Triggering backing tracks - Hardware solution?

gusman2x

So, after successive drummer losses, we've decided to play to backing tracks until we realise it's actually a bit shit to do so.

Looking for suggestions (ideally hardware) to store and trigger the tracks. 

octatonic

Laptop and interface with multiple outs.

gusman2x

octatonic said:

Laptop and interface with multiple outs.

Sorry, should have made it more explicit. It's just for simple backing track triggers, and would prefer not to use computers/interfaces. 

Would any loopers do the job? Or something similar. Ideally something with x number of big buttons that can be stomped on or pressed.

siremoon

One of tablet/ipod or equivalent/old mobile phone mounted on a mic stand so it is readily to hand for starting and stopping tracks.

prowla

A MIDI pedalboard like a SoftStep or a 12 Step can be programmed to send a signal of your choice.

You'd need a MIDI sampling device too.

It wouldn't be a cheap setup, though.

octatonic

prowla said:

A MIDI pedalboard like a SoftStep or a 12 Step can be programmed to send a signal of your choice.

You'd need a MIDI sampling device too.

It wouldn't be a cheap setup, though.

Softstep with a 1010 Music Blackbox would be a good rig.
Probably around £800 for everything.

John_A

When you say 'trigger' do you just want to select a backing track and play it or something more complicated.  For just playing backing tracks a Boss RC-3 looper is great

Danny1969

Roland SPD will do it if you want to whack a pad to start and stop BTs 

Musicwolf

If it's a full backing track (i.e. song start to finish) then try SoundCue on an iPad.  Each track is presented as a button (25 to a page), tap and it plays to the end.

I used to arrange so that FOH mix was on RH channel and cues (count in etc) were on LH which only went to our monitors.

mrkb

These guys seem to have a solution - they demo at most UK guitar shows

http://baktrakpedal.co.uk/

midiman1962

Here's my 4 pennyworth ..
You need to ponder how you "locate" yourself in the song ie verse , chorus solo before starting the process
Option 1 Backtrax  App(IPad) works with old Ipads - mp3 download via itunes.
Option 2 Drum machine - i programmed 35 songs for this purpose in Dec 2019 - ended up going back and queuing stuff like verses and choruses so i knew where we were.

One thing with programming and listening to the "actual song" was how far the "live" band deviated from the real format

NB I do have a Boss RC3 and in a previous incarnation triggered the Silver machine synth sound....

I tried to wire a pedal to start and increment the wav files but i didn't get 100% confidence in the method so didn't pursue it.

mike257

Cymatic LP-16 or uTrack24 are rock solid hardware units that will reliably play multitrack audio for live playback. Have toured the 24 and it's great, and band I used to work with have an LP-16 in their current touring rig. 

If you decide to go laptop, I'd look at the iConnectivity PlayAudio12 interface, it's built for exactly this purpose and allows you to connect two laptops for a redundant backup should you have problems with one. 

steamabacus

gusman2x said:

octatonic said:

Laptop and interface with multiple outs.

Sorry, should have made it more explicit. It's just for simple backing track triggers, and would prefer not to use computers/interfaces. 

Would any loopers do the job? Or something similar. Ideally something with x number of big buttons that can be stomped on or pressed.

Yes, any looper that you can load loops onto (which is most of them these days) will do the job. Personally, I use the Digitech JamMan SoloXT with an extra footswitch for shifting between loops (normally done with the small loop up/down buttons on the pedal). A friend gigged with one of the larger four-button Digitech JamMan loopers (which had footswitches for loop up/down built in) playing all his backing tracks and it worked perfectly. The only downside I can think of is that you are reliant on a two digit numerical led for patch number. I'm not aware of any loopers with a more detailed alpha-numeric display (to name the patches) but they may well exist.

Musicwolf

Could you explain why you are looking for a hardware solution rather than something that plays from a phone, tablet or laptop?  Also, do you need to just trigger from the start of a track and let it play to the end or do you want to start and stop during the song?  Finally, how many tracks of playback do you require? (single, stereo, multi-track?).

Budget may also help.

This should help to narrow down the suggestions.

wellyeahwhateverman

We had the same problem with using laptops and interfaces, so we are developing a hardware backing track and MIDI player in the form of a pedal. It should be ready to launch in April/May:  http://idoru.live/

gusman2x

Musicwolf said:

Could you explain why you are looking for a hardware solution rather than something that plays from a phone, tablet or laptop?  Also, do you need to just trigger from the start of a track and let it play to the end or do you want to start and stop during the song?  Finally, how many tracks of playback do you require? (single, stereo, multi-track?).

Budget may also help.

This should help to narrow down the suggestions.

Well maybe a phone would work, but I've never found a good app for qeueing and triggering tracks. We would have around 8-10 tracks, that we'd want to trigger individually, but they would play all the way thorough.

Budget <£100 s/h would be preferrable.

Musicwolf

Sounds as though SoundCue would do the trick.  Here's a really awful demonstartion of the lite version that can be used from a phone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-FR9E18vm0

gusman2x

Thanks man!
I had heard of that before, but had forgotten the name. The lite version isn't available just now, but the full one is £14.99. Might be worth a punt if I can get the others to chip in. Of course, it would be better (but not easier) if we had a drummer....