Triggers/Tracks During Performance

Only way I can think of an easy way to do this would be either something synced to a laptop ( do you have any other triggered parts? Strings? Synths? Drums?) or manually trigger a pre recorded part ala https://www.roland.com/au/products/spd-sx/ but that could get tricky and more expensive way to do so...but if practiced could work... I know drummers like Danny from tool use similar things...

My band had no drummer and just used our pre recorded drums from one of the “tracks” we recorded in our daw and just made it an mp3. we didn’t do it but technically could have saved more parts like a specific bass part to keep as part of the mp3... how it will sound live compared to your normal bass rig is another factor though but it could sound cool... ?

 

I get what you’re saying... my band does some technical metal riffs that without a warm up are a killer on my hand... depends on the riff but you could alter it? Play only the main notes or use slides / pull offs if it’s too quick to finger ?

 

Any looper that lets you store a loop. I'd pad the part with silence at the end so there is time to hit stop before it loops over on itself.

 

Is your drummer playing to a click?

 

Easiest solution might be if you’re playing with keyboards. If so, why not ask the guy playing them to tackle those measures while you hang back and play something to go along with them you’re more comfortable handling.

Bands speed up and/or slow down sometimes over the course of a live song performance. As someone alluded to earlier, unless the entire band is either synced to a click or exceedingly well rehearsed (unlikely with a reunion appearance) you’ll run the risk of the band falling out of sync with any prerecorded loops or tracks you’re using. That’s going to sound bad at best and lead to a train wreck worst case.

 

One thing that can help is a digital delay, set to 1 repeat, with tap tempo. You tap 8th notes, turn it on, and then you play quarter notes - it does every other note. This will take a lot of the strain off of your wrists, but keep you in control. This can also be used to "overlap" the notes in time - a texture you can't actually do, no matter how good you are.

 

No, I'm not Steve, but yes, I stayed in college.

 

All I was saying was set a digital delay so that, in a repetitive section where you're playing lots of short notes, it plays every other note, meaning you only have to play half the notes. This technique is simpler than trying to do loops live, and if the tempo is off a bit, it still works - in that situation, loops do't. If you spend 10 minutes with a digital delay with tap tempo, you can figure it out. It's not very hard.

 

Then it will be rough because you may record your part and find the drummer is playing just a bit slower or faster and the part you've laid down won't sync up.

 

This is the easiest, lo tech answer. Alternatively, you can have a really strict tremolo do something similar, but the result will be very staccato which may or may not be appropriate.

 

supposedly the ditto x2 jam looper pedal has built in microphones that listen and sync with live drums/rhythm as opposed to using a midi clock or tap tempo, but still has a tap tempo option built in.

IDK how well it works.. but... if it does work, I think that'd be the looper to go for looping in a live performance.

 

None of these suggestions are gonna work if the whole band isn't playing to a click. You don't wanna be retapping the tempo the whole time, which is what you'd need to do to make sure your recorded loop/digital delay stays in time, and most pedals aren't robust enough to handle that much input without glitching out anyway.

Just simplify the part.

 

that boss loop station with the two foot buttons (I think it's called R20 or something) is pretty good for this kinda stuff. Doug Johns uses it to good effect