Using loops with band & live drummer - how to?

tigerflystudio

New member
Hi guys, can you help me please?

I've been recording some beats / loops on my laptop (Dell 1545) and am now wanting to bring them to my band so we can all play along (and stay in time!)

What options are there for running a click-track to our drummer's monitor, but STILL maintaining a true stereo output from the laptop to the PA?

I guess what I'm asking is how can we feed a click track to the drummer so he stays in time with the loops, whilst still sending our (click-track-free) stereo loops to the PA?

if I pan everything to one side and the click to the other, then all the music going to the PA will be in mono - and that will SUCK.

Help / advice much appreciated
 
Easy answer, set up a monitor sub-mix or click track bus only to his monitor. Question is how do you connect the laptop to your mixer. Do you have a multichannel interface, and what program/DAW are you using for the loops?
 
Hi again, thanks for info.

We use a USB audio interface (stereo RCA outs). We're actually using Reason 4. Because we've only got 2 (i.e. stereo) outs, we're struggling to think of any way of running a seperate feed to the drummer.

Because none of us are mint£d, we usually prefer to use a little ingenuity to solve problems, but unless anyone here has any other ideas, it's looking like the ONLY option going to be a more expensive audio interface with more I/O's, huh?
 
If you have MIDI out on your interface and can find something with a MIDI in (drum machine or cheap Casio keyboard) you could program a click and have your computer drive the MIDI device and take a headphone out of that for the drummer.

You could use a second computer for that too.
 
the midi thing is what I would have suggested as well.

the only other thing I could think of was to record a click and put it on 2 tracks each hard panned.
If you invert the polarity (or phase on some programs) on one of the click tracks they should (technically speaking) cancel each other out in the mains.
You could just feed an aux send to the drummer from the mixer with only one of the stereo channels.

I am not sure in a live situation the clicks will totally cancel them selves you would just have to try it.
 
the only other thing I could think of was to record a click and put it on 2 tracks each hard panned.
If you invert the polarity (or phase on some programs) on one of the click tracks they should (technically speaking) cancel each other out in the mains.
You could just feed an aux send to the drummer from the mixer with only one of the stereo channels.

I am not sure in a live situation the clicks will totally cancel them selves you would just have to try it.
The soundman would have to get the trims, EQ, and levels of both channels exactly matched, but otherwise... Yeah. That should work. Now how much do you trust the soundman? :D

Anyway, I am primarily a live soundman. I've worked many different venues from tiny dives to 5000 seat theaters. None of them are set up for stereo. So even if you do send stereo beats to the soundman, chances are 90% that what comes out of the house speakers is mono anyway.
 
None of them are set up for stereo. So even if you do send stereo beats to the soundman, chances are 90% that what comes out of the house speakers is mono anyway.

Wow, really? That sucks. I mean, that's going to lump all the stuff coming from the laptop into one very muddy mono channel isn't it. Not good. When we use our own PA (at venues of no more than 500 people) we always run stereo. Guess that solves the issue of panning hard L/R. That's the way we'll have to do it.
 
I was going to ask if your PA was in stereo or mono to bring up the fact that Chibi Nappa points out about most PAs but I guess your all set there.

Just one other fact with PCs and PAs you'll have to use a ground lift on your power supply cord or you'll get this buzz that you'll need to track down! So to save you some time just lift that ground on your Dell.
 
For some reason the vast majority of soundmen have convinced themselves that running stereo is an unnecessary extra.

I don't get it. Even if someone in the audience isn't seated perfectly between two stereo speakers it's still light years better than mono. Mono is kinda of an ugly sound when you get down to it, and I just don't understand why gig after gig I see soundmen with stereo boards running mono "because it doesn't matter for gigs".

I play as a one man band and in small bands and I always run stereo. Running mono was old 20 years ago. I'd say run stereo anytime you're playing for people that have two ears! :)

The ultimate to me is what I call multi-mono, where everybody has their own sound on stage, like people sitting around playing acoustically.
 
yeah, it's going to seriously bugger up our sound if we have to run the loops in mono - they'll sound so bad we're very reluctant to do it. Our PA is a mere 800w (Mackie SRM450's), and it sounds great in stereo. No idea why in-house bigger rigs run in mono. Sound plain flat and dull and awful to my ears, at least.

Can someone elaborate on what is / how to do a 'ground lift on laptop PSU' please?
 
For some reason the vast majority of soundmen have convinced themselves that running stereo is an unnecessary extra.

I don't get it. Even if someone in the audience isn't seated perfectly between two stereo speakers it's still light years better than mono. Mono is kinda of an ugly sound when you get down to it, and I just don't understand why gig after gig I see soundmen with stereo boards running mono "because it doesn't matter for gigs".
Well, I'm not the boss at the venues where I work, but I can take guesses as to why they're mono.

Shoot, in a few venues I don't even have to guess. The room is either small, odd-shaped, or both and the L and R sends are better used for other things. One room has L up near the stage, R back away from the stage. Large structures in the center of the room block stage sound from the back, so the mix is different back there with more drum overheads n' all that while the front gets most of its sound from the stage and vocal mics.

Another room is shallow but wide. So the center of the room is right in the band's face and the ends of the room are way out there. In that case, L is center and R is outer. Again, since there is so much stage sound in the center it gets a different mix.

The large venues I can't say for sure, but I'd guess it's some other routing option thing. Trust me, we get large national touring acts through some of these venues. We agonize over the sound quality. It is certainly not "stereo isn't worth it so screw 'em".
 
For some reason the vast majority of soundmen have convinced themselves that running stereo is an unnecessary extra.

I don't get it. Even if someone in the audience isn't seated perfectly between two stereo speakers it's still light years better than mono. Mono is kinda of an ugly sound when you get down to it, and I just don't understand why gig after gig I see soundmen with stereo boards running mono "because it doesn't matter for gigs".

I play as a one man band and in small bands and I always run stereo. Running mono was old 20 years ago. I'd say run stereo anytime you're playing for people that have two ears! :)

The ultimate to me is what I call multi-mono, where everybody has their own sound on stage, like people sitting around playing acoustically.

Most places would just have too much stereo seperation. A nice stereo mix places instruments/sounds in perspective in the stereo field. Now, suppose you end up off to the left in front of the PA cabinet. You can watch the guitar player on the opposite side wailing away, but you can barely hear it?
 
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