Hi,
Wanted to start this discussion for a while now. I'm interested in methods reproducing your band's album sound live, i mean - playing with backing tracks on stage.
Here's how my band does it:
Laptop running cubase 5 --> M-Audio FastTrack Pro. The interface has 2 ins and 4 outs.
3 outs are utilized - Stereo out running playbacks, another out running an audition out with the click to the drummer.
1 spare out left for various stuff. mostly remains unused.
1 project, containing the setlist with markers for each song, few bars separate the songs. Drummer controls the laptop.
Advantages - I can plug my keyboard to the ins when the venue doesn't offer enough DI's (that happens more often than you might think), I can also plug it to MIDI if i want to play a certain VST synth, though we almost never do that. No VSTs are running to keep things stable. no more than a couple of cubase tracks playing at a time as well.
We also used one of the ins a while ago and routed it to Drumagog as a BD trigger when we didn't have our own module.
Disadvantages - Drummer needs to be focused on the laptop as well as playing. If something's wrong, there's nothing he could do since he is too busy with both of his hands constantly. Also, when finishing a song, he needs to press the spacebar to stop the playback from running. This sometimes gets in the way when finishing a song. It has to end abruptly, and there's no room for the usual finishing drumrolls which is sometimes good, sometimes bad.
We also tried having me (keyboardist) control the laptop, but a metal act performing live with a laptop visible right on stage is kinda..gay. even for a prog/power band.
Needless to say I'm constantly playing stuff on my keyboard and the playbacks are for those extra layers such as natural strings when i'm soloing, choir samples, intros etc, having a laptop on stage simply projects the wrong idea.
Hope this was somewhat insightful, please share your own ideas.
What do you think of this setup? What other options are available? How do the pros do it?
Wanted to start this discussion for a while now. I'm interested in methods reproducing your band's album sound live, i mean - playing with backing tracks on stage.
Here's how my band does it:
Laptop running cubase 5 --> M-Audio FastTrack Pro. The interface has 2 ins and 4 outs.
3 outs are utilized - Stereo out running playbacks, another out running an audition out with the click to the drummer.
1 spare out left for various stuff. mostly remains unused.
1 project, containing the setlist with markers for each song, few bars separate the songs. Drummer controls the laptop.
Advantages - I can plug my keyboard to the ins when the venue doesn't offer enough DI's (that happens more often than you might think), I can also plug it to MIDI if i want to play a certain VST synth, though we almost never do that. No VSTs are running to keep things stable. no more than a couple of cubase tracks playing at a time as well.
We also used one of the ins a while ago and routed it to Drumagog as a BD trigger when we didn't have our own module.
Disadvantages - Drummer needs to be focused on the laptop as well as playing. If something's wrong, there's nothing he could do since he is too busy with both of his hands constantly. Also, when finishing a song, he needs to press the spacebar to stop the playback from running. This sometimes gets in the way when finishing a song. It has to end abruptly, and there's no room for the usual finishing drumrolls which is sometimes good, sometimes bad.
We also tried having me (keyboardist) control the laptop, but a metal act performing live with a laptop visible right on stage is kinda..gay. even for a prog/power band.
Needless to say I'm constantly playing stuff on my keyboard and the playbacks are for those extra layers such as natural strings when i'm soloing, choir samples, intros etc, having a laptop on stage simply projects the wrong idea.
Hope this was somewhat insightful, please share your own ideas.
What do you think of this setup? What other options are available? How do the pros do it?
