So..... just joined . . . first post . . . have a couple ???'s

makeuacaster

New member
I'm putting together a studio (in home) and will be recording backing tracks (amongst other things) to play live doing a solo. Where I'm stumped is what product/software to get that I can store mixed down tracks to easily recover them live. Capice'? Example; I record all tracks, mix it down, then need to store it somewhere so I can easily and quickly find it to play with it live.
 
Recording and playing back are two totally separate things, unless you plan on changing things around in your tracks WHILE playing. You record, mix down the tracks, then play them back with any player - put them on your phone, plug your phone into the PA, for example,
 
Well I'm not 'tech-savy' to use my phone for that "I'm not smart enough to have a smart phone" (lol)
So, "then play them back with any player" . . . which/what player. s there software to do this? I'm not even able to ask the right question(s). I guess I could burn the stereo mix to cd's and just play them back from a song list. But I thought I could use my laptop somehow.
 
Er.... you seem to be setting yourself up for a massive learning curve if this is causing you grief. We do exactly this - I'm in a band, and work loads of others producing backing tracks for supporting live performance. Money and complexity are clearly involved, but more important is how you want to do it.

Lets say for simplicity - you sing and strum the guitar, so your tracks are the drums, the other guitars, bass, keys, other BVs - that kind of thing - so your tracks just need to be minus you and the guitar. Your process is to recored everything in the studio, mix it down to stereo (well, probably not very wide stereo for live stuff) then you mute you and the guitar and your stereo track can just be played at the venue. You could go very simple and indeed play it on a phone, but most people nowadays would use an iPad, and run one of the dozens of apps - just look in the App Store for live backing track player, or other search phrases. Many work by giving you a set list, and you can pick before you start the songs and the order, or you can pick them live in the fly. You press a big button and it starts. You play and sing along. For small gigs this is fine - everyone does it. Trouble is sometimes the gigs are in bigger venues and you have no idea if the tracks are balanced with your voice and guitar because you can't hear what the audience do. At this point, you might prefer to play the tracks individually through a computer - a MacBook running qLab is very popular - connected to a multi-track interface, or into say a Behringer X32 mixer - operated by you, or maybe by a real human sound operator in the audience, or in the audience with an iPad, mixing via remote. Once you go multitrack, you also have the option to add guest musicians - muting the bass player if your friend wishes to play with you, or dropping out your second guitar for your six string playing friend - or indeed, friends.

It does start to get more complicated of course, and you might need to add in a click track, so everyone can play in time - because the humans vary tempo and the machine doesn't! Then the click will be heard by the audience, so you might want to go in-ears to keep the click 'secret'. You then get into power play mode. Who works the playback system? Often the drummer is the best person, because they need the two, three, four kickoff. If it's just you, then you just makes sure the song intro has enough clues for you not to get lost. On a song that has no intro and is straight in - how will you pitch your first note? Off the track? from your hopefully in tune guitar? Will a three/four click intro work?

These are the real questions when using tracks. It's a very complicated subject and everyone does it differently. Simple stereo from an iPad is by far the simplest. If you are an ELO band with strings and loads of BVs, then it gets more complex. A duo is not twice as hard as a solo performer, it's a lot more difficult.

You haven't even started recording yet, so have a huge learning curve. I have a friend who wants to be very complex and have the ability to do lots of things. However, he is a control freak so he will need to work it, not the drummer. He is also a technophobe, stopping his music technology development with reel to reel tape. He will never be able to progress to make it work. He can record, but based on 1970s techniques - many still sound today. The idea of comping doesn't occur to him - so he re-records and re-records till its right. Me? I record each take a couple or three times and then if I need to steal a word from take one and replace the one in take two, and grab the right bass phrase from take 3, I'll do it. He just can't do this.

That's hopefully backing tracks squished down into a single post. Many of the iPad apps are free or very cheap. Try two or three and see if you can work them. Some are just different in how they work. Hopefully, one should sit well with you. Move to multitrack when stereo isn't good enough any more.
 
A little background . . . been playing for 54 years. Most of my adult life spent on the road. I've been in studios . . . done lots of sessions . . . but that 2" tape technology is way gone. So, one of my life long wishes is to do a guitar album and get back into performing . . . solo probably. So I'll be wanting to record album quality stuff without bending my brain around all the modern technology ('i' this and WAV that) and just put out some tunes. I used to have a Yamaha MD8 and liked it a lot. Recorded bands, duo's, radio commercials, etc. I've decided to get one ($200.00!! on eBay!!) and return to some digital familiarity. My understanding is the recording process(s) are basically the same as they used to be, but the language and equipment has changed and passed me by. (Yes, I'm old . . . school) Guys on a recording may not even be in the same state much less the same studio.
My playback will be simple stereo. Small clubs, restaurant venues. You have been very helpful. I have a lot of re-learning to do, hope it doesn't get in the way of the results.
 
Wow! I did not know of an 8 track MD recorder or that there were "data" MDs!

Re the backing tracks? Last year I bought my son a Digitech Jamman Solo XT* looper pedal. Now this thing can store a 35min track and hold up to 200 such tracks on an SD card. The looper can also interface with a laptop and comes with some software that, IIRC, does pretty much what you want to do?

*Son is happy with the pedal (he lives in France) but tells me there are operational oddities that he dislikes. Such things are always "One man's meat" but if the looper idea seems promising I do suggest you try a few different ones....Kicking music around for 54 years? You must be close to my 73 years?

Dave.
 
Ableton has a setlist window. You can store all your song in a file and then load them into a set list track. It’s a widely used DAW for live performances, recording, and even mixing.
YouTube
 
I'm putting together a studio (in home) and will be recording backing tracks (amongst other things) to play live doing a solo. Where I'm stumped is what product/software to get that I can store mixed down tracks to easily recover them live. Capice'? Example; I record all tracks, mix it down, then need to store it somewhere so I can easily and quickly find it to play with it live.

Soundminer and Basehead. Industry standard.
 
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