Bands that play live to a click

[Eschatologist]

This was inspired by the thread about patch changes via midi. My goal is to eventually pull off my sequencing live without needing someone to play samples. Who here is or has a drummer that plays live to clicks/sequences (particularly fast stuff)? Any tips and tricks? Gear recommendations?

 

[[UEAK]Clowd]

my drummer does. It's not that hard, perhaps a bit stressful the first couple of times you do it.

It does help to have legit in-ears, earbuds have a tendency to fall out and shit like that.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

We automate everything via DAW. Midi controls amp channels, envelope lanes control FX, metronome goes to headphones (not only drummer, but everybody's in ear) and backing tracks (back vocals, orchestra, inverse cymbals, even glitch fx for one song).
You only need a potent pc/laptop, freshly installed OS, and a decent audio interface.
Also, the less processing, the safer it is.

 

[Eschatologist]

Also, the less processing, the safer it is.

I assume you mean less processing in the form of active running VSTs? Do you mix/print your FX to tracks for live purposes?

 

[Eschatologist]

Anyone know what kind of a setup SepticFlesh uses?

 

[JeffTD]

Also, the less processing, the safer it is.

You should print literally everything to track and just be playing wav files. I wouldn't have any plugins on the project, period.

 

[Fragle]

my drummer is playing to click. actually he's got his notebook next to him, with the guitar pro files playing back for him, so it's the full song and not just the click. was super easy to set up because we're doing all our songwriting in gp so everything is already tabbed out the way it should be.

sometimes it's kinda tricky to start at the right speed when there's a tempo change in a guitar-only break. the benefits of playing to a click live are well worth it though. we're playing a sort of technical death metal, and just being able to count a steady tempo in your head without worrying about the drummer speeding up/slowing down is pure gold.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

You should print literally everything to track and just be playing wav files. I wouldn't have any plugins on the project, period.

That's what I do, but for example, when my lead guitar enters, it gets the amp signal processed in real time with ReaEQ and ReaDelay (little CPU consuming), and also the kicks are live triggered...

Everything else is printed down

 

[Eschatologist]

That's what I do, but for example, when my lead guitar enters, it gets the amp signal processed in real time with ReaEQ and ReaDelay (little CPU consuming), and also the kicks are live triggered...

Everything else is printed down

So I assume you're using Reaper as DAW? What are the specs of your laptop?

 

[Eschatologist]

Anyone know what kind of a setup SepticFlesh uses?

The reason I'm interested in SF is because all their videos I've seen I can't tell if the drummer is wearing any in-ears...I assume they must be sequencing all their orchestration from PC, but I love to know more detailed specs

 

[PhilTheBeard]

Abigail Williams played live to a click in their drummers in ear monitors and the keyboards were thru their macbook pro as well cause when i played with them they didnt have a keyboard player anymore.

 

[DanLights]

Eearbuds? Fuck that! I used to give my drummer my Akg K77 for click track/monitoring! I used my Iphone with backing track panned one side and click panned the other.

Katatonia are doing it and works beautifully for them. Although Im pretty sure they're doing it first time on the tour for the latest album

there are tons of thread on this, make a quick search and you'll find a lot of info on it

 

[ahjteam]

Just did this scenario with Whispered last weekend, it's really a lot easier than people think. The drummer operated a macbook with logic and interface with atleast 4 outputs next to him (didn't really care to inspect which one, I think it was M-audio or something). He got a small Behringer mixer for inear monitoring, he took click directly to his inear from the interface and he got a monoinput from the FOH mixer that I operated. I got a stereotrack of all the backingtracks from interface and it worked splendidly.

Summa summarum: What you need is

- laptop and interface with 4 outputs
- 2 di-boxes and 3 TRS cables
- drummer with inear/headphone monitoring
- small mixer for drummers in ear monitoring



So with assumption that you have a laptop, quick cost calculation of the entry level package:

- 4 out interface: 1 x 150€ = 150€
- TRS cable: 3 x 5€ = 15€
- DI-box: 2 x 30€ = 60€
- minimixer: 1 x 60€ = 60€
- inears: 1 x 40€ = 40€

= 325€, and you americans can get the package even cheaper

 

[Eschatologist]

Eearbuds? Fuck that! I used to give my drummer my Akg K77 for click track/monitoring! I used my Iphone with backing track panned one side and click panned the other.

Katatonia are doing it and works beautifully for them. Although Im pretty sure they're doing it first time on the tour for the latest album

there are tons of thread on this, make a quick search and you'll find a lot of info on it

I'm going to be getting a 4G this summer when they come out, I'll look in to that!

 

[updog]

Abigail Williams played live to a click in their drummers in ear monitors and the keyboards were thru their macbook pro as well cause when i played with them they didnt have a keyboard player anymore.

Exactly the same situation as what my band is facing now, heh. Our keyboardist just left, and when we'll start getting more gigs, we're planning to have all the synths coming from an mp3 player until we get someone to replace her. We aren't planning to rush on that matter, likely we're just waiting for a suitable person to come by at first - and search for one when we really need a keyboard player.

 

[updog]

Actually, can someone drop some examples on some good in-ears isolating enough for rehearsal/stage use? I can't seem to find any "proper" ones - the isolation level isn't even listed in most cases. Which ones do people use?

 

[Benny H]

I did it once (after rehearsing with same setup countless times). Me = drummer in this case.
For headphones I used my DT 770's.. but they had to be cranked pretty loud.
I had macbook, firestudio and D4 next to me. One mix for me, one for pa.
Since I had a programmed version of the drums in the project, I had them in my mix so couldn't possibly get out of sync.

 

[cloy26]

My friend's band, versaemerge, is a pretty big band (played bamboozle this weekend on main stage) and they use an iPod panned hard with samples one side and click to the other.

 

[Nebulous]

I did it once (after rehearsing with same setup countless times). Me = drummer in this case.
For headphones I used my DT 770's.. but they had to be cranked pretty loud.
I had macbook, firestudio and D4 next to me. One mix for me, one for pa.
Since I had a programmed version of the drums in the project, I had them in my mix so couldn't possibly get out of sync.

Which band are you in dude?

 

[Benny H]

Which band are you in dude?

Not in any band at the moment. What I described was for Interverse in Brisbane.