Live/rehearsal playback

[Polpotkin]

Since a keyboarplayer is nearly impossible to find we have decided to get some device that can play our keyboards live and when we rehearse. I just want to check how you guys do it.
Laptop/Soundcard is a little too expensive for us right now so I was thinking some sort of digital portastudio is the way to go. We need stereo out for the keyboards and at least one aux för the drummer with a clicktrack. I was thinking Fostex MR8HD.
Any advice, any recommendations, other possibilities?

 

[Torniojaws]

A minidisk player is probably the most common way to do it on budget. The trick is to split the signal so that a click track is on the other channel and the playback is on the other channel. The click track goes to the drummer's headphones and the playback track goes to the mixing desk.

Do not use computers live (especially running a "live" DAW program playing VST-instruments on the fly ), you will get glitches or problems sooner or later, and it will be a mess

Always use pre-recorded audio data, preferrably in .wav format. Not because of sound quality, but because playing .wav requires the least amount of processing for a player. Any compressed format will require decompression cycles, and that can (probably won't, but still) lead to a glitch or dropout, or even a crash if you're extremely unlucky

Edit:
Oh and never-ever-never-ever use a CD for the playback. Usch uke:

 

[AudioPhile777]

A minidisk player is probably the most common way to do it on budget. The trick is to split the signal so that a click track is on the other channel and the playback is on the other channel. The click track goes to the drummer's headphones and the playback track goes to the mixing desk.

Do not use computers live (especially running a "live" DAW program playing VST-instruments on the fly ), you will get glitches or problems sooner or later, and it will be a mess

Always use pre-recorded audio data, preferrably in .wav format. Not because of sound quality, but because playing .wav requires the least amount of processing for a player. Any compressed format will require decompression cycles, and that can (probably won't, but still) lead to a glitch or dropout, or even a crash if you're extremely unlucky

Edit:
Oh and never-ever-never-ever use a CD for the playback. Usch uke:

AWWW COME ON!!!!! We need another Milli Vanilli!!!

 

[Deus.exe]

Oh and never-ever-never-ever use a CD for the playback. Usch uke:

Why not?
We do it all the time. We use some cheap Discman (albeit with decent shock protection) and sit it on top a a sweater, t-shirt or any other fabic that is lying around. Never failed us yet.

The setup is pretty simple but work (which is the most important thing).
The CD stereo signal is split with a Y adapter. The left side is is a click that goes to a cheap arse Berhinger mini-mixer acting as a headphone amp then to a pair of relativly sealed head phones. The right side goes to an XLR adapter then into the FOH desk.

 

[Polpotkin]

Minidisc is out ot the question, CD too. I kinda like the idea of having the playback in stereo And the budget is not THAT tiny, maybe 400€ (~500$?). My local music store also thoght that a portastudio would be the best thing for us. C'mon, some of you guys must be using pre-recorded stuff live?

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

 

[doc_backmask]

Do not use computers live (especially running a "live" DAW program playing VST-instruments on the fly ), you will get glitches or problems sooner or later, and it will be a mess

Gotta love this one. We've used a macbook running DP5 for all of our live rehearsals and shows. We ran across a few glitches early, but that was caused by using the house drum mics instead of our own (my fault, forgot to change them out) and so the mix sucked. The beauty of using a DAW is that we can compress and eq the kick drum in real time, MIDI trigger the patch switches on Shane's HD147, run two output feeds (one to in-ear monitors, one to house), automate our backing tracks (keys, samples, weird noises), and have a click going to all of us individually. We can also LIVE RECORD which is fantastic. As long as you have a solid computer and a stable system used for nothing else, there are no problems.

 

[bazzi]

+1

 

[SymbolicSV]

From what i know a lot of Pro Bands will use a MiniDisc Multitrack:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Yamaha-MD8-Digi...ryZ85867QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Angra and Therion used that unit when i saw them live, so it can't be a bad solution.

 

[IronApe]

What about this?
Not released yet, but apparently it will be around september in Europe, and the price should be about 400€.