How Is My Band Gonna Play Live???

[jjs6067]

Hello,

My band is trying to play live but it is becoming very difficult to figure out how we are going to do this. We are a linkin park style band so we have a lot of synths and effects. We want to use these as backing tracks for our live shows. Here's the problem...

We sort of know what gear we need to pull it off but were not sure how each piece fits in the puzzle. Here's what i believe we need:

Laptop
PA System (Mics, Speakers, Mixer, Cables)
In-Ear Monitors (For click tracks and cueing the next track)

Basically here's the solution we need: We are going to be using real guitar, real drums, and -- obviously -- real vocals. When we play a song we need to be perfectly on time which is why we need a click track, so the synth parts come in at the right time. We also need to be able to cue a track when as were talking to the audience between songs. We also need to be able know how everything connects to one another. I'm assuming we would use a laptop to play the backing tracks through the mixer.

But how do we isolate a click track so that its coming through our in-ear monitors? Obviously, we don't want the crowd to hear the click track. We also need to hear ourselves through the in-ear monitors.

Sorry this is so lengthy, and probably not too organized, but if anyone has a solution to this, that would be awesome!

 

[AbuseTheMuses]

Most mixing boards or PA mixers have at least one separate "out", whether it's called 'monitor send' or 'control room' or 'phones' or whatever so you can send one feed to a headphone splitter where each person in the band can have their own signal settings, while the other mix without the click track is going to the mains PA. If it has an 'aux send' you can also use that for your click. If your mixer has none of those (doubtful but ya never know), you can at least just pan the click hard right and the rest hard left... send one side to the 'main' amp as a mono signal and the other side to the 'phones' amp. Pan doesn't actually have anything to do with directional sides in a room, it's just how much is going out of one output and how much is going out the other one. It's just a balance. so the clicky on the right is what you hear in phones, and the rest on the left is what you have going out to the speakers.

I've seen bands with the electronica thing where just the drummer gets the click track and everyone else is following him. I don't think a lot of vocalists like stomping around a stage with a pair of headphones on, but drummers are stationary (other than flailing limbs) so it's pretty easy to just run the click to him and let everyone else pick up on his rhythm.

 

[Wish]

I would just save the backing track as a stereo audio file - wav or mp3, with one channel (say the left side) having the click track with your backing tracks, and the other side just the backing track with no click.

Put the audio file on an ipod and run that into a mixer split into 2 channels. Left channel with click goes to your monitors so you can hear it....right channel without click goes to your mains.

Press play on your ipod....and you are good to go.

 

[jjs6067]

Thank you guys for the reply. I'll probably end up using the L channel/R channel method. However, i'm still not grasping how i'm going to connect all this together. Let me see if i can put this together, and you guys can fill in the blanks...

Laptop output -> Headphone Splitter -> Mixer (one cable in an input, another cable in separate input) -> ???

This is where it gets confusing to me. I assume i will using the standard outputs L and R (on the mixer) for the Speakers. I suppose i will be using the headphone out on the mixer for the monitors (correct?).

However, i am not sure how the splitter works. The splitter does not separate the left and right channels. It just sends the whole backing track file (along with click track) to 2 separate inputs on the mixer. Damn this next part is difficult to explain... umm... i guess how do i designate which channel will be sent by the mixer? How do i get Input X to play only the left channel (backing track only) and Input Y to play only the right channel (click track & backing) I'm probably making this more difficult than it has to be...

Also another issue i'm having. Once i figure out that hellish task, how do i designate which input signal gets sent where. I want the backing tracks (only) and the live instruments/vox to come out the speakers. I want that coming through the IEM's as well but using the backing track with the click. I hope this is making sense...

Any suggestions?

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Thank you guys for the reply. I'll probably end up using the L channel/R channel method. However, i'm still not grasping how i'm going to connect all this together. Let me see if i can put this together, and you guys can fill in the blanks...

Laptop output -> Headphone Splitter -> Mixer (one cable in an input, another cable in separate input) -> ???

This is where it gets confusing to me. I assume i will using the standard outputs L and R (on the mixer) for the Speakers. I suppose i will be using the headphone out on the mixer for the monitors (correct?).

However, i am not sure how the splitter works. The splitter does not separate the left and right channels. It just sends the whole backing track file (along with click track) to 2 separate inputs on the mixer. Damn this next part is difficult to explain... umm... i guess how do i designate which channel will be sent by the mixer? How do i get Input X to play only the left channel (backing track only) and Input Y to play only the right channel (click track & backing) I'm probably making this more difficult than it has to be...

Also another issue i'm having. Once i figure out that hellish task, how do i designate which input signal gets sent where. I want the backing tracks (only) and the live instruments/vox to come out the speakers. I want that coming through the IEM's as well but using the backing track with the click. I hope this is making sense...

Any suggestions?

You connect the laptop to two mono channels, put the fader up on the channel without click and use a pre-fader aux send to put the channel with the click into the monitors. Don't use the headphone output. This is very basic mixer operation that should be second nature to you before you try it in front of an audience.

 

[jjs6067]

You connect the laptop to two mono channels, put the fader up on the channel without click and use a pre-fader aux send to put the channel with the click into the monitors. Don't use the headphone output. This is very basic mixer operation that should be second nature to you before you try it in front of an audience.

So for the click track, put the fader down and use the pre-fader aux send to connect to the IEM's? Will the live instruments be heard through the IEM's this way as well? Also, I havent bought a mixer yet, but do most mixers have pre-fader aux sends?

 

[Armistice]

I would just save the backing track as a stereo audio file - wav or mp3,.

If you take this route of using an iPod, I definitely WOULDN'T save as an MP3, but would stick to an uncompressed WAV file - which takes up substantially more room, but should sound better.

Same goes with your laptop, careful what file format you're playing. You'd want maximum fidelity and memory shouldn't be a problem on any modern PC...

 

[stealth_prod]

Ok so I am taking it you dont have anyone to play the synth? Either way someone has to control when the synth is going to play wiether its a backin track or live player. Not only that are you always going to be playing at the same tempo? Maybe im just a confused mess? IDK lol seems a little hectic.

 

[RAMI]

It might be easier to just give the drummer the click. The rest of the band shouldn't need it.

 

[austinm08]

Let's just hope the drummer doesn't lose the click in his ear mons or accidentally get off of the click..

 

[jjs6067]

Well i would need a click track because sometimes our songs start of with me playing guitar alone, and then synth and drums would come in at the appropriate time. We have a DJ to man all the loops and backing tracks. Right now we're just figuring out how to set everything up in the the most efficient way.

 

[RAMI]

Well i would need a click track because sometimes our songs start of with me playing guitar alone,

Yes, I didn't think of that. If anyone other than the drummer starts a song, they'd need the click too.

 

[stealth_prod]

So then the DJ would also control the click track? would be hard if one of your songs started with the synth backing track playing first. Sounds like you got a one hell of a project ahead of you. Good luck sir.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

So for the click track, put the fader down and use the pre-fader aux send to connect to the IEM's? Will the live instruments be heard through the IEM's this way as well? Also, I havent bought a mixer yet, but do most mixers have pre-fader aux sends?

Mixers meant for live sound will have pre-fader aux sends, often just called monitor sends, on every channel. You can put all the inputs into the monitor mix(es) and balance them differently from the main mix.

Since you are using IEMs you will need to put everything you want to hear into the mixer. Drums and amps will have to be miced and put in the system. Non-stationary players will need wireless IEMs, which is not cheap. Since you won't have stage sound to rely on you'll need a very accurate mix, and singers will want separate mixes since they will need their own voices louder than the other voices. So that's one monitor mix for each singer plus one shared by the rest of the band, at a minimum. The usual small mixer has from one to four monitor mixes available. You will probably need at least one headphone amp to handle all those IEM sends, plus a load of cabling to get it all connected.

And since you'll be on IEMs you won't have the first clue what it sounds like to the audience. What's your plan there? I bring all this up so you have some idea what it takes to successfully pull off a show like you described. I recommend getting help with the sound from someone who really knows what they're doing, and working out as much as possible in rehearsals.

 

[mcmetal]

Why not just get a sampler and have your dj run it. Bands are able to pull it off live but you're gonna need a ton of practice.It's so easy to get distracted playing live that this just adds another element to go wrong.

When me and a buddy were starting a band weused to jam with a drum machine.It made us extremely tight timing wise.Drummers used to compliment us on that fact.

When playing to a click or backing tracks there is no margin for error.If you get lost and screw up for a mini second it keeps going and it's hard to recover and just play through it.

 

[BentRabbit]

I have a small rack set up next to my drums that contains a 12 channel mixer, an 8 channel DI, a Minidisc deck, an Alesis D4 and a Yamaha A4000 Sampler I trigger with Dauz pads.

We have 'sequences' that I have recorded in Sonar consisting of the various horns, keyboards, strings, etc. recorded on the right channel of each Minidisc track, and the click track for each on the left channel.

My vocal mic, the minidisc, the D4, and the sampler all run into my mixer and I use the insert jacks from the mixer to run out to the DI, which in turn goes to our PA. I can even take feeds from the guitars or vox monitors if needed. My IEM's are connected to a Whirlwind personal headphone amp which is fed from the headphone jack of my mixer . This gives me my own personal mix of everything on stage in my IEM's, with the click track in my left ear and sequences in my right.

Soundman controls FOH mix for all these appliances, which is pre-fader from my mixer, so my mix doesn't screw with his... He can put the click into anyone's monitor that needs it (but normally, it's just in mine.) In the case where you need to have it to sync with the later drums and synth, it can be applied.

This works out great for me because, as a drummer, floor wedges/sound guys never seem to be able to give me what I need. Plus, the Minidisc player (Sony MDS-E10) is set to stop between tracks... Saves me from having to remember to stop the disc before the next song kicks in

 

[FunkDaddy]

For a band that is as heavily synth'd as you, you should probably look into getting a keyboard player or DJ to handle the electronica side of things. It'd be a lot more dynamic and authentic with a keyboard player than an Ipod or backing track.