# Playing to a Click Live



## jamsea

Just wondering if anyone has any experience doing this. I'm really trying to push this for my band but my drummer and other guitarist are worried it will take away from the "live feel". We have orchestra arrangements on our upcoming CD so I'd love to be able to incorporate them live.

I'm just not sure how we'd go about doing it. Anyone have experience doing this? What kind of setups do you use? Also, we messed around with a click to record some rough preproduction demos but our drummer had a really hard time hearing the click through the headphones so we had to amplify it to the max. Any work around for that?


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## Albionic

we use orchestra sounds on a backing track we use a minidisk although we may switch to an ipod at some point we put instruments on the left track and click on the right. i don't see how u can do what you want without a click.
a lot of drummers don't seem to like using click but it may make it feel more live to him if you mix the rest of the band into the headphones as well


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## armanikane

Another way (same principle) to do this is to run tracks out of a multi-out firewire interface hooked up to a laptop...send click to one set of outputs to the drummer and send the samples (in stereo) from another set of outputs to Di boxes hooked into the FOH...


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## noob_pwn

playing to a click live has been one of the best decisions my band has made. Doesn't take away any "live feel" it just makes you ridiculously tight

We just use an ipod + in ears for our drummer and that's it


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## Albionic

a drummer needs to be comfortable with clicks for recording anyway.
we had to fire a drummer cos she she couldnt follow the click we were finnishing the song about 20 secs before the backing track


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## Metalus

What other ways are there for playing to a click plus having live samples/backing tracks?


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## Benzesp

I used a dat player back in the day. its stereo out so one side went to the drummer as a click\cue track, the other side went to the house or practice room PA for sampes keys etc. Was time consuming to deconstruct the recording sessions and pan everything correctly but it always worked in any situation. The drummer had control of the dat and would start and stop it live between songs.


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## Metalus

Sorry for necrobumping, but do any of you guys run the click tracks through the monitors for the rest of the band to hear (Guitarists and bassists mostly, obviously not vocalists)?

Or is the drummer the only one who hears the click?


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## ZXIIIT

Metalus said:


> Sorry for necrobumping, but do any of you guys run the click tracks through the monitors for the rest of the band to hear (Guitarists and bassists mostly, obviously not vocalists)?
> 
> Or is the drummer the only one who hears the click?



Drummer only so the rest of the band can follow his (correct) tempo


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## Ckackley

Metalus said:


> Sorry for necrobumping, but do any of you guys run the click tracks through the monitors for the rest of the band to hear (Guitarists and bassists mostly, obviously not vocalists)?
> 
> Or is the drummer the only one who hears the click?



I would be curious as to a "whole band" approach as my band has a bunch of songs that start with an instrument or vocals and the drums don't come in for a while.


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## noob_pwn

Ckackley said:


> I would be curious as to a "whole band" approach as my band has a bunch of songs that start with an instrument or vocals and the drums don't come in for a while.



A friend's prog-rock band does this.
They have one guitarist but many layers which are played off a backing track through f.o.h

They run an ipod with a click and backing track split hard left/hard right.
The right goes to front of house.
The left goes to a mixer, at the mixer is split into 4 signals, one for each member, this is blended with a send from front of house for monitoring and sent to a wireless transmitter for each member's in ear monitors.

The result - they all play to a click with their own tailored blend of click to monitoring. They also don't need any on-stage monitoring as a result which is great for shitty venues.


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## ZXIIIT

Ckackley said:


> I would be curious as to a "whole band" approach as my band has a bunch of songs that start with an instrument or vocals and the drums don't come in for a while.



Have a click "intro" that the drummer will count outloud with the hihat letting whatever band member know his cue is up, we did that when we had a drummer (a whole one practice)


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## TimSE

My band use click tracks

There are 2 ways of doing it:
Laptops / Interface
or my way of IPOD !

Laptop is the more well known and used way. its simply:
Laptop + Interface. Click track going to drummer and samples and audio/music going to front of house (PA)
you arrange it in your DAW (Cubase, protools, logic etc) So both the tracks are linked in time and with the interface send the click track through 1 output and the FOH music track to another. Click to your drummers IN EAR MONITORS (This will make it easier for him to hear) and the music track to the soundesk.

IPOD WAY:
this is how i do it and it works and is MUCH more reliable and easier IMO.
do the same with a click track and an audio/music track in your DAW. 
pan 100% Left Click and 100% right Music. 
Export this as an audio file.
Put it on your ipod and using a splitter cable (Sterio mini jack > mono left and mono right jacks) your drummer plugs his headphones into the left/click channel and the desk gets the Right/Music.

I find this MUCH more reliable because your ipod wont fuck up as laptops/harddrives can do in a gig setting. Plus the drummer can control which song plays.
I like to put 2 min of silence at the end of each songs backing track so that the drummer has plenty of time to get the to ipod after the song has finished. If you put it in order for the set then all he needs to do is skip the ipod to start the next track  
Your FOH backing track will be MONO but i personally think this is better as with sterio, only the middle of the crowd get the right sound. this way everyone everywhere hears it correctly.

Hope this helps!


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## stryker1800

I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere on here that Porcupine Tree use click tracks live for the whole band.


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## Varcolac

stryker1800 said:


> I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere on here that Porcupine Tree use click tracks live for the whole band.





noob_pwn said:


> A friend's prog-rock band does this.
> They have one guitarist but many layers which are played off a backing track through f.o.h
> 
> They run an ipod with a click and backing track split hard left/hard right.
> The right goes to front of house.
> The left goes to a mixer, at the mixer is split into 4 signals, one for each member, this is blended with a send from front of house for monitoring and sent to a wireless transmitter for each member's in ear monitors.
> 
> The result - they all play to a click with their own tailored blend of click to monitoring. They also don't need any on-stage monitoring as a result which is great for shitty venues.



Porcupine tree use this method. They go one step further though: everyone gets a click so the percussionless sections are dead in time, but Gavin Harrison's click track has his own voice on it, reminding him when the changes are coming up. So it'd be "CLICK click click click click click click CLICK cl-Chorus in three, two, one- CLICK click click click CLICK click click click" He claims it lets him concentrate on improvising and being so deep in the pocket that a Chilean mining company are starting to dig rescue tunnels.

(bonus points if you can figure out what Porcupine Tree song I'm imagining the click track to.  )


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## fuzzboy

I'm gonna guess Time Flies


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## yingmin

My whole band plays to a click. We use a Kurzweil K2500R synth module with MIDI tracks loaded in for samples, keyboards and the click. The keys and samples go to the PA system, the click goes to a headphone mixer, which also gets a feed from the PA system. I control the synth with my G System.


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## eaeolian

TimSE said:


> IPOD WAY:
> this is how i do it and it works and is MUCH more reliable and easier IMO.
> do the same with a click track and an audio/music track in your DAW.
> pan 100% Left Click and 100% right Music.
> Export this as an audio file.
> Put it on your ipod and using a splitter cable (Sterio mini jack > mono left and mono right jacks) your drummer plugs his headphones into the left/click channel and the desk gets the Right/Music.
> 
> I find this MUCH more reliable because your ipod wont fuck up as laptops/harddrives can do in a gig setting. Plus the drummer can control which song plays.
> I like to put 2 min of silence at the end of each songs backing track so that the drummer has plenty of time to get the to ipod after the song has finished. If you put it in order for the set then all he needs to do is skip the ipod to start the next track
> Your FOH backing track will be MONO but i personally think this is better as with sterio, only the middle of the crowd get the right sound. this way everyone everywhere hears it correctly.



Same thing we do, though we haven't actually used any backing tracks live yet. We've been using the clicks live for several years now, with no issues.


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## TimTomTum

So that means, no cool stereo glitchty L to R effects? hm but definetly great idea.


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## eaeolian

TimTomTum said:


> So that means, no cool stereo glitchty L to R effects? hm but definetly great idea.



How many live shows do you honestly think that would work at, anyway?


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## DVRP

For my current band were looking at having just our drummer have a click so we can run backing tracks. I think the laptop way is what I personally want to do (looks more professional imo). So could I run a bounced version of a track with just synth on my Daw with the metronome panned 100% left and the synth 100% right? Could someone link me the adapter id need for for the headphone jack on my laptop? I have no idea which to get.


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## TimTomTum

eaeolian said:


> How many live shows do you honestly think that would work at, anyway?


You´re right. Forgive me, in fact your completely right. For the most venues it would not.


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## Metalus

DVRP said:


> For my current band were looking at having just our drummer have a click so we can run backing tracks. I think the laptop way is what I personally want to do (looks more professional imo). So could I run a bounced version of a track with just synth on my Daw with the metronome panned 100% left and the synth 100% right? Could someone link me the adapter id need for for the headphone jack on my laptop? I have no idea which to get.



+1 on this

Can anyone post a link? I just did a search but im not sure which one is the adapter that Tim is talking about


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## Mattman

iPod seems to be easy and cheap solution. But what about the quality of sound? AFAIR it can play mp3 files only, which might be OK for a crappy pub. But what if the sound system is good?


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## Winspear

Mattman said:


> iPod seems to be easy and cheap solution. But what about the quality of sound? AFAIR it can play mp3 files only, which might be OK for a crappy pub. But what if the sound system is good?



I don't know anything about iPods and their formatting, but I'd imagine that even in a good venue it would be a negligible issue, much like the stereo vs. mono point above. If they can only play Mp3, 320kbps is barely different (in my opinion) anyway, even under proper listenting conditions.


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## eaeolian

EtherealEntity said:


> I don't know anything about iPods and their formatting, but I'd imagine that even in a good venue it would be a negligible issue, much like the stereo vs. mono point above. If they can only play Mp3, 320kbps is barely different (in my opinion) anyway, even under proper listenting conditions.



You could use AAC, for that matter, but 320K mp3s are going to be fine.


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## Mattman

I will have to check that AAC then. I used to play live with different samplers/stuff but iPod seems to be the most fail proof solution. Doesn't look pro though but who cares anyway


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## Varcolac

Mattman said:


> I will have to check that AAC then. I used to play live with different samplers/stuff but iPod seems to be the most fail proof solution. Doesn't look pro though but who cares anyway



It's going to be behind the drum kit (assuming you have one click for the drummer and they're controlling when the songs start and finish). Nobody's going to see if it looks "pro" or not. It'll _sound_ pro, and that's really all that matters.


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## MesaENGR412

We just started using clicks, have cymbal swells, bass drops (808's) and some other things programmed to go to FOH, while click goes to the drummer. It makes things run so much smoother, and it makes it sound a lot more full when the cd's effects can be reproduced live. It has really helped our live performance, and it allows us to be able to focus more on stage presence and showmanship and a lot less on what tempo the drummer is playing at any given time, because it will always be in line with the click. Great decision, and you don't loose the "live" feel. To me, it just makes the live sound more solid. We use an ipod connected to a Behringer Eurodesk mixer (small...maybe 4 channel?) and split the signal like everyone else has mentioned before. It works very well. 

ALSO, having the bass drops preprogrammed and not triggered by the drummer keeps him from being "tempted" to over do it......like trying to put 10 bass drops in a song or breakdown...which is not only redundant, it's just annoying  ....but that's another matter 

-AJH


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## ZXIIIT

Varcolac said:


> It's going to be behind the drum kit (assuming you have one click for the drummer and they're controlling when the songs start and finish). Nobody's going to see if it looks "pro" or not. It'll _sound_ pro, and that's really all that matters.



Both times I saw Divine Heresy live, Dino pointed out at Tim cycling through his iPod to play the next song, everyone had a laugh about it and non one cared the intro's were through a iPod, so even pro bands do it, some you see, some you don't.

I would suggest getting an iPod with just your tracks (maybe a 2gb version) that way, just incase your iPod goes on a tantrum and plays a random song, it won't be another band  it happen to us during band practice (luckily) so I'm looking to get a replacement.


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## Mattman

And how do you split signal left right? Just standard mixer I presume?


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## signalgrey

Albionic said:


> a drummer needs to be comfortable with clicks for recording anyway.
> we had to fire a drummer cos she she couldnt follow the click we were finnishing the song about 20 secs before the backing track



that is one shitty drummer if you are 20 seconds off from each other. didnt you notice?


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## ZXIIIT

signalgrey said:


> that is one shitty drummer if you are 20 seconds off from each other. didnt you notice?



 20 seconds on stage feels like 2 minutes, that must of been really bad.


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## Scriff1985

We not only had a click in my old band, but we had all our drums and some of our keys on a backing track. We played Symphonic Black/Death Metal and couldn't find a drummer, and our orchestral/keyboard parts were extremely complex so we setup backing tracks with all the percussion, sub drops etc and the basic keys parts, and our keys player played them through an MP3 player on his Keyboard. 

The advantage of this was as people have said, we were amazingly tight on stage, it was also far easier for the sound man to get a good mix on stage cus we didn't have to compete with a live drummer on stage, but that's a different point altogether


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## Konfyouzd

Forgive my ignorance, everyone... But if you have a drummer why would you need a click as well?


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## Winspear

Konfyouzd said:


> Forgive my ignorance, everyone... But if you have a drummer why would you need a click as well?



1) Keeps the drummer in time so songs are consistant and you don't end up playing faster and sloppy, which can happen live easily.

2) If you have gaps with just a guitar riff, the drummer might not hear it clearly in a live situation and come back in on time.

3) Backing tracks. If you have backing tracks with synths or overdubs you need a click because you will never be the exact same tempo and stay in sync otherwise.


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## Konfyouzd

I gotcha... Maybe Lars Ulrich needs that too. Now... When you say playing to a click I'm assuming you meana click that only the band can hear, then? Sorry for so many ?s... The live performance world is one with which I'm not at all familiar.


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## Winspear

Konfyouzd said:


> I gotcha... Maybe Lars Ulrich needs that too. Now... When you say playing to a click I'm assuming you meana click that only the band can hear, then? Sorry for so many ?s... The live performance world is one with which I'm not at all familiar.



Yes, one that only the band can hear.
Sometimes it will just go to the drummers monitor. However, if you have gap with just guitar, the click must go to the guitarists monitor too too, else he will go out of sync (unless the drummer carrys on a hihat count or something, which may not be desirable).


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## Konfyouzd

Oh ok thanks for clearing that up. And now that you have, I finally have an opinion on the topic. 

Your drummer is silly to not want to do this if only the band is aware of the click.


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## synrgy

Our drummer in Set By Satellite (Same guy that used to play drums for Haunted Shores under the original lineup) played to a click. He was a beast. Best drummer I've ever had the pleasure of jamming with, and the music was always better with the click than it was without it.

As a bonus, if one's drummer can play to a click well, it makes recording SO MUCH easier, *especially* on the post-production end of things.


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## Albionic

signalgrey said:


> that is one shitty drummer if you are 20 seconds off from each other. didnt you notice?



Yeah was a really shitty drummer. fired her before we did any gigs this was in the rehearsal room we use. couldn't hear the track through the shitty pa just notices it was still goin after we finnished the songs. I don't think she even bothered to listen to the click


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## Metalus

Sorry for bumping but I've been having an issue with setting up click tracks with backing tracks.

I upload everything into Pro Tools, pan the click 100% right, backing tracks 100% left and bounce everything as a stereo interleaved file. It then ends up on my desktop. The moment I put it into iTunes to put it onto my ipod to listen to it, I hear the click coming out on the right side. Even if i drag and drop the file directly into the iPod, it still makes the click come out on the right side. Any solution for this? I need the click to only come out on the left and the backing tracks on the right


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## Goatfork

Metalus said:


> I upload everything into Pro Tools, *pan the click 100% right*, backing tracks 100% left





> I hear the click coming out on the right side





> it still makes the click come out on the right side. Any solution for this?



Try taking the click off the right side if you don't want to hear it there, bro.


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## Winspear

TheGhunther said:


> Try taking the click off the right side if you don't want to hear it there, bro.





Yeah, I'm guessing that was a typo.
So you're hearing the click from the sid eyou don't want it on *too*? Not *just* that side? What about the music, is that staying on it's own side? 

I just tried this in ProTools and the bounced file was fine. However, I don't have an iPod to try it on. You make it sound as if it's ok on your computer but messes up on the iPod? 

That's odd. I really can't understand how that would happen.

I don't know about wiring, but could a faulty headphone jack (either the iPod or headphones) be the issue? Can anyone suggest a song with panning to try it on too?


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## Metalus

Yeah it was a typo 

This is what happens after I bounce the file from Pro Tools onto my desktop, everything is fine. The click is 100% left, the backing tracks are 100% right.

The moment I drag and drop it onto my iPod (using iTunes) the click begins to come out the right as well as the left. Not as loud, but it is clearly there. Ive tried opening the file in iTunes and putting it in my library and then dragging it onto my iPod but it still does the same thing. I heard it has to do with the way iTunes sums up and converts their files or something. It seems that iTunes is whats screwing up the panning. Its driving me crazy


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## Metalus

Anyone?


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## Winspear

I just made a file with 100% L R panning, tested before and after bringing into iTunes. Mine is fine 
Maybe check your import settings, I know there's something on there about mono/stereo, though it doesn't sound like yours is in mono.


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## Metalus

What should i change about the import settings? There are 3 different things to change. do i just change the channels from stereo to mono?


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## Winspear

Metalus said:


> What should i change about the import settings? There are 3 different things to change. do i just change the channels from stereo to mono?



No. I meant you may want to check but I can't see what the problem is there. You want it to be stereo and it already must be, as you still have panning in your track, even if it is wrong.
I really have no idea what the problem is here...Googling around seems to give the opinion that iTunes 'messes' with audio, but doesn't specify about panning. And I got mine to work just fine...

Can you not get the music on the iPod without iTunes, like a normal MP3 player? (Don't know anything about iPods).

Note that I'm using iTunes 9 because 10 couldn't use the nice black skin I have  Maybe try download 9 and see if works on there.


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## Metalus

There is no stable software out there that allows you to drag and drop music onto the iPod without iTunes. Ive tried to drag and drop it onto the iPod (while still using iTunes) without going through the iTunes library but it still puts the audio on the right.

It definitely has something to do with iTunes because when I audition the file on the desktop, it sounds fine. everything thats on the left remains on the left. It is so irritating


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## Mattman

Well there is SharePod. Kind of similar to iTunes but user friendly and not so annoying. No drag and drop feature though.

Metalus, I think I know what the problem might be. I've tried iPod and couple of different mp3 players - same thing. Click leaks to other channel but it looks like it's because of a cable. Tried with headphones and is absolutely fine. Cable sux (although it's good quality). So maybe iPod+mixer will solve the problem?


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## ZXIIIT

Mattman said:


> Well there is SharePod. Kind of similar to iTunes but user friendly and not so annoying. No drag and drop feature though.
> 
> Metalus, I think I know what the problem might be. I've tried iPod and couple of different mp3 players - same thing. Click leaks to other channel but it looks like it's because of a cable. Tried with headphones and is absolutely fine. Cable sux (although it's good quality). So maybe iPod+mixer will solve the problem?



Are you using a mono cable?


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## Metalus

Mattman said:


> Well there is SharePod. Kind of similar to iTunes but user friendly and not so annoying. No drag and drop feature though.
> 
> Metalus, I think I know what the problem might be. I've tried iPod and couple of different mp3 players - same thing. Click leaks to other channel but it looks like it's because of a cable. Tried with headphones and is absolutely fine. Cable sux (although it's good quality). So maybe iPod+mixer will solve the problem?



I was using the standard ipod headphones listening through my mbox's headphone input. You think its mainly the cable thats allowing the bleed?

When you say ipod+mixer do u mean connecting the ipod to the mixer and splitting the left signal to the drummer and the right one to FOH?



ZOMB13 said:


> Are you using a mono cable?



I was using standard ipod headphones. I guess i should give it a shot with a splitter cable through a PA to see if it bleeds still?


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## Winspear

^ Could be the headphones I guess. It probably wouldn't be noticable on other songs. 
Trying it with some minijack speakers or another pair of headphones should be sufficient though right? Unless you have easy access to a splitter cable and PA.


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## Mattman

I've tested it with 2 different good quality stereo cables and it was bleeding, but the same file on headphones or PC was absolutely fine. Cables itself seem to be OK. That's why I think mixer might be the right thing.


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## ZXIIIT

Mattman said:


> I've tested it with 2 different good quality stereo cables and it was bleeding, but the same file on headphones or PC was absolutely fine. Cables itself seem to be OK. That's why I think mixer might be the right thing.



That's weird man, not sure how that is possible if it's being split L/R, we use a Zune and have no problem with our tracks.


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## Metalus

Could it be the way im bouncing it out of Pro Tools?

Im bouncing it as Stereo interleaved

Or would a splitter cable solve the problem?


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## Winspear

Stereo interleaved is correct.

Can you confirm the following:
-The file played in Windows Media Player or similar, from your documents, on any output (headphones, speakers, stereo cable) has correct panning.
-The file once uploaded and played in iTunes, has incorrect panning. And thus has incorrect panning at any point after iTunes.

If so, the problem is definately iTunes. You shouldn't need to get a mixer to sort this out, and unless it's urgent I'd urge to find the source of the problem rather than work around it. 
That said, I have no other ideas about what's going on here. Did you ever try iTunes 9? I can confirm it works for me on there.

Have you tried bringing the original file back into Protools, along with the iTunes file? That way you can see if it's actually iTunes changing the panning of the file or not. 
Make something new with one sound a few seconds after the other, alternating left and right, and see if when you bring them back in, the opposite channel is still clear.


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## Tom MAF

Heya, If anyone could give me a hand with basically doing a more complicated version of this that would be amazing 

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/li...n-cubase-live-tempo-sync-help-needed-2-a.html


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## SammyKillChambers

Bit of a necrobump here, but I'm desperately trying to sort this out. I'm having the exact same problem as Metalus was. I pan the click 100% left, and the backing track 100% right. Bounce as stereo interleaved, put on an iPod, take it to practice. At practice, I use a Y-splitter cable, with headphones in the L channel to take the click direct to our drummer, and then a cable in the R channel to take the backing track to the PA.

However, when we play the tracks on the iPod, the click can be heard coming out from the PA, even though the tracks are hard panned, and I am using a mono splitter. It's mega-fucking-frustrating.

So I guess, what I'm trying to say is: WAT DO?


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## Winspear

Oh hai Sammy. Does it happen upon playback elsewhere? Reimport the file to Protools and check each channel. 
Are you sure the cable is a stereo splitter cable and not a duplication one or whatever, that puts both L/R on either side on a stereo cable?


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## xCaptainx

Our drummer plays to a click. Everyone then follows him (he's our metronome) 

Easy setup, means I can run around on stage no problems. 

Everyone is D.I now which does make for a quiet stage, but unfortunately NZ isnt big enough to warrant spending a small fortune on In Ear Monitors for everyone else on stage (drummer uses cans/headphones) plus most of the venues in NZ arent big enough to warrant them anyway, you'd end up looking like a cock haha. 

But yeah, I love having our drummer play to a click track. It means I can practise at home with confidence also, many of our songs are pushing pretty crazy tempos and it would throw me off if we had to play them slightly slower.


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## Luke Acacia

My band Acacia Acacia- Brisbane Metal | Facebook just has our drummer throw some earphones into his phone with a metronome app running, puts the phone in a holder that attaches to his rack and it works brilliantly. When drums stop and its a person playing on their own which happens alot as we are symphonic metal, he just keeps time with the rim of his snare, kick or hi hat. Works a charm and we play really tight because of it.


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## MetalBuddah

Trying this out on Sunday but going the laptop route. My drummer was a little hesitant to doing it at first, but after we had a jam where I insisted that he try to play to a click....he absolutely loved it. It has tamed him so much but in a good way. He is a lot cleaner in his playing and it has helped his footwork a ton in our more groove oriented passages. Can't wait to try this out and see the look on people's faces when we have our massive wall of synths in our intro track but I just hope to God nothing bad happens, especially since this is VELA's first show under a new name and new lineup.

This thread really helped with getting everything situated, so thank you OP for starting this and thanks to everybody else who contributed


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## polarbeast666

Is there anything I should prepare before using these backing tracks live? I may be ghetto but I have everything (2nd guitars and effects) in audcaity as well as a click and have the click panned right and have a splitter cable and then go to FOH. The Splitter cable is just going into my laptops headphone output. So far its working totally fine. But I mean, is it really that simple? Seems to good to be true, has anyone had problems with adjusting the volumes on the backing tracks live to fit with the actual real bands volume levels? And what if the FOH board is far away? Need an exxxxtra long cable then?


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## polarbeast666

and if you went ipod to pa and plit the signals so the drummer couild control the click with the PA, where would the drummer plug his headphones into? Where one of the PA's speakers should go or just a channel on the PA?


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## MetalBuddah

polarbeast666 said:


> Is there anything I should prepare before using these backing tracks live? I may be ghetto but I have everything (2nd guitars and effects) in audcaity as well as a click and have the click panned right and have a splitter cable and then go to FOH. The Splitter cable is just going into my laptops headphone output. So far its working totally fine. But I mean, is it really that simple? Seems to good to be true, has anyone had problems with adjusting the volumes on the backing tracks live to fit with the actual real bands volume levels? And what if the FOH board is far away? Need an exxxxtra long cable then?



It is really that simple. Like for me it is just Laptop + DAW > Focusrite 8i6 > left output to drummer > right output to house. And if you are playing on a normal club setup, there should be audio snakes on the stage so there would be no need for super long cables and you would just have to make sure the sound guy has a DI box for you to use (which he should).


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## polarbeast666

MetalBuddah said:


> It is really that simple. Like for me it is just Laptop + DAW > Focusrite 8i6 > left output to drummer > right output to house. And if you are playing on a normal club setup, there should be audio snakes on the stage so there would be no need for super long cables and you would just have to make sure the sound guy has a DI box for you to use (which he should).


Awesome, well Iv been worrying myself a ton for no real reason then haha..so thankyou! I'm just worried about adjusting the backing tracks volumes to be loud enough to be heard with our actual band. Guess thats what sound check is for ha


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## MetalBuddah

polarbeast666 said:


> Awesome, well Iv been worrying myself a ton for no real reason then haha..so thankyou! I'm just worried about adjusting the backing tracks volumes to be loud enough to be heard with our actual band. Guess thats what sound check is for ha



Exactly! And that is one of the reasons I will be running from my DAW. I have all the tracks bounced as a split signal wav (so two files per song) and one is all click and one is samples/whatnot so I can control all that during sound check on the DAW.


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## polarbeast666

MetalBuddah said:


> Exactly! And that is one of the reasons I will be running from my DAW. I have all the tracks bounced as a split signal wav (so two files per song) and one is all click and one is samples/whatnot so I can control all that during sound check on the DAW.


ah awesome, that sounds like it would be pretty straightforward then. Dang Im major excited for my band to finnally play live now ha


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## MetalBuddah

^Good stuff man! I am on the same boat as you as far as excitement level right now. Can't wait to test the clicks out at band practice tonight and I can't wait to see the look on my drummer's face when he hears the secret messages I left him on his click track XD


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## polarbeast666

And wait, so I was thinking, what cable needs to go to FOH for the audience to hear the backing tracks? It doesnt need to be an XLR does it?


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## MetalBuddah

You can just run a quarter inch TRS cable from either the left or right output (depending on how you panned your tracks) into a DI box that goes to the house.


And my show went great with the click, if I might add. No problems whatsoever!


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## 3074326

Kind of off-topic, but I read the title as "Playing to a Chick Live" and had a good laugh about it.


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## polarbeast666

awesome dude! glad it went well for you. But so you absolutely NEED a DI box so you can go to that to DI and then XLR to the mixer? Also, everytime I pan the click a certain way in audacity it always bleeds through so the audience would be able to hear and I cant fix it...


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## MetalBuddah

polarbeast666 said:


> awesome dude! glad it went well for you. But so you absolutely NEED a DI box so you can go to that to DI and then XLR to the mixer? Also, everytime I pan the click a certain way in audacity it always bleeds through so the audience would be able to hear and I cant fix it...



Yeah, DI box is pretty necessary but most venues will have a bunch considering bassists tend to go DI a lot and it is necessary for keyboard players.

And for the bleed....I fixed that by bouncing as a split stereo wav file. So essentially you get two files, one for the left side of the spectrum and one for the right. Therefore, no bleed of the metronome into the sample channel. Makes it really handy since it gives you a little more control over the volume of the click and samples


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## polarbeast666

MetalBuddah said:


> Yeah, DI box is pretty necessary but most venues will have a bunch considering bassists tend to go DI a lot and it is necessary for keyboard players.
> 
> And for the bleed....I fixed that by bouncing as a split stereo wav file. So essentially you get two files, one for the left side of the spectrum and one for the right. Therefore, no bleed of the metronome into the sample channel. Makes it really handy since it gives you a little more control over the volume of the click and samples



okay sweet well the main venue here in wichita kansas is pretty nice so Im sure they have some DI boxes but ill check. And I fixed the click! thanks bra


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## Winspear

^ But how do you play two files at once?


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## polarbeast666

MetalBuddah said:


> Yeah, DI box is pretty necessary but most venues will have a bunch considering bassists tend to go DI a lot and it is necessary for keyboard players.
> 
> And for the bleed....I fixed that by bouncing as a split stereo wav file. So essentially you get two files, one for the left side of the spectrum and one for the right. Therefore, no bleed of the metronome into the sample channel. Makes it really handy since it gives you a little more control over the volume of the click and samples


what program did you use to make the split stereo wave? I cant seem to do it right in fl studio..


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## polarbeast666

also, my band played the backing tracks today through our PA and the intro is this lead type of part, and it was absolutely ear peaircing. Like...it hurt. But then when we played everything sounded fine. What all can I maybe do to ensure that the backing tracks wont hurt anyones ears live?


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## Flemmigan

polarbeast666 said:


> also, my band played the backing tracks today through our PA and the intro is this lead type of part, and it was absolutely ear peaircing. Like...it hurt. But then when we played everything sounded fine. What all can I maybe do to ensure that the backing tracks wont hurt anyones ears live?



All I can think of is have a sample that you can do a quick soundcheck with right before your set. As long as that sample sounds like a good volume, and its volume corresponds to the rest of the backing track, I'd imagine you should be good. Nothing sucks worse than getting to a part in a song and one part being ridiculous loud. So, make sure all your backing tracks are at a relatively steady volume.


I'm wondering about using a laptop for the click and backing tracks instead. For instance, imagine this:
MacBook Pro + DAW -> Profire 2626 -> set the different channels to different outs, have the click channel only go to an out for headphones for the drummer

Seems to me like this would work (let me know if it seems like it wouldn't). My reservation is with the laptop. I've heard lot of talk about stage vibrations being very detrimental to the hard drive and so on. A solid state drive is pretty far down on my shopping list right now, so I'm wondering, any ideas for stabilizing a laptop for a live setting?

Perhaps just a foam "stand" that facilitates ventilation, etc. to prevent overheating while cushioning the computer from vibrations. That definitely seems like it would prevent a lot of vibration, but would it be enough?

EDIT: I mean, check out this old school footage of TREOS (one of my favorite bands but I digress). Casey is using an ironing board for his laptop and FireWire interface for the backing tracks haha. If something that minimal can work, seems like a little more insulation would do the job as well?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC4b9Qu6Uao


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## D1nkum

My band (I Shall Devour) is about to start running a click track live with our string samples.. We've run it at practice and it is amazing. So much tighter, and you know where it's gonna come in.

Run it from a laptop, and pan the tracks left and right. Strings/Orchestrals/whatever samples on right, run to FOH, click on the left run to our drummers in ear.


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## MetalBuddah

D1nkum said:


> My band (I Shall Devour) is about to start running a click track live with our string samples.. We've run it at practice and it is amazing. So much tighter, and you know where it's gonna come in.
> 
> Run it from a laptop, and pan the tracks left and right. Strings/Orchestrals/whatever samples on right, run to FOH, click on the left run to our drummers in ear.



One you go click track, you never go back. It has improved my band's playing tremendously. Glad to hear it is working will for your band (which I will probably check out when I am off work )


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## LewisMembery

Any have a link to the type of cable needed? 

I bought what I thought was the correct splitter but the click ends up spilling either side, not sure if it is because I have a splitter that sounds the same signal to both outputs, but can't seem to find the correct cable anywhere???


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