How could you play a covers band gig with no drummer?

close2u

I have seen some bands do it.

How do you play a gig without a drummer?

What sort of technology / electronic gizmo is up to the job?

This is a speculative discussion for a band playing covers.

sted

Easy, pre-recorded backing tracks, of course you may need to get a drummer to record them with you in the first place!

Danny1969

I used to use a sequencer to program the drums then I recorded it to minidisc which was robust enough to stand up to gigging
We also had an Alesis SR16 drum machine that you could start and stop on a foot switch and also use a foot switch to make it go a fill That as good for jamming quick songs

close2u

Both of you have directed in different ways to what I was wondering ...

Are pre-recorded tracks available? To download / purchase etc?

Are programmable machines up to the task?

The last band I saw do this had a keyboard player ... the drums may have been coming from his gear ... I'm not sure on that though.

EricTheWeary

I saw Elliott Randall live once and he had a bongo player and no drums. I liked that a lot.

Danny1969

close2u said:

Both of you have directed in different ways to what I was wondering ...

Are pre-recorded tracks available? To download / purchase etc?

Are programmable machines up to the task?

The last band I saw do this had a keyboard player ... the drums may have been coming from his gear ... I'm not sure on that though.

The easiest way is to buy a midi file of the song and mute all the tracks except the drums, then record the output and put it on an iPod or similar. 

Any song featured in Rock Band \ guitar hero has drums tracks as separate stems so you can easily use those, open the Mogg file in Audacity and mute everything except drums then save the output

Getting a drummer to record them for you is another option, we do that at £25 a song

PolarityMan

I'd go for an acoustic set instead. Unless your doing a predominately electronic style music pre-canned backing tracks sound pretty awful.

thecolourbox

Danny1969;637121" said:

close2u said:

Both of you have directed in different ways to what I was wondering ...

Are pre-recorded tracks available? To download / purchase etc?

Are programmable machines up to the task?

The last band I saw do this had a keyboard player ... the drums may have been coming from his gear ... I'm not sure on that though.





The easiest way is to buy a midi file of the song and mute all the tracks except the drums, then record the output and put it on an iPod or similar. Any song featured in Rock Band \ guitar hero has drums tracks as separate stems so you can easily use those, open the Mogg file in Audacity and mute everything except drums then save the output

Getting a drummer to record them for you is another option, we do that at £25 a song

How do you get the files from Rock Band and Guitar Hero? Some decent tracks on those games

Danny1969

thecolourbox said:

Danny1969;637121" said:

close2u said:

Both of you have directed in different ways to what I was wondering ...

Are pre-recorded tracks available? To download / purchase etc?

Are programmable machines up to the task?

The last band I saw do this had a keyboard player ... the drums may have been coming from his gear ... I'm not sure on that though.





The easiest way is to buy a midi file of the song and mute all the tracks except the drums, then record the output and put it on an iPod or similar. Any song featured in Rock Band \ guitar hero has drums tracks as separate stems so you can easily use those, open the Mogg file in Audacity and mute everything except drums then save the output

Getting a drummer to record them for you is another option, we do that at £25 a song

How do you get the files from Rock Band and Guitar Hero? Some decent tracks on those games

Google Rock band Moggs ...... download - open in the free DAW Audacity and export what you want 

Going back to using pre recorded drums yes they can sound cheesy if they are too well produced. If you record a kit but don't use a lot of post processing it can sound a lot better and more real

ICBM

PolarityMan said:

I'd go for an acoustic set instead. Unless your doing a predominately electronic style music pre-canned backing tracks sound pretty awful.

Not if they're well done - but they do have to be well done.

I played a few times with what I would call (and I think the bandleader would probably have agreed) a "band karaoke" covers band in that it was a three-piece with a bandleader/keyboardist/backing vocalist, a lead singer (no instrument) and a lead guitarist (me). Everything else was sequenced. The bandleader did all his own programming though - no downloaded MIDI files or other shortcuts - and it sounded really very good. It still *felt* a bit odd… but it remains the best-paid musical work I've ever had .

koneguitarist

One perfectly simple way, which allows you to carry on if song is going down well, or you want to stick in some extra solo's , Alesis SR16. The only drum machine you can really gig with, without having to sequence every beat.

koneguitarist

[IMG]http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i278/bargoedboy/uglyteleandshirts.jpg[/IMG] My old band, excuse the jazzy glasses, it was late 80's!

We had a front man/singer, me on rhythm and lead, bassist and one more on keys and lead guitar, used to do everything from U2 to REM and all sorts of regular cover band usualls. 

I operated SR16 with stop start F/S and a Fill F/S, but bassist typed whichever rhythm and tempo needed, worked really well. 

Absolute brilliant piece of kit.