Death by backing track

p90fool

Funnily enough, in our guitar/bass/drums bands the only songs I veto because of band lineup are those which obviously require the use two guitars, and there really aren't that many of those if you dislike dadrock. 

I'd say around half of our set either has little or no guitar on the original recordings and I'm happier that way.
Figuring out chord voicings to replicate multiple synth parts on an Avicii song is way more interesting to me than slogging through endless solos on Sultans of Swing. 

When a guitar trio comes in behind a big-voiced singer on the intro to Bad Romance nobody in the room gives a damn that we don't have keyboards, which is why although I'm not particularly snobbish about the idea, I really have no use for the hassle of backing tracks. 

If you have strong dynamics giving you tension and release in the right places it barely matters what instruments you play your combination or sequence of twelve notes on. 

Rowby1

Yes, they were using in ears. 

It all seemed a bit odd really because, as I said earlier, the backing tracks included bass and guitar parts in places which meant that at times the bass player and guitarist were literally miming. 

I get that it’s a good way to make money….but it’s not really live music anymore, especially considering the miming bit. 

CaseOfAce

Nothing will cause me to exit a room faster when a band start up then 

• crazy volume
• backing tracks

A previous singer we had used to have was previously in a 3 piece Abba tribute with a bass player and guitarist with backing tracks and I thought that was a one-way ticket to naff city.

I could never be in a band using canned drums / brass etc. I just wouldn't enjoy playing with a click track like that...

ArchtopDave

A couple weeks ago, I went to see CHVRCHES for the first time, who were very good and I enjoyed their set.

 However, the support act was a disaster area. An Australian band, which consisted of a singer (who played guitar some of the time), main guitarist, bass guitarist (who did some backing vocals), and a keyboard player. All male, apart from the keyboard player being female. She mainly smiled and only played the keys part of the time. The "drummer" was a backing track, and straightforward enough as they were playing music best described as pop. The problems were - bass guitar much too loud, singer frequently out of tune, and uninspiring songs. It felt odd that they didn't have a real person as a drummer, and yet had a keyboard player who contributed very little.

GavRichList

We use backing tracks. I have no issue whatsoever with that; I / we wrote and recorded them all, we’re not cheating anyone or anything by doing so in my opinion. Still 3 musicians performing live as far as I’m concerned, and I live loop just to add to the naysayers armoury. 

https://youtu.be/NjA4CU7UZBc

Lestratcaster

The last band I play with used a backing track, but only for ambience between songs and bass booms and swooshes before breakdowns. The actual band played their instruments live unless a member was missing. So in our usage it was a "backing" background track, not to act as another member (again, except if a member was missing).

It's good if you use it to enhance your live set, not replace anything there as I find its a bit too weird. But I've known of bands who don't use a live bass player or keyboardist and find it quicker and easier to just use a backing track. I think for singing and drums it should be fully live as those are the two instruments people pay the most attention to.

thecolourbox

So in my opinion it's the usual thing of the thing itself not being an issue by default, but the people using it not knowing how great to use it that is the issue.

This applies to a lot of things - backing tracks, fuzz pedals, widdly solos, yellow zig zag boxes on roads, etc etc

Trude

For me, when I play live I want it to be spontaneous and organic.  Forcing the whole band to play to a click just for the sake of a few horn/synth parts seems like a way to crush all the life and fun out of it.  Maybe I'd feel differently if the tracks were responding to a live tempo input (ie a tap or auto-detect from the bass drum)

In our trio, I use a Boss SY-1 to sustain organ chords and synth pads live from my guitar.  I also chain it into a Mel9 to effectively give me a sustain pedal that sounds like a string section.  I can actually do Final Countdown by holding synth chords in between each part of the riff.

Having said this, I have a couple of dep gigs coming up where I'm doing lead vocal and guitar for a band that uses tracks.  It'll be interesting to experience it first hand.

EricTheWeary

This has reminded me of going to see Billy Ocean. In fairness I wasn't expecting the most outrageous night of my life but the support act was a vocal group singing old soul sings to backing tracks. Cheesy as hell and I hated it. 
Then the woman in front of me watched the entity of Billy's set via her mobile phone and I hated her. 
Billy had a full band but ampless guitars which sounded shit. I now hate modelling set ups. 
But Billy himself was great  

PolarityMan

We use backing tracks but sitll have most stuff live...if anyone can explain to me how to amke the noises at  2:40ish then id happily play it live

https://prionson.bandcamp.com/track/half-human-howard

Danny1969

PolarityMan said:

We use backing tracks but sitll have most stuff live...if anyone can explain to me how to amke the noises at  2:40ish then id happily play it live

https://prionson.bandcamp.com/track/half-human-howard

A Roland SPD is great for triggering stuff like that … we use one to trigger sound effects like gun cocking and weird ambient stuff .. although it’s not something anyone is actually playing live  the fact that Drummer can hit it as and when he wants means you’re not locked in to a rigid format of the song. 

p90fool

PolarityMan said:

We use backing tracks but sitll have most stuff live...if anyone can explain to me how to amke the noises at  2:40ish then id happily play it live

https://prionson.bandcamp.com/track/half-human-howard

Pay Half Human Howard properly so he turns up for the gig?

Rkphilpot

bloodandtears said:

We are a 3 piece, bass/vox, gtr/vox & drum/vox.

80% of our set is live, however we have maybe 6 songs that are click track guided with synth/strings/piano where applicable... think Journey, final Countdown, jump.

We also employ some samples triggered during songs akin to Rush..

Is it a crime? 

We are exactly the same setup and use backing tracks for Brass, Keys and sample triggers. We spend hours pre recording them and mixing them and work really hard on them.

If its ok for the bands we love like, Prodigy, Enter Shikari, Biffy Clyro to use them then why cant we?

We personally feel that putting on a good show and having fun, enjoying what were doing is more important that the purist ego.

bloodandtears

Rkphilpot said:

bloodandtears said:

We are a 3 piece, bass/vox, gtr/vox & drum/vox.

80% of our set is live, however we have maybe 6 songs that are click track guided with synth/strings/piano where applicable... think Journey, final Countdown, jump.

We also employ some samples triggered during songs akin to Rush..

Is it a crime? 

We are exactly the same setup and use backing tracks for Brass, Keys and sample triggers. We spend hours pre recording them and mixing them and work really hard on them.

If its ok for the bands we love like, Prodigy, Enter Shikari, Biffy Clyro to use them then why cant we?

We personally feel that putting on a good show and having fun, enjoying what were doing is more important that the purist ego.

my thoughts exactly...

I am yet to have a punter criticise the lack of keyboard player.. they are more in awe at how the tech is used...