like Moises but that allows precise positioning of the start point and has footswitch control and lyrics playback?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
You can play the entire song with one button on your phone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bassdirty and DirtDog
#8
BaltBass5 said:
My opinion which is gonna be harsh is find a drummer, and stop using tracks. Tracks are lame.
Click to expand...
😂 ...until they make your act sound better!

i don't know you or your music, specifically, but there are tons of folks on TB who play the same lines, on the same tunes, for decades: and they fail to see that they are little more than the backing tracks they so despise! ;)

if "tracks" help to free up the creative juices of the live musicians, how can that be a bad thing?
 
  • Like
Reactions: el jeffe bass, N Scott Shaw, tom-g and 3 others
#9
you should be able to do this via a midi controller footswitch and Ableton or other modern DAW. I have never set it up, but I have played in groups and watched groups where they have done this. I'm unsure of Moises and it's ability to be integrated into DAW's though. Best of luck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: el jeffe bass
#12
grosdan57 said:
Just the drum track, no click track needed.
About thirty songs, for rehearsals and maybe a small live performance. I'm thinking of using a footswitch.
According to GPT, it's impossible to find an app that does:
- WAV import (from Moises)
- automatic and synchronized lyrics playback
- footswitch control
- precise starting point adjustment
- works on Windows

GPT recommends Moises to Stage Traxx and manually managing the lyrics import.
Thanks
Click to expand...

Chat GPT is pretty lame for this kind of thing. Search and look around youtube. Plenty of people do it.

Most pro bands do this with Ableton Live. There are other options, but until you need synced but separate command and control of visuals and audio/teleprompter, that's probably the most popular one. It's prevalent in the electronic scene as well. Ableton currently does not split the tracks though. You get split wavs or mp3 tracks, load them up with your lyrics cued and play back.

It's kind of complicated, but you use midi foot switch and automation. Plenty of videos on youtube.

On the mac eco system it's Logic and/or Mainstage. Logic has the stem splitter, but mainstage is more performance based. You can do it all in Logic, but mainstage is really designed for the playback. Either controllable with an iphone/ipad or midi pedals.

Personally I would not do this on Windows (mainly because of midi/footpedal support drives me crazy and audio drivers), but Ableton is pretty good on that platform. And this is pretty well solved, complicated, but solved.

The other programs are more DJ based. Small scale you might be able to do this on ipad with logic/garageband only though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: el jeffe bass, JazznFunk and FullumMusic
#13
Moises is good at extracting but it's not really a performance tool.

Any DAW will do what you want to some extent. Ableton Live and FL Studio will be better because they're more for live performance than recording. But Logic or GarageBand or Reaper, or other DAWs will work. And they're all gonna work a little differently.

With Ableton, for example, you need to:
1 - Export the extracted stems from Moises and drop them into Ableton as clips in Session view. (Drums and vocals)
2 - Then you have to set up the follow actions for the clips so they start playing when you trigger them and stop when they get to the end of the clip.
3 - Do steps 1 and 2 for all your songs in the same session.
4 - Then you need to get a MIDI controller to start each scene of clips individually.
5 - You'll also probably need to set up some sort of click track that the musicians can listen to but the audience can't hear for when there's no drums playing but you need to stay in time with the tracks.

That's the basics of what you need, but really, to learn more about any of the steps will be too much for a reply in this thread. Each step is its own learning process of how to properly use the DAW, how to set the DAW up to play and stop the stems for each song, and how to set up a click track for the band, and all the gear you need to buy. There are a million tutorials on youtube for doing each of these steps for your DAW of choice. That's where you should really start once you decide which DAW to get. You will most likely need to buy a DAW and some gear to do this properly.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: el jeffe bass and JazznFunk
#14
grosdan57 said:
Just the drum track, no click track needed.
About thirty songs, for rehearsals and maybe a small live performance. I'm thinking of using a footswitch.
According to GPT, it's impossible to find an app that does:
- WAV import (from Moises)
- automatic and synchronized lyrics playback
- footswitch control
- precise starting point adjustment
- works on Windows

GPT recommends Moises to Stage Traxx and manually managing the lyrics import.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Yeah, chatGPT has no idea what it's saying with this. Almost any halfway decent DAW will do any of these things if you know how to do them. And knowing how to do them isn't some complex secret. It's basic functionality of most DAWs.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: el jeffe bass, MonetBass, erratick and 1 other person
#15
In our last show, my synth guy brought in a weird shortwave receiver called a Messeiver. It reviews multiple SW broadcast at once. Now that was definitely a weird backing track. Made the audience smile and was definitely a unique performance.

Anyway -- maybe your keyboard can already play a backing track . I know the Yamaha MOX can. If you have a keyboard check it out.


The Boss RC-3 looper (and probably others) which is around 100 -- you can load the backing track as wave files and then you just assign that to a patch number. It has stereo outputs and just connect that to the mixer, cue up the patch with the wave file and go to town, Cheapest and easiest

Now if you need tempo adjustment without raising the pitch, then you probably have to get a DAW or an App, Make sure you record the wave files at high resolution as it will have less artifacts when time stretched. 32 bit if possible but 48 kHz 24 bit is minimal, go 96 kHz
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: el jeffe bass and JRA
#16
I play in a duo with a female singer. For the first year or so we played without any backing track. We were competing with other acts that were pretty much using the complete music track of the original recording as backing. On a visit to Aruba all the music acts I saw there were duos or trios using backing tracks to sound like the real recording. So in order to up the game we got an Alesis SR-18 drum machine that does drums and bass. I program all the drums and basslines myself. Since doing this we are going over better than ever and getting more work. I don't like it but if you want to get work you have keep up or be better than the competition.
 
  • Like
Reactions: el jeffe bass, Guitalia and scuzzy
#18
Thanks everyone for your replies.
Moises is almost perfect; it's just missing footswitch control.
I tried Reaper, but there isn't really a setlist, so it's a bit more complicated to manually start a track.
I'm going to try Live Tracker.
I know Ableton Live is what I need, but I wanted to avoid spending a lot of time on such a large program.
I prefer playing bass:), maybe I have no choice.
 
  • Like
Reactions: el jeffe bass

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back