# IPad Mini to play live backing tracks?



## BeyondDan (Jan 12, 2014)

Hey guys! I'm thinking about getting an iPad mini with some DAW (Cubasis for example) to play our backing tracks in a live situation, mainly synths, some guitar parts and the click for the drummer. 

Is it a good idea?
Someone tried it?


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## Wings of Obsidian (Jan 12, 2014)

I've been considering this as well. (More portable than my laptop.) Didn't know they had DAWs for iPads though.


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## BeyondDan (Jan 12, 2014)

Yes you can check on that site, there is a bunch like this version of Cubase called Cubasis!

iPad DAWs Overview &#8211; iPad Music


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## Hemorrhage (Jan 14, 2014)

Sounds quite awesome if you need the ability to tweak them at live situation or if you need stereo. We've have made it really simple for us and we just use iphone with premixed tracks. Been super-reliable.


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## BeyondDan (Jan 14, 2014)

Hemorrhage said:


> Sounds quite awesome if you need the ability to tweak them at live situation or if you need stereo. We've have made it really simple for us and we just use iphone with premixed tracks. Been super-reliable.



Yeah i already tought doing this...but i need to route the click to the drummer only and the rest of the backing tracks to the PA...


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## TheWarAgainstTime (Jan 14, 2014)

BeyondDan said:


> Yeah i already tought doing this...but i need to route the click to the drummer only and the rest of the backing tracks to the PA...



You can do this from your phone pretty easily. Just pan all of the backing tracks to 100% right and the click to 100% left on the phone/iPod/device, and send the backing track side to the PA. It won't be a stereo mix, but the soundman can put it in the center at least, which is fine since most people won't notice the difference.


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## scottro202 (Jan 15, 2014)

TheWarAgainstTime said:


> You can do this from your phone pretty easily. Just pan all of the backing tracks to 100% right and the click to 100% left on the phone/iPod/device, and send the backing track side to the PA. It won't be a stereo mix, but the soundman can put it in the center at least, which is fine since most people won't notice the difference.



Assuming the venue you're playing at even will do a stereo mix live, in a lot of rooms I'd imagine they're just running mono in the PA.


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## Hemorrhage (Jan 15, 2014)

TheWarAgainstTime said:


> You can do this from your phone pretty easily. Just pan all of the backing tracks to 100% right and the click to 100% left on the phone/iPod/device, and send the backing track side to the PA. It won't be a stereo mix, but the soundman can put it in the center at least, which is fine since most people won't notice the difference.





scottro202 said:


> Assuming the venue you're playing at even will do a stereo mix live, in a lot of rooms I'd imagine they're just running mono in the PA.



These two. We just pan click max left and tracks max right, send the right through a DI to the mixer and the drummer has his own tiny mixer where the left goes in so he can balance the click for himself. Even tho we have pretty large (take in moderation) orchestras, mono has been just fine this far. Super simple method and reliable. If you use a phone tho, remember to put it in a flight mode to cut any possible disturbances. We've also always taken off all screensavers, warning sounds the device might make and other functions that would make changing the track difficult. We've had all the tracks as separate albums on the library so it does not automatically start the next track after previous is finished.


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## BeyondDan (Jan 15, 2014)

Thanks guys! I assume this would works fine. Do you guys use mp3 for your backing tracks or .wav ? I'm worried to have as better sound quality as possible.


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## Itchyman (Jan 15, 2014)

With that cirrus logic DAC, and no line out on the new apple devices, I wouldn't even use them to listen to music via headphones. If you insist on using it, I wouldn't bother with WAV. The files are simply too large. I would use ALAC instead - it's Apples Lossless Audio Codec (basically FLAC but exclusively apple and not as good).


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## Hemorrhage (Jan 16, 2014)

BeyondDan said:


> Thanks guys! I assume this would works fine. Do you guys use mp3 for your backing tracks or .wav ? I'm worried to have as better sound quality as possible.



We just use mp3. Yes, wav would have a better quality but that quality is worthless if the venues you play at have bad or even mediocre PA systems. Also,  at live situation an average listener would not even notice the difference of mp3 and wav so I feel that its useless to make it harder than it needs to be for the sake of being hi-fi. Feel free to disagree. You can always try that at rehearsals, play with both mp3 and wav and see if even you hear an distinct difference.


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## BeyondDan (Jan 16, 2014)

Hemorrhage said:


> We just use mp3. Yes, wav would have a better quality but that quality is worthless if the venues you play at have bad or even mediocre PA systems. Also,  at live situation an average listener would not even notice the difference of mp3 and wav so I feel that its useless to make it harder than it needs to be for the sake of being hi-fi. Feel free to disagree. You can always try that at rehearsals, play with both mp3 and wav and see if even you hear an distinct difference.



Thanks, i'll try for sure!


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