Cover band using backing tracks?

[HolmeBass]

Pretty much covered. Most musicians and real aficionados will hate it, but they are a small minority, especially for 80's covers. People who don't really give a crap about live music will eat it up if done well. The tempo will match exactly as they remember it, all the important parts and hooks will be there, you smile and cash the check. Success.

 

[Cole Louis Allar]

When I'm playing at home, I typically play to backing tracks. I've never actually been in the band before, but just to give my input, I don't think this would be much of an issue.

 

[fasto]

playing live with backing tracks is not the real deal and not ok for me, BUT live-looping (with a phrase looper) is a different story.

 

[Groove Doctor]

for me the bpms ends up being an issue for some reason, i either want the cover to be faster or slower, not sure why

Excellent point.

A few ideas...
- Sometimes it's as simple as counting 1/8th notes in your head instead of 1/4 notes.
- Chatting with band mates about the feel you're aiming for gets us thinking the same.
- workshopping the groove of the song with the other members uncovers the root problem. eg. guitarist sitting too far ahead of the beat, singer dragging too much.
- We've gone back and changed the backing track to be 3-5 bpm faster on a few tracks as a result just to get that live energy. We just matched the track tempo to how WE would actually play it without it. Simple.

Backing tracks exposes your playing being even slightly off. It takes a lot of experience & skill to increase energy/intensity without rushing the tempo, or to not slow down in quieter parts.
Solution:
- more time at home practising changing dynamics with metronome,
- practising songs to the backing tracks,
- more band practices/gigs with tracks.


It's a whole new skill that takes time and effort to develop. If you're not going to learn how to do it well, just don't do it.

 

[Savage_Dreams]

DJ's take the job of *some* live bands because too many live bands suck. Too loud, no groove / poor song choices, dress awful, unreliable, etc. etc. and indeed etc. DJ's also cost less, take up much less room, and can play anything an audience might want to hear as opposed to "sorry, we've just been playing these same 30 songs for two years and that's all we can play." I mean in general, of course. So too when I write...

I've been in bands using backing tracks. It can sound good but I despise it. Often sucks the life and fun out of the performance, and getting the levels right from night to night and room to room is very difficult. It also takes an unusually high level of competence from mainly the drummer and singer (presuming vocal backing tracks).

That said the standard rule-of-thumb applies; as long as you're not hurting anyone then do what you want and have fun.

too many live bands suck? well, theres also been an unrealistic expectation of what live bands are supposed to sound like since everyone from top touring acts to bottom level bar bands use backing tracks. people have gotten so used to professional acts doing half karaoke shows using perfectly polished studio tracks that people dont understand or appreciate the raw aspect of a true live sound anymore

 

[Johnny Crab]

More than a few of the VERY WELL PAID "symphonic metal" bands do it and it works very well with their audience and at that volume level. Saw Delain, Nightwish, and (probably) Sabaton(keyboard tracks IIRC) pull it off nicely.

Downside(maybe?): Delain's bassist took a direct hit from a confetti canon into his scrotum. He finished the show(the Dream Evil song "Made of Metal" comes to mind) but required surgery and downtime. The guitar player copied the bass tracks onto their "backing tracks" and the tour continued with a pre-recorded bassist.

All we use(d) is a certain scream from a popular song in that song trigger via keyboardist's midi controller and played by his laptop. Don't know if having entire songs or shows with backing for entire songs would work since we sometimes detour one song into another on the fly(600 songs, 5 guys who have played for 50 years, don't color inside the lines, etc.) with good results.

 

[Savage_Dreams]

it makes me sad that so many so called "musicians" accept this stuff. ill sit at home and never play live again if the only other choice is to fake anything on stage.

and as for so many people in the audience accepting it, i believe its more ignorance that they dont realize its going on rather than them accepting it. ive never heard anyone say, "that was an awesome show, their backing tracks rocked!"

 

[Spent]

My previous cover band did this. We had a keyboard/acoustic guitar/harmonica player with strong vocals, so he was no slouch. He brought a sampler to rehearsal one day to add a little extra to a few of the songs. I liked it more than I thought I would have. It was generally subtle and really only used for parts that were impractical to do otherwise (House of Pain Jump Around for example). We were mainly too 40 and the original "artists" (I really didn't like most of what we played) most likely used a sampler too. When done right it can add to a performance.

 

[Bass'd on a true story]

Music snobbery is why musicians starve.

Stop thinking you know what the public wants to hear more than they do and you will start receiving the public's money.

 

[Tim de Martino]

I've always found cover bands with backing tracks - no matter how skilled - to sound bland. There's no room for improvisation, no room to stretch or cut short a tune to fit the crowd and if they are lined up in a particular order, then no chance to change the set around and keep the room alive in unexpected circumstances. Where is the drama and surprise of a live act under those conditions?

I agree that the audience probably doesn't realise or care but in the end that is a sad sign of how mediocre and blase the live music environment has become. That fact that an audience may not understand a band adapting the material to the lineup (and likely adding more energy and personality) because it doesn't sound like the radio version they heard at work twice that day is pretty revealing of the state of the music mainstream.

I understand that we as musicians are at the mercy of the market but it's also our responsibility to keep it vital.

Rant over.

Cheers,

Tim

 

[morgansterne]

This is how I ended up playing keyboards! The people I work with refuse to use backing tracks and keyboard players are very hard to find around here.
The band I play keys in, I have to do all the horn parts on my synth and in my opinion they sound like crap half the time. Putting REAL horns on a recording would sound better, and in the end that's all I care about. Sounding good and the audience having fun.

The band I do play bass in, the guitarist is a good sax player and I'm a good trumpet player. We could record all our own horn backing tracks, if we wanted to use them. A friend of the guitar player does solo shows -- he plays guitar live, but every song has a backing track that he plays everything on. He plays his own drums, bass, and keyboard parts. Is that still "band karaoke" that's "dishonest" and "faking it"???

Half the people out there will slam you for putting backup vocals on a backing track (Aerosmith) and the other half will slam you for hiring backup singers cause it's cheesy looking (the police). You can't win in the street cred with other musicians battle, but you can go out and make audiences happy.

TL;DR
it's an 80's cover band and 90% of the original song was played by a sequencer in the studio on the original recording!!!!!

 

[Vic Winters]

There is a difference between faking a performance and augmenting it. Backing tracks are fine for filling out a song, and adding stuff that you can't recreate otherwise. The Who have been doing this since the 70s and nobody complained.

 

[guy n. cognito]

Thanks for all the feedback; vitriol and all. The music is fun and the musicians are good, so I'm going to give it a shot. The advice on how to use the tracks properly is appreciated. I set a few rules with the BL:

-No "faking it". No unplugged instruments.

-I get the say on how much "bass synth" is in the backing tracks.

-backing vocals in the tracks kept to a minimum. If we can sing it live, we will.

 

[zac2944]

Holy $h|t, this is the most depressing thread I've ever read here on TalkBass. Why is this OK? I saw a band we shared a bill with do this and it was shocking. You should sell yourself as an act and not a band if you do this. It is one step above Karaoke in my opinion. Bash me if you want, but it's not a band at this point. Ugh.

When you're making $300+/night, 2-3 nights a week during the busy season and supporting your family it is pretty easy to ignore comments like this. For some of us, this ain't a hobby.

You want to be an artist and starve; be my guest. Meanwhile I'm getting paid.

 

[The Funkapotamus]

I'm in a very lucrative cover band (hits from the 70's to today with a focus on 80's tunes). Also a 4 piece where every member sings lead and backup. We use backing tracks all the time. We use in ear monitors and play the music videos on flat screens on both sides of the stage. It goes over VERY well. As long as you get the count ins down and play with a click, you're golden!

 

[hsech]

Does the vocalist lip sync?

 

[Hahaha]

When I hear discussions like this it reminds me of how the Vaudeville performers felt about the performers who moved to Hollywood to be in movies, or how stage actors dissed movie actors. Then movie actors gave no respect to TV actors. Times change, things change. Look at the movie industry now. How many things that you see in a movie are "fake"? Ruins the movie, doesn't it?

 

[Bill Whitehurst]

One of my friends took that to the extreme.
He'd play guitar and sing with a backing tracks
that were all recorded by him, in his studio.

He found a niche for that playing a local dive that
would only pay $200 a night, no matter how many
were in the band or who they were.

I had played there with my trhee piece band
largely just to keep us working when there was nothing else booked.
I think he was way happier with the pay.

 

[basslyon]

I was completely against backing tracks.... but some songs just need them. Play uptown funk with out a horn section or keyboardist? noooope.
When you're doing an epic ballard with a long piano into and the bands just standing around waiting to actually play something, that's where i draw the line.

9 times out of 10, the audience don't realise.

 

[ThuzzleFump]

Man, that was painful to watch and hear.

Rock is dead they say? Long live...oh, wait, they were right. It's really dead if that performance is any indication. I'd rather see a bar band that missed a few changes and messed up some notes, but played for real and like they gave a rat's 455 about music.

Back on the original poster's topic, do it if you want, it might pay, though I'm not sure either of us is fully convinced it's live music. But a job is a job.