# The Conclusive Live Samples/Backing Track Thread.



## _detox (Jun 16, 2010)

Hey all.

I've been noticing a pretty heavy increase in threads about how to go about using backing tracks/samples live lately. I figured maybe we could work together and compose a one-stop thread for all things backing tracks.

My band, The Science Of Sleep | Facebook, is heavily reliant on electronics. We've been using backing tracks for about a year now, and we're slowly making it more efficient and better sounding as well. For us, we decided to go with a Macbook running Logic Pro 8 and a Presonus Firebox for the interface. 

*METHOD 1: IPOD*​
This is the method I know the least about, but I'm pretty sure it is also the most simple. 
*Equipment Needed:*


iPod/iPhone/mp3 player of choice

2 Channel DI Box (recommended: Buy Behringer DI20 Ultra DI 2-Channel Active DI Box/Splitter | Direct Boxes | Musician's Friend)

Headphone amp (recommended: Buy Behringer MICROAMP HA400 Headphone Amp | Headphone Amplifiers | Musician's Friend)

Isolation headphones for your drummer (recommended: Buy Vic Firth SIH1 Isolation Headphones | Noise Canceling Headphones | Musician's Friend)

After you've acquired all of that, just go into your DAW of choice where the tracks you'll be using are located. Pan all the tracks to the LEFT and the click track to the RIGHT. (or the other way around, as long as both are panned 100% in opposite directions) 
I stole a diagram from Sevenstring.org - View Profile: Stephen, so please rep him for his work:






I'm not an expert on this method, so hopefully if you have questions people will chime in to help.

*METHOD 2: LAPTOP*​
I have the most experience with this method, but am by no means an expert. I believe that getting it setup isn't all that difficult, but getting your tracks to sound good in a live setting (all parts at the right volume, lead synths loud enough, kick drums punchy enough, bass drops boomy enough, etc.) is something that takes a LONG time to get right. 

*Equipment Needed:*

A trustworthy laptop (I would trust no less than 4GB of RAM) loaded with your DAW of choice.

An audio interface with multiple outputs. If you're on a Mac, Firewire or go home. (Shop Pro Audio, Computers & Peripherals, Audio Interfaces | Musician's Friend)

A DI box. (recommended: Buy Live Wire Solutions ADI Active DI Direct Box | Direct Boxes | Musician's Friend)

Isolation headphones for your drummer (recommended: Buy Vic Firth SIH1 Isolation Headphones | Noise Canceling Headphones | Musician's Friend)

After you've acquired everything, here comes the tricky part. Mixdown all of your backing tracks to one mp3/wav per song, trying to adjust volumes and EQ settings to make everything normalized. If you haven't done it already, you should know that in a live situation, your songs are 99% of the time going to be better if they're faster. With the adrenaline throughout the band, the normal tempo is going to feel like a ballad to everyone in your band. For my band, we usually up the BPM by about 5 for every song, but sometimes you might be better doing 3. It just depends on the song. 

Once your tracks are all nice and rendered, put them in a folder on the desktop of the laptop you will be using. It's just nice to have everything for your backing tracks easily accessible. 

Now to make the file for your live show. Open a clean project. Import each song onto a different track in the project. If there are 5 songs, you should have 5 tracks. Once your interface is connected, the DAW mixer should give you multiple options for your outputs. For this example, we're going to say Output 1 is what you're sending all of your tracks to, where they will go to the PA. You set all of your tracks to Output 1, and then set the click track to Output 2, which will be sent to your drummer's headphones. 

This is usually where people stop, but for my band, I've worked it out so that the drummer can have the click track AND the backing tracks. Create an aux channel in your project. Send all of your backing tracks to that channel, but disconnect the aux from the master and connect it to Output 2. Now your drummer should have a click track and the backing tracks, so there's really no excuse for him to fuck up. 

From here, just go in and map out your tempo changes throughout your project. Leave at least 2 bars between each songs for ringing out and to give your drummer time to stop the playback. My drummer likes to have 2 bars before each song to count in as well. 

Here's my terrible attempt at a diagram to explain this:





Now I may be completely incorrect and there's a more efficient way to do this, but I wanted to start this thread to get a central place to go for this kind of stuff. Maybe if we get enough good info in this thread we can get it stickied!

Hope I helped somehow.
Dylan


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## Meldville (Jun 18, 2010)

IMO, if you're using the laptop option, and you've got a sufficiently powerful laptop, why not just run the session file with the various samples/bass drops/whatever loaded, so that if the soundguy says "bring your samples up," you don't have to say "can't do that." I recall the drummer for Abigail Williams saying they used Ableton Live on a laptop by his kit for this purpose.


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## _detox (Jun 18, 2010)

That would definitely be a good option. My band used to do this actually. 

The only cons I would see to that situation are:
1) Regardless of how powerful the laptop is, a session file is likely to have a lot going on, putting stress on the computer. You definitely don't want your laptop to be prone to lagging, which would get the entire band off-time, or crashing.
2) If this is the original session file, your BPM will be the same as the studio session (assuming you're using audio files in the project, and not just MIDI data and VSTs), which will feel incredibly slow in a live situation.

I think I'm confused about the sound guy situation. If he asked that, you could just playback a section of your set with a lot going on and you should be good.


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## Meldville (Jun 21, 2010)

Well, that was mostly for folks who would have multiple instruments/samples/whatever going on. If all you have are samples, then it wouldn't matter. But if you have actual instruments that are prerecorded, different sound guys at different venues with different boards/setups may well need different levels from the respective tracks. If they are already mixed down into a waveform or mp3, that's not doable, whereas having a session file open wherein volume could be adjusted on each track would facilitate that.


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## _detox (Jun 21, 2010)

This is entirely true. A lot of times it's just out of necessity to mixdown the tracks instead of just running the session.

I think it's just a trial and error situation. Sky Eats Airplane have been at it for a while, and they seem to get killer sound on their tracks in most places that they play.


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