# Live backing tracks & click help



## Ethmahoff (Mar 11, 2015)

So my band is gonna start to play shows here soon but we need to find the best way to run our backing tracks and have us all play to a click without breaking our bank. If anyone could suggest any ideas that would be fantastic.

Thanks


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## concertjunkie (Mar 11, 2015)

Ethmahoff said:


> So my band is gonna start to play shows here soon but we need to find the best way to run our backing tracks and have us all play to a click without breaking our bank. If anyone could suggest any ideas that would be fantastic.
> 
> Thanks



Do you have a laptop that you could use?

If so, you could grab a smaller SSD drive ($100>) and an interface (~$100ish) , you could have a click track and backing tracks running from it. If you are using an amp modeler with a midi IN (axe fx, pod hd 500x, etc) you can also program your patch changes from your DAW as well, so you don't have to even worry about changing to Clean/Lead/Rhythm channels, just play


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## ke7mix (Mar 12, 2015)

Before my band got a Macbook with Logic we ran our backing tracks out of an old Ipod, Pan your Click tracks 100% Left or right, then pan the Backing tracks 100% the other direction. We split the left/right signal with a stereo LR TRS cable. The Backing tracks go DI into the house, and the clicks go into a tiny 40$ 2 channel alto mixer. Which lets our drummer adjust the volume of the clicks in his in ears monitors.


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## eyeswide (Mar 12, 2015)

Ethmahoff said:


> So my band is gonna start to play shows here soon but we need to find the best way to run our backing tracks and have us all play to a click without breaking our bank. If anyone could suggest any ideas that would be fantastic.
> 
> Thanks



The best way? A laptop and interface. The totally acceptable/functional way? As said before, an iPod with your click on one side and your back tracks on the other.


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## Ethmahoff (Mar 13, 2015)

Thanks for the replies! With the ipod way could you have it to where four people had the click and not just the drummer?


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## ZeroS1gnol (Mar 14, 2015)

Ethmahoff said:


> to run our backing tracks and *have us all* play to a click without breaking our bank.



For this you are going to need wireless in ear systems, so prepare to actually break the bank if you want this...

If you're on a budget, settle for only having the drummer play to click and use the panned click/backing track method as others described with a small mixer.


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## TheWarAgainstTime (Mar 14, 2015)

Quoting myself from a similar thread:



TheWarAgainstTime said:


> My old band used to practice and play live with backing tracks, and we had a pretty cheap and simple way of doing it.
> 
> We used:
> -An iPod
> ...



Only the drummer will be playing to a click with this method, but it's definitely cost effective


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## ScurrilousNerd (Mar 16, 2017)

TheWarAgainstTime said:


> Quoting myself from a similar thread:
> 
> 
> 
> Only the drummer will be playing to a click with this method, but it's definitely cost effective



Hey man - I know this is a necro-bump at this point, but is there anyway to do this without a mixer? I have the cables you mentioned but when I plug in my drummer's headphones only sound comes out of the left headphone. Any ideas?

Thanks


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