'Live' bands with backing tracks

[Thundertips]

My wife and I went to a wedding recently, quite a big do in a very nice hotel and when we went through to the reception I noticed they had hired a five piece band consisting of a guitarist/singer, a female singer, drums, bass and keys.

I thought it was going to be a chance to hear a live band and was looking forward to hearing how they sounded. Just after the first song started it became apparent that all was not natural when the bass player stopped playing to fiddle about with some amp settings and the playing continued! (I thought he had managed to dial in a great tone up to that point)!

This became more obvious as the night went on - bass sound would radically change tone and volume between songs (when you could hear his own tone it was flabby and quiet) as would the drums which went from a really tight disco sound to stadium rock, without the need for mics! What the guitarist was playing live I have no idea.

The main purpose of the girl who was singing seemed to be to change discs between songs, her voice was ok but didn't add that much to the sound. Now I've seen a lot of people do this and I really don't mind if it's a couple of guys who can play well using backing (still better with a band) but this was a five piece who really should have been able to cut it live without that crap, the five piece I was in for a while did the wedding/club scene as well and we managed to sound good live.
This bunch were being paid around a grand (and possibly more) for what they did, it seemed like money for old rope and hacked me off no end.
Any of you had experience of this and what do you feel about it?

This isn't intended as a knock to people in a two piece or those using orchestral or keys backing in some tracks.

As I've said before... Computers, the internet and Pro Tools has ruined the music industry.

 

[pbass888]

Around 2015 my buddy got asked to play vibes for Aretha when she came to NYC. We went to the show. I'd say she sang maybe 35% of the concert and lip'd the rest. Seems common now days.. sadly IMHO. I've seen wedding keyboardists sample the s%$# out of backing vocals and instruments, but not many seem to mind.I don't remember James Brown or Jaco, or more recently Steely Dan or Vulfpeck or the Wailers not playing.

 

[Proton90]

A twist of fate:
I play in a rock trio (guitar/vocals - drums - bass) where we do classic rock covers from the 60's and 70's. One of the songs we play is The Wall. There is a keyboard part during the guitar solo that we couldn't recreate "manually", so the guitarist and I came up with a solution: We recreate the chords in Reaper, load them on my iPad and use a music chart app to trigger these (looped) audio files one by one by stepping on a pedal. As they are looped, they can be sustained indefinitely, much like playing a synthesizer, and since I trigger each chord separately there is no need to sync to a click track. In my book that's the "good way" of using technology, but in the long run a dedicated keyboard player could do so so so much more...

 

[Carl Hillman]

My wife and I went to a wedding recently, quite a big do in a very nice hotel and when we went through to the reception I noticed they had hired a five piece band consisting of a guitarist/singer, a female singer, drums, bass and keys.

I thought it was going to be a chance to hear a live band and was looking forward to hearing how they sounded. Just after the first song started it became apparent that all was not natural when the bass player stopped playing to fiddle about with some amp settings and the playing continued! (I thought he had managed to dial in a great tone up to that point)!

This became more obvious as the night went on - bass sound would radically change tone and volume between songs (when you could hear his own tone it was flabby and quiet) as would the drums which went from a really tight disco sound to stadium rock, without the need for mics! What the guitarist was playing live I have no idea.

The main purpose of the girl who was singing seemed to be to change discs between songs, her voice was ok but didn't add that much to the sound. Now I've seen a lot of people do this and I really don't mind if it's a couple of guys who can play well using backing (still better with a band) but this was a five piece who really should have been able to cut it live without that crap, the five piece I was in for a while did the wedding/club scene as well and we managed to sound good live.
This bunch were being paid around a grand (and possibly more) for what they did, it seemed like money for old rope and hacked me off no end.
Any of you had experience of this and what do you feel about it?

This isn't intended as a knock to people in a two piece or those using orchestral or keys backing in some tracks.

I'm just glad I got out of the Top40/club band thing before this took over.