Back tracks are prepared ahead of a live show and they're made by recording whatever instruments you like to make a tasty mix but you leave out the parts you will do live. For my purposes, it's often good to make tracks with organ, bass, and drums. Those get mixed down to a single stereo track and then I can call it for a show and play the guitar live with that backup.
Some say that's not live and you will burn in eternal hellfire for doing it. Amazing how many tour guides one can find for hell when no-one has ever seen the place.
So I wouldn't worry too much about burning in hell for it ... but ... there are better reasons for thinking twice about using tracks, as in reasons which actually matter to the performance. How you deal with your immortal soul is your own problem.
The peril in using the back tracks is the loss of 'liveness' and an inevitable progression which will result in your spending the rest of your miserable life as an amphibian.
The advantage of the back tracks is it makes you sound just as cool as you ever wanted to be as now your Pepsi is all full of bubbles. The parts are as clean as you can play them. They're mixed just right and your band is ready for some whoop-ass.
Except the back track will be exactly the same as the last time you used it. Maybe that's not a killer if you go full maniac over the top of it but there is a huge potential for the same ol', same ol' even if it's your own same ol', same ol' otherwise.
After about nine years of this and hundreds of online gigs, I can tell you for sure I have no idea of the right answer as there isn't one. It's almost always a good idea to keep things varying or your audience won't come back so likely your best move if you're really burning to use same tracks is that you do it but keep level about it. You run a big risk of being a CD if you do your whole set with tracks.
(Ed: CD?)
Round, plastic thing. Dorks cut them up and make desk fans out of them. Prevalent in the early 21st Century.
So ... unless you can bring a whole lot of 'live' to your back tracks, good chance they will eat you. Some performers are good at it but beware of the risk.
For my own set, I'm working up some back tracks now. The reason is my looper is seriously sick. I really don't like using back tracks but they do make for a set which hops and hops fast. You know how it goes, tho, as recording tracks couldn't be less live if there were coffins in the studio. The Looper Dilemma is its own article as there's no good answer but that's the reason for getting interested again in tracks whereas otherwise I would not use them.
Some say that's not live and you will burn in eternal hellfire for doing it. Amazing how many tour guides one can find for hell when no-one has ever seen the place.
So I wouldn't worry too much about burning in hell for it ... but ... there are better reasons for thinking twice about using tracks, as in reasons which actually matter to the performance. How you deal with your immortal soul is your own problem.
The peril in using the back tracks is the loss of 'liveness' and an inevitable progression which will result in your spending the rest of your miserable life as an amphibian.
The advantage of the back tracks is it makes you sound just as cool as you ever wanted to be as now your Pepsi is all full of bubbles. The parts are as clean as you can play them. They're mixed just right and your band is ready for some whoop-ass.
Except the back track will be exactly the same as the last time you used it. Maybe that's not a killer if you go full maniac over the top of it but there is a huge potential for the same ol', same ol' even if it's your own same ol', same ol' otherwise.
After about nine years of this and hundreds of online gigs, I can tell you for sure I have no idea of the right answer as there isn't one. It's almost always a good idea to keep things varying or your audience won't come back so likely your best move if you're really burning to use same tracks is that you do it but keep level about it. You run a big risk of being a CD if you do your whole set with tracks.
(Ed: CD?)
Round, plastic thing. Dorks cut them up and make desk fans out of them. Prevalent in the early 21st Century.
So ... unless you can bring a whole lot of 'live' to your back tracks, good chance they will eat you. Some performers are good at it but beware of the risk.
For my own set, I'm working up some back tracks now. The reason is my looper is seriously sick. I really don't like using back tracks but they do make for a set which hops and hops fast. You know how it goes, tho, as recording tracks couldn't be less live if there were coffins in the studio. The Looper Dilemma is its own article as there's no good answer but that's the reason for getting interested again in tracks whereas otherwise I would not use them.
No comments:
Post a Comment