midi and live performance

[stef666]

hi just wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction regarding using midi backing tracks eg. piano sax etc with a four piece cover band.What equipment would i need to do such a thing?
Is it possible to have the midi tracks plus a click track on a laptop and just press play when we are ready or is there more to this?
thanx in advance

[mikemorgan]

Yes it's possible, assuming you can all play to a click.

Most guys who start in that direction end up putting backing tracks on Adat, CD, mini-disc, or any other more reliable format. Relying on a laptop to send midi to various outboard gear or soft-synths in a live sutuation is frought with pitfalls and quirks. One errant hexidecimal and your whole track goe down, or worse yet, your piano suddenly sounds like a telephone.

[stef666]

thanx mike ... one further question when you mention backing tracks do you only mean the infills that we have recorded...say for an example we have no bass player so we record all the bass with a click track onto a cd then play that as required.. or do you mean we actually have a whole backing track which includes all our music guitars ect. I hope you meant the first example

thanx again

[DavidK]

Originally Posted by stef666

thanx mike ... one further question when you mention backing tracks do you only mean the infills that we have recorded...say for an example we have no bass player so we record all the bass with a click track onto a cd then play that as required.. or do you mean we actually have a whole backing track which includes all our music guitars ect. I hope you meant the first example

thanx again

Its Karaoke basically. I believe he is talking about the first example, having some parts on disc (as opposed to midi). Its done quite often, you just have to make sure that you are VERY prepared, have clean discs, backup etc. Milli Vanilli comes to mind.

[mikemorgan]

Yeah, first case scenario. Adat is nice, as you can have separate tracks of horns, keys, bass, whatever, to send to your mixer. It's very nice to be able to EQ or otherwise treat each instrument for the room you'll be playing in. If you don't separate individual instruments, then it does sound very karaoke.

I've seen professionals do this with a simple four-tracks cassette operated by the drummer. I've seen machines run from the FOH board or even at the monitor station.

I've got an Aerosmith Live album that has a few songs that were obviously played to a click including horns and keyboards.

ZZ Top made a career out of playing to tracks in the 80's.

[DavidK]

Originally Posted by mikemorgan

I've got an Aerosmith Live album that has a few songs that were obviously played to a click including horns and keyboards.

ZZ Top made a career out of playing to tracks in the 80's.

A LOT of shows do this. Rush uses tracks. Mannheim Steamroller has the whole show on tracks. Josh Groban, Rod Stewart, on and on.

[mikemorgan]

Agreed, but making comparisons to karaoke and Milli Vanilli might make one think it's a bad idea, when in fact, it's almost the norm in REAL shows!

Dick Clark was right, people don't care if it's canned, it's all about the music!!

[DavidK]

Originally Posted by mikemorgan

Agreed, but making comparisons to karaoke and Milli Vanilli might make one think it's a bad idea, when in fact, it's almost the norm in REAL shows!

!!

Oh, it IS a bad idea. I would want my money back as an audience member. I expect people to actually be playing their instruments and singing. , but thats just me

Seriously, it depends on how it is done and WHY it is done. I was playing a gig with Josh Groban (singer): he messed up a vocal line and dropped out, all of a sudden there was a recording playing of his voice. Now THAT is lame IMO. Having a few horn parts is one thing, but not an entire show.

[mikemorgan]

Karaoke has replaced live music, that's why 100,000 people show up to see Simon and Paula. Making music is art, putting on a show for profit is not, it's business.

[mikemorgan]

Although I must say I'm impressed that AI uses a live band each week during the finals. Here, here Hollywood.

[stef666]

thanx for all your input .. yes all we really want to achieve is to have the fills neccessary in a particular song .Wouldnt class it as karaoke.
And even here in adelaide some of the top rated live bands that play at the pubs and clubs have some sort of backing whether it be a piano track or another...One band has no bass player and uses a backing track for that ..seems to go down ok .
But i think with "live" music people see it more than hear it so as long as the band perform and the audience enjoy watching (as they do) they dont mind or even notice that a synth or piano is playing when there isnt one on stage

thanx again for the input