help with backing tracks for 3-piece band

[jeffgnr90]

Not sure if this should be in recording gear and equipment, so feel free to move this if need be.

I want to be able to do what Rush does where they just hit a pedal or a pad and a pre-recorded part is played. a major sound filler for the 3 piece I'm in. recording the synths is no problem cause we have both presonus and pro tools, I just don't know what gear I need to be able to trigger these pre-recordings whether it's midi control or some sort of sequencer. We don't have our own PA, so I figure that the venues with PA's are well suited for this, but for those venues we play without PA support, I'm unsure of. I assume I could have it play through another amp and one of my bass cabs, but that wouldn't sound nearly as good as a house PA.

Any recommendations gear-wise would be most welcome and how to set this up for easy onstage use. and I'm still researching this myself so I'm not being spoon fed everything

 

[john_g]

You could get a midi keyboard and trigger tracks with a laptop. The problem could be with timing that way though...say you have a sequenced part and you are not playing at the same tempo, it will be off. We do it by creating a backing track and a click track and feed the click track to the drummer so the parts go off at the right time without having to physically trigger anything.

 

[jeffgnr90]

You could get a midi keyboard and trigger tracks with a laptop. The problem could be with timing that way though...say you have a sequenced part and you are not playing at the same tempo, it will be off. We do it by creating a backing track and a click track and feed the click track to the drummer so the parts go off at the right time without having to physically trigger anything.

yea I've read about that where the drummer has the click track. idk if we'd ever do that, because our drummer has an unusually good sense of timing (lucky for us) and we don't have in-ears or anything. I could definitely entertain the idea of a midi keyboard, my only concern is the guitarist and I go crazy and I'd be afraid of us crashing into it and whatnot. Easily avoidable of course lol I'd rather be able to do it with my feet though, because I'll most definitely be playing while triggering the sequences.

 

[seamonkey]

DAWs like Ableton Live have a tap tempo, tap it 4 times and it starts at the tempo you tapped. Change tempo in the song by tapping again. Any midi pedal switch, or USB switch will work. Anybody in the band that can tap a tempo can keep it going, the tempo can change to what the band feels.

Music notation programs like Notion3 will let you conduct, in parts of the song you can loop or vamp.

Software from Circular logic
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This can track the music. It's not for those just starting out with backing tracks.

 

[FuturePrimitive]

yea I've read about that where the drummer has the click track. idk if we'd ever do that, because our drummer has an unusually good sense of timing (lucky for us) and we don't have in-ears or anything. I could definitely entertain the idea of a midi keyboard, my only concern is the guitarist and I go crazy and I'd be afraid of us crashing into it and whatnot. Easily avoidable of course lol I'd rather be able to do it with my feet though, because I'll most definitely be playing while triggering the sequences.

No drummer is that good. Even Peart plays to a click track if they're using sequenced parts. The only person that needs the click is the drummer, the whole band doesn't have to be on IEMs.

 

[jeffgnr90]

No drummer is that good. Even Peart plays to a click track if they're using sequenced parts. The only person that needs the click is the drummer, the whole band doesn't have to be on IEMs.

I never said our drummer was perfect without a click track, just that he's good at keeping time lol once we get these sequences underway he might say he needs click track. then we can figure that out. we're just unsure of the whole process of getting the sequences to the sequencer and making it work live. IEMs for the drummer may end up being necessary, more than likely

 

[DagoMaino]

Drummer should always be on a click when using any pre-recorded samples.

My old drummer used a SPD Pad for a solution. Good choice if you want to trigger samples mid song or need "flexible" triggering.

Best Cheap Solution: Record your parts with the appropriate space... then ipod with click panned to one side and samples to the other. Splitter cable - one goes to the house, one goes to your drummers ear. Simple and effective.

 

[jeffgnr90]

DAWs like Ableton Live have a tap tempo, tap it 4 times and it starts at the tempo you tapped. Change tempo in the song by tapping again. Any midi pedal switch, or USB switch will work. Anybody in the band that can tap a tempo can keep it going, the tempo can change to what the band feels.

Music notation programs like Notion3 will let you conduct, in parts of the song you can loop or vamp.

Software from Circular logic
Invalid Link Removed
This can track the music. It's not for those just starting out with backing tracks.

Thanks for the advice! I'll be checking out the link

 

[FuturePrimitive]

I never said our drummer was perfect without a click track, just that he's good at keeping time lol once we get these sequences underway he might say he needs click track. then we can figure that out. we're just unsure of the whole process of getting the sequences to the sequencer and making it work live. IEMs for the drummer may end up being necessary, more than likely

I wasn't dissing your drummer at all, the problem is syncing with the start of the sequence. Especially if the sequenced parts have big gaps between them. If you're off even a quarter of a beat its going to sound really bad.

As far as the specifics of making the sequencer work live, that's going to be dependent on the model of sequencer (or laptop/iPad/whatever). There might be more information over in the Misc board.

 

[jeffgnr90]

I wasn't dissing your drummer at all, the problem is syncing with the start of the sequence. Especially if the sequenced parts have big gaps between them. If you're off even a quarter of a beat its going to sound really bad.

As far as the specifics of making the sequencer work live, that's going to be dependent on the model of sequencer (or laptop/iPad/whatever). There might be more information over in the Misc board.

Haha its all good I know you weren't, and yea it would really stink. We have tablets also, so maybe that's a route we can take? And I'll check the forum there too, thanks!

 

[JackTheRipper]

FWIW, here's what I do:

First off, I really hate the idea of dragging a laptop or PC to a rehearsal or gig. So I don't.

I have a sampling keyboard: Roland Juno-G. I can use it to record or generate a sample and store it in it's memory or on a compact flash card. Or I can record/generate a sample on my PC using a DAW and export the sample to the compact flash card.

I program the Juno-G to play a particular sample on a specific note. For example, I do Rush's Tom Sawyer growl sound on E2. Whatever the samples are, I'll assign each one to a particular note (transposing as necessary).

To trigger them I use Roland PK-5A midi pedals. I usually just use the MONO mode and set the MIDI channel and octave to what I have programmed the Juno-G.

I don't really have much that requires tempo synching. If I did we'd have to use a click track or tap tempo or ???

As far as amplification...I have 2 preamps in my rack. I use one for the bass and another for the Juno-G. I have a stereo power amp (ie a PA power amp) and run 1 channel for the bass and the other for the keyboard. For speakers I use Ampeg 810 cabs. For a rehearsal, I use a single 810 cab and use the top 4 speakers for the bass and the bottom 4 speakers for the keyboard. For a medium or bigger gig, I'll take 2 810 cabs.

One could replace the Juno-G with any device that will playback a sample I suppose. But I use the Juno-G as a synth as well as for samples.

Easy peasy

--jack

 

[F-Clef-Jef]

If you have an iPhone, this [This invalid link has been removed] might do what you are looking for. I have one, it is actually pretty nice. I use it with Ableton LiveLite and Reason at home, it works well for my limited keyboarding skills. We don't use it for live perfomance though, but it would work.
BTW, you don't need an iPhone to use it, it also has USB out and works just like a midi controller/keyboard, so you can hook it into a laptop or iPad or whatever.

 

[Nephilymbass]

I use a digitech jamman for this sort of thing. Just make sure you get one that has expandable memory I put a 10g memory card in mine. Works great for any kid of auxiliary parts.