Backing tracks - opinions

Moltisanti

I've done enough shows with backing tracks to understand the upside, it's convenient, much simpler, consistent and involves less people so therefore less drama. It's also much easier to book shows.

But the downside that's always niggled at me is that deep down it feels a bit shit, a bit fake, a bit lame...

How do you feel about playing with backing tracks ?

TheBigDipper

I don't like it and I won't do it. The backing track isn't listening to me, and can't compensate if the timing in the music ebbs and flows with the interplay of the musicians. But I'm OK about manually-triggered samples or short passages that use a human to start them at the right time. It's the relentless robotic nature of the backing track that makes it no fun and makes the music boring (for me). 

My usual caveat regarding my answer - I play for fun, I'm not "the act" playing a show. At best, I do selfish recitals in front of  people who generally haven't paid to be there. I can understand why a professional musician doing it for a living would want to use them.

As an audience member, I don't like it much, either, so I'd avoid a performance that used backing tracks if I knew about it first. I do think it short-changes the paying audience.

From the amateur perspective, (and professionally, too) there are many solo performers who sing to backing tracks. If they didn't use backing tracks, they wouldn't sing in public at all. I understand that. It's what they have to offer. I wouldn't buy a ticket, and I wouldn't attend a free event if that's all there was onstage, but I understand it. 

Keefy

Some years ago I started doing some dep gigs with a function band consisting of guitar, bass (me), drums, and vocals. They played to a click track with cues, and had keys, brass, and strings on a backing track, depending on the song. The tracks were not overly prominent in the FOH mix, but they did enhance the overall sound.

I currently dep with a tribute band (2 guitars, bass, drums, keys, sax) that uses a click, but their tracks are mainly sound effects. They also have live recordings of some of the instrumental parts in case of emergencies - if someone’s car dies on the way to the gig, the show can still go on.

I’m fine with both these scenarios, not least because inability to recruit a decent keys player can scupper a band before it gets started. What I can’t stand, and will actively avoid, is someone singing over full instrumental tracks.

Musicwolf

I play in three bands, two of which use backing tracks (which I record in my home studio).  The other is a traditional drums, bass, guitar, vocals combo.

I'd prefer to play without the backing, but then I wouldn't gig anything like as often as I do.  Bands are like radioactive elements; they just want to naturally split apart.  The more people that you have, the harder it is to hold things together, be available for gigs etc.  My 'proper' band practices once per week (this week, no drummer because he's on holiday).  The other two bands with backing don't practice between gigs.

Venues are on their arses.  Many of the old school social clubs can longer afford to put live music on every week and, when they do, they can often only afford a solo act or duo.  Many of the town centre venues, catering for The Yoof , have taken things to the next stage and gone straight for a DJ.

Danny1969

I have mixed feelings about it. The social side isn't as good. In the late ninties I left a popular rock band along with the singer. I made some BT's using a sequencer, recorded them to MidiDisc and then we went out for an agent as a duo. Tripled our earnings whhich was nice. 
But socially it wasn't the same. A band is a little army and can go rampaging around, a little duo being sent to the worse dives in London isn't the same expererience. 

When we started the KB tribute the original idea was we played the show live to a PT session and that contained extra backing. Mainly sound effects and some backing vox but at the very first gig there was a recall problem on the venue's desk. After the support all our IEM foldback settings were wiped. No one could hear the click so we just played the whole thing live and never entertained playing to BT's again. We had a great keyboard player who could play 3 parts himself, plus the bass player and I play keys so we did ok on the keyboard heavy songs. For sound effects we used a Roland SPD, hit in real time by the drummer. 

I'm a big fan of using SPD's or similar sample players to beef up a live band with non time based samples because it does't interfere with anything. You don't need a click and you can still mess with the songs arrangment. I did hundreds of gigs as a 3 piece, just hitting the SPD with my foot to trigger a chord pad so it didn't go flat when I took a solo. You can change chord with your foot or better still, teach rhe bass played to use it. 

The worse side of BT bands is the pretend ones. I know one band that goes out as a live band but everything is on the BT. There's a drummer playing along but the drums are on the BT. The keyboards are on the BT but they use a guy who pretends to play. He has banner on top of the keyboard so you can't see his fingers. There's a bass player bu the bass is on the BT. The lead vocal is live but there's a double on the BT as well to thicken it. That to me is a miming band pretending to be a real band. 

Bands like Steel Panther get a bit of a pass. They use a BT but are the proper great live band without it as well. They use the to do songs they wouldn't be able to otherwise but don't overuse it. 

maltingsaudio

I did the duo thing to track some years back when midi files were in their infancy, we reprogrammed the tracks to sound as bontempi as possible adding live guitars and vocals treating it as a piss take , it was remarkably lucrative and great fun.

There is nothing better than playing in a band when everybody’s friends and your a gang, nothing worse when those feelings turned to outright war, backing tracks never have a sulk!

Personally , the solo singer with tracks leave me cold especially the bit where they reach back and start the song or fiddle with their playlist. Even worse when it’s a phone.

With regards to professional bands above pub level who you can watch and not notice or forget about the the fact they use tracks then great.

Supportact

My gut feeling is I'd rather a fully live band every time,  and backing tracks aren't really a part of the type of music I play. For me the great thing about live misic is seeing musicians interacting with each other and reacting to each other in the moment.  

But, as with everything it depends on the context - different genres, different gigs, different budgets.

My first thought is a pub  or bar that can't afford a five piece band but can afford a duo with some elements on a backing track. It's not my first choice but at least someone is getting a gig, and wouldn't definitely seen people doing that kind of thing and making it work well (by which I mean keeping the audience happy and buying drinks).

Also in some genres I think it's just more stylistically acceptable to have certain things like sound effects, strings, drum machines etc on a pre recorded track or triggered. 

So, yeah I'd always prefer a fully live band but I wouldn't say you can never use backing tracks. 

stickyfiddle

Hate it. I don't care about context. If a keyboard player in the band and triggering things live then that's vaguely ok if it's really integral to the song, but otherwise I don't wanna hear it

Sporky

There was a chap played upstairs in the Venue in New Cross. He had a guitar and a mic and backing tracks, and he was great. So it can be done.

Oh, and Cranes had an actual reel-to-reel deck on stage and used it on some tracks, and they were great too. 

And Pale Saints had something for two songs, and they were excellent.

So usually it's naff and awful, but it's entirely possible to do it well. 

AntonHunter

I've done it a little bit, working with a friend doing stuff that was produced electronically, so live the tracks had loads of that production on (sub bass, guest vocals, brass, fx, percussion etc). It was fun enough, but the more we've done the more we've pushed him away from tracks and it sounds waaay better. Less polished/produced of course, but the feel far outweighs that.

I feel similarly about watching bands too... although... The Flaming Lips were my favourite live band for a decent period of the 2000's. So I'm entirely inconsistent in this regard.

maltingsaudio

Forgive me but just got this spam on fb , it’s relevant to the discussion slightly , so going to pop this link in here so I can find it again https://apieceofcake.live/ 

flying_pie

On one hand I don't like the idea of them or then being used. Then I remember that Carter USM used them and were great fun live

Lestratcaster

The last band we played in we only used a backing track between songs in the set to fill out the silence. So the set was run so the intervals were planned in certain places.

We used a bass one a few times when the bassist couldn't make shows but we played the rest live.

I saw a cover band around Christmas time last year that was a two-piece - a drummer on an electric kit and a singer/guitarist. Then there was a laptop on a chair in the corner covering the other instruments. Didn't look right.

Fez

I'm with @stickyfiddle on this. 

stickyfiddle

Fez said:

I'm with @stickyfiddle on this. 

There are dozens of us!! 

But quite seriously, I'm convinced that "all live" will become a selling point fairly soon because most live acts simply aren't able to do it. 

 

Stratavarious

….bit shit, a bit fake, a bit lame...

It’s Karaoke

AntonHunter

stickyfiddle said:

Fez said:

I'm with @stickyfiddle on this. 

There are dozens of us!! 

But quite seriously, I'm convinced that "all live" will become a selling point fairly soon because most live acts simply aren't able to do it. 

 

This is what I hope a silver lining of the whole AI nonsense will be. Audiences will get fed up of slop and start craving actual real live experiences. I hope anyway...

maltingsaudio

AntonHunter said:

stickyfiddle said:

Fez said:

I'm with @stickyfiddle on this. 

There are dozens of us!! 

But quite seriously, I'm convinced that "all live" will become a selling point fairly soon because most live acts simply aren't able to do it. 

 

This is what I hope a silver lining of the whole AI nonsense will be. Audiences will get fed up of slop and start craving actual real live experiences. I hope anyway...

We can all hope, but the reality is at pub level the audience doesn’t really care as long as there is a decent noise to accompany their pint, and therefor it’s not worth paying for four people when one man and a cassette can do the job.

A more discerning audience happy to pay a little for music will be more concerned about the quality of musicianship and how it’s produced.

A big production/ festival crowd couldn’t care less how the music is produced , as long as they:

1, see the face of the star, usually on screen as they are too far away
2, Get their content for their media
3, Get merch and wristband for bragging rights

Danny1969

One thing that's popped up that makes me smile is that, when I have mentioned to a venue booker that the act they think is great is basically miming, they have replied Yes but they recorded those backing tracks themselves so it is them ! 

Like, you get a pass for that do you ? I mean, I could recreate For The love of God by Steve Vai myself in Logic. It would take some time and require a lot of takes and slowing down of fast passages. But I could get it soudning very close with some work. Wouldn't have a chance of playing it live though. 

One little glimmer of hope with the AI crap is a lot of creators using it don't fully understand the licence agreement to use the ap. They don't realize they are not, in some cases the sole holders of that creative copyright, and why should they be because it's basically not all them creating it. 
This has led to worry in some fields that music created by AI or assisted by AI may be subject to future lawsuits if used in a big film or TV series / Advert etc. So some companies are wary of taking anything where any AI has had an input. 

merlin

"I'd like to do this in Cm today instead of Dm because my voice is a bit rough and I won't hit the high A very well"

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that".

lustycourtier

We use them for our Blondie tribute for keys and brass on a few songs. Itd be nice to have a 7 piece band instead of 4, but we also like money. 

 And at what point is the line? should we have someone with a phone ringing for the intro of Hanging on the telephone?