Dude. Your disdain for others using tracks is well noted, you've made your feelings perfectly clear. You don't like it, don't agree with it, possibly don't get it. Those of us who do use tracks as a tool don't really care. Moving on...
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Does your band use tracks? (Poll)
- Thread starter BassAndReeds
- Start date
To which one might, were one so inclined, add
D) Lacks the discipline, musicianship or creativity/imagination to concieve, develop and produce them?
But that would equally misrepresent vast swathes of that notional 80%...
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My 80s cover band uses tracks. I figure that for many of the New Wave-y pop songs we play, it's quite possible that no live human played the original part, so it doesn't seem some sort of sell-out or cheat to use a track for performances. Of course, that doesn't apply to all our songs. But a major reason we have them is to have light cues synchronized to a click, and if we've got that going anyway, why not add some of the extra flourishes to fill out the song, and get it a little closer to the original version?
Lead singer wanted to use a track of a plane landing as the intro to Back in the USSR. The lead guitarist and I dumped cold water on that thought. Just play the damn song, IMO.
We use keyboard tracks for a few songs; our drummer is our keys player, and for parts that have both drums and keys.... we use the keyboard tracks. He has a sampler/sequencer/mixer thing configured to give him click and keyboards for those songs, while the house gets just the keys. We also have speech clips from various movies in some of our songs, and those are triggered by the guitar player through his loop station.
In my previous band, we had one song that that had an organ section which I recorded in the studio, but to play live, I put a wav of each chord playing for a few measures in a separate "sample bay" in a JamMan Solo XT. When then I tap danced like mad to make them happen live.
I'm honestly kinda surprised at how polarizing of a concept this is. How is this any different than having stage lights? You're adding to the performance.
In my previous band, we had one song that that had an organ section which I recorded in the studio, but to play live, I put a wav of each chord playing for a few measures in a separate "sample bay" in a JamMan Solo XT. When then I tap danced like mad to make them happen live.
I'm honestly kinda surprised at how polarizing of a concept this is. How is this any different than having stage lights? You're adding to the performance.
Or having multi-effect unit / keyboard / sampler patch changes actuated by MIDI Time Code.
I've experimented with this, but never done it live. I've also experimented running things via a Zoom R16 to duck mics based on points in a track or based on hitting cues that start a track and the lighting sequences. But then you're integrating (in my case) QLCPlus for audio tracks, video tracks, lighting, and then MIDI out to REAPER to control the audio element, and MIDI in from an external button controller for triggering and potentially Midi Ox (if on Windows) or Jack connections to meld things together. Doable, but I'd like to put more work in to making it foolproof before doing it live. Limit is eight inputs, one FOH output, one monitor output from the Zoom. In theory you can add all sorts of multiband compression and EQ and reverb from REAPER on inputs and outputs, but latency can be an issue.
You'd be hard pressed to play all the parts of I Feel Love live if you wanted to do anything that sounded like the original without an arpeggiator. Is an arpeggiator 'cheating'? Of course there's always room for someone to do some really innovative reinterpretation of that song too. And I could possibly very much enjoy that too. I'm just as happy going to see some avant garde electronic noodlers using tracks and arpeggiators and god knows what as I am seeing Martin Carthy with just an acoustic guitar no PA and close enough that you can tell what he had for lunch. I'd say 'been there got the T-shirt' but in this case it was a commemorative tea towel.
A friend in a band played guitar, but a song also needed a simultaneous simple keyboard part. Lacking such technology or even a pedal interface for his keyboard, he would take his shoes and socks off and play it with his toes while playing the guitar part. No one wanted to use his keyboard.
You are completely right. Given the amount of money the who gets paid they could easily afford world class musicians to accompany them but CHOOSE to use tracks. Joe schmoe down the local bar is not getting paid enough to afford them, and probably couldn't find a keys player anyway, since they are like hens teeth around my way, so are FORCED to use tracks by circumstance.
Can you please explain what piece of logic in your brain makes it ok for someone who doesn't have to use tracks because they could practically use real musicians to use them, but not ok for someone for whom it is far less practical?
Or are you projecting your dissatisfaction with your own band of no talent musicians who had to use tracks onto every other small time band who uses them??
Where does that leave those of us that choose to use tracks?
Excellent, I'm going to rename my band The Lazy and Untalented!
Extra Lazy with an Extra Helping of Untalent?
Or
Don't Bother Coming if You're a Opinionated Musician, We're Not Playing For You(Because Gasp! We Use Tracks) -that one might be a little long.
I said I was out of this thread but someone keeps spewing nonsense and I couldn't help myself. - lol
Extra Lazy with an Extra Helping of Untalent?
Or
Don't Bother Coming if You're a Opinionated Musician, We're Not Playing For You(Because Gasp! We Use Tracks) -that one might be a little long.
I said I was out of this thread but someone keeps spewing nonsense and I couldn't help myself. - lol
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If I write something that needs none percussion instruments but there are only seven people and only room for six people on stage, then compromise is required.
1. I don't write like that.
2. I hire more people and ensure they are all multi - instrumentalists with big cars as they next song needs a string quartet and the song after an orchestral brass section.
3. I hire more people and make sure they all have good keyboard skills to play the string and brass parts. But then I have to wonder where from.
4. Never play live and just put things on Sound Cloud or YouTube.
1. Might be sensible, and I'm having a creative block as I'm not devoting the required time to music. But even then I like being ambitious. Or I could do 4, but I like humiliating myself in public and the adrenalin of impending technical failure too much.
1. I don't write like that.
2. I hire more people and ensure they are all multi - instrumentalists with big cars as they next song needs a string quartet and the song after an orchestral brass section.
3. I hire more people and make sure they all have good keyboard skills to play the string and brass parts. But then I have to wonder where from.
4. Never play live and just put things on Sound Cloud or YouTube.
1. Might be sensible, and I'm having a creative block as I'm not devoting the required time to music. But even then I like being ambitious. Or I could do 4, but I like humiliating myself in public and the adrenalin of impending technical failure too much.
