great solution for incorporating live backing tracks

[t-rave]

My cover band has started to incorporate backing tracks into our set. Doing it the pretty normal way by sending a click to the drummer and the music to FOH. But instead of using a laptop/ interface or ipod solution ( which I have done in the past) I purchased this.

And so far it's been amazing! It allows stereo out along with a third out that will send a built in click and the track summed to the drummer. This is awesome because as long as you use the loopers built in click functions you can still have two separate tracks to send to the board ( in my case keys, and a second guitar, or backup vocals or whatever)..

You can hook it into your pc via usb and transfer your tracks to it's internal memory ( half hour) or to a sd card ( lots of space!). You can set various click sounds ( wood block, hihats, cowbell, sticks, etc)..and set the tempo of your track... just set up your tracks to have a measure or 2 of silence and the click with give you a perfect sync and count in.. and it's in a sturdy stompbox chassis with no hard drives.

you can scroll up and down through your tracks and turn the tracks on and off simply with your feet.. I have been waiting for this product for years!

the only downside is the read out is only the number of the track and not the title so it's good you have a list at your feet as well!

 

[Aaron Smith]

Interesting for sure. But I imagine you can't do tempo or time changes...

 

[t-rave]

Aaron,

I think your right..you could still do it the usual way by panning tracks to one side and your recorded tempo map and click to the other side and not use the rhythm out. You would still get the benefits of being able to control it like a stomp box from the floor... When i first got it thats how I ran it until I realized the rhythm out would sync perfectly if set up properly ( and your tunes stayed the same tempo and time sig)..It can count in other sub divisions besides 4/4 but it will stay that way througought the song using the built in rhythm..

It's also awesome to fire off one shot "intros" and samples between songs.. i got this idea from watching Bill Kelliher from Mastodon doing that from his pedal board between songs... you can set it so it will only play the sample once instead of looping over and over.. It holds 99 different tracks so you can really load it up! It also does ableton-like timestrecthing so you can tap tempo sync drop ins if you want too....

 

[digitaldeath]

Sucks that it can't display the track names.
I'd defo wanna use my own click samples, so what advantages would this offer me (a drummer) over using an iPod? I only ask cuz you mentioned that you'd done the whole iPod thing in the past.

 

[t-rave]

for starters,

the roadworthy, hard drive-less pedal chassis, with onboard mixing for click out and track levels ( if you have a competent sound man this is unnecessary). The ability to control it easily with your feet ( I play guitar and I control it for my drummer, something you may not want to do). It has quarter inch outs instead of having to use a mini plug...

being able to use smart media, and the fact I can have it right in front of me with my pedals... and if we lose time to the track ( bound to happen at some point!) I can turn it off with my foot and we can keep playing....

I can also fire off one shot samples between songs as filler for intros , etc. and i dont have to bend over or press a button by hand to do it...

of course the best way to do it would be a laptop/ software ( I would use ableton live)/ and a multi-out interface with a line mixer... but for the tiny gigs i play and lack of tech to run it..that's not happening anytime soon..

 

[BrettT]

I've been looking for something like this to trigger samples in a live setting.

 

[Torniojaws]

of course the best way to do it would be a laptop/ software ( I would use ableton live)/ and a multi-out interface with a line mixer... but for the tiny gigs i play and lack of tech to run it..that's not happening anytime soon..

For those smaller gigs, a simple mp3 player should be enough - at least for my band. For the more elaborate ones, I usually bring a laptop+interface setup.

But a hardware multitrack player of course brings the advantage of better reliability in the long run. It's not fun when the laptop starts to hiccup during a gig, which happened on my latest one (first time with Win 7 64-bit on it). Funnily these glitches only happen during the actual shows, but never during rehearsals

 

[digitaldeath]

For those smaller gigs, a simple mp3 player should be enough - at least for my band. For the more elaborate ones, I usually bring a laptop+interface setup.

But a hardware multitrack player of course brings the advantage of better reliability in the long run. It's not fun when the laptop starts to hiccup during a gig, which happened on my latest one (first time with Win 7 64-bit on it). Funnily these glitches only happen during the actual shows, but never during rehearsals

Didn't you have a thread about this a good while back? Linky?

I'm hesitant to run a laptop live for numerous reasons. While an iPod is a good solution, what about when the backing track mix just seems unbalanced in a certain venue?

Anyone any experience running one of those portable hard disk recorders in a live setting?
I'm thinking it would be pretty stable and would allow you to do a small bit of on-stage multitrack mixing prior to sending to FOH.

 

[Torniojaws]

Didn't you have a thread about this a good while back? Linky?

Yeah,
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/...orse-performance-than-winxp-cubasesx3.html#12

I'm hesitant to run a laptop live for numerous reasons. While an iPod is a good solution, what about when the backing track mix just seems unbalanced in a certain venue?

That's what the FOH is there for

Anyone any experience running one of those portable hard disk recorders in a live setting?
I'm thinking it would be pretty stable and would allow you to do a small bit of on-stage multitrack mixing prior to sending to FOH.

Well, a small band called Nightwish uses one. Fostex HD24, afaik, and I believe it's the first version of this: http://www.thomann.de/fi/fostex_d2424lv_mkii.htm. I think In Flames uses it too, but not 100 % sure. It looks much like it in one live video.

 

[Ola Englund]

we do the mp3-player thing and it works out great live. Makes the gig step up to pro-quality. Really makes choruses kick in live.

Check the chorus in this live vid for example(at 0:40):


Man I've been using this video as an example alot lately

 

[Torniojaws]

Next you can use it in the shampoo advertisement thread

 

[digitaldeath]

Yeah, at this point I'll either go with the iPod setup or a digital 4-track. I'm thinking the 4-track would be handy if say for example, you get to a certain venue and for some reason your backing vocals are getting lost behind your other samples, just up the fader on the 4-track and you're sorted.
I'll defo need a headphone amp to boost the click too.

 

[Forflex]

Nice thread. I like that hardware... it's a cool idea.

For now.. I'm been using a laptop beside the kit with APARAE (www.aparae.com) for the backing tracks. I have a usb foot switch which works really well. Haven't had problems with the laptop setup yet... knock on wood.

Forflex.

 

[DanLights]

Nice thread. I like that hardware... it's a cool idea.

For now.. I'm been using a laptop beside the kit with APARAE (www.aparae.com) for the backing tracks. I have a usb foot switch which works really well. Haven't had problems with the laptop setup yet... knock on wood.

Forflex.

that APARAE thing looks pretty damn cool, if I was a drummer I would definitely get it. For backing tracks I also go the Ipod way, it's the easiest for us. That pedal looks cool although I wouldn't use the internal click at all (tempo and time signature changes) so it would be the same mono backing track of my current method, and the commodity of having it as a pedal is really cool but not worth the 200+ euro it costs IMO