# Backing Tracks: Ghost Guitars



## Matyrker (Aug 19, 2015)

Hey guys, here with yet another backing track question.

So, my band is a two guitar player band. A lot of our music is written for two players (harmonies and sush). However, my other guitar player will be on tour with another band for a few months and will be missing a few shows of ours. 

MY PLAN was to back in track a few harmonies of his. Would take a but of tweaking for volumes and such but backing tracks always do anyways. This is super easy to do and I was under the impression that many bands do this, (Veil, Within the Ruins)

MY BAND MATE wants to actually ghost his parts for the ENTIRE song. This means for every song, having another guitar track playing behind me for the entire song. He also wants us to bring his rig and run the ghost guitar backing track through its own 3rd output through an amp/cab. 

Now, I feel that part two here is WAY more work and mostly unnecessary. I also feel that backing an entire instrument is a little cheap and unethical. I mean, besides harmonies there is honestly no reason for us to ghost a musician. (Also a little salty about Born of Osiris, they totally abuse backing tracks.)

Anyways, I would like as much input as possible. Trying to figure out the right way to go. I should add that I want our performances to be a genuine as possible. 

Thanks guys!

M


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## concertjunkie (Aug 19, 2015)

Matyrker said:


> Hey guys, here with yet another backing track question.
> 
> So, my band is a two guitar player band. A lot of our music is written for two players (harmonies and sush). However, my other guitar player will be on tour with another band for a few months and will be missing a few shows of ours.
> 
> ...



There is a local metal band that does the second method: they have a second guitar cab (being powered by a power amp) that is mic'd on stage, and they use it for second guitar parts. One guitarist wrote two parts, no need for an extra member. That seems to work well for them. I would imagine you could do either method, but I couldn't tell you why one was better (other than less equipment to lug around).

Maybe for extra stage monitoring?


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## concertjunkie (Aug 19, 2015)

In that bands case, I see what you mean about cheap, but in the end, you are still playing your parts, just working with a unique scenario where the other member isnt present. If my band was on tour and either guitar or bass was unable to play a show or two, then with the consensus of the band, I would be more than happy to run their parts through the FOH and play out. And if we decided to remove a guitarist and couldnt find another quite yet, then I feel this would be a sufficient option (ie: just dont be a dick and play lazily because you use backing tracks)


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## GunpointMetal (Aug 20, 2015)

The only reason to do a DI through an amp is to get it closer to a real live sound. If you were backing the entire second guitar, I could understand that approach, but if you're just going to do harmonies, I don't see a need for a whole separate rig and all the headaches associated with it.


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## Matyrker (Aug 21, 2015)

GunpointMetal said:


> The only reason to do a DI through an amp is to get it closer to a real live sound. If you were backing the entire second guitar, I could understand that approach, but if you're just going to do harmonies, I don't see a need for a whole separate rig and all the headaches associated with it.



So I guess my question is: What is the point of doing an entire second guitar? I believe only harmonies are necessary but my bandmate wants the entire thing tracked.


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## concertjunkie (Aug 21, 2015)

Matyrker said:


> So I guess my question is: What is the point of doing an entire second guitar? I believe only harmonies are necessary but my bandmate wants the entire thing tracked.



I'm guessing that having the entire second guitar will help fill the sound out more, instead of just one guitar and then the occasional harmony. But this is just a guess, that is what makes most sense to me.


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## Matyrker (Aug 22, 2015)

concertjunkie said:


> I'm guessing that having the entire second guitar will help fill the sound out more, instead of just one guitar and then the occasional harmony. But this is just a guess, that is what makes most sense to me.



Thanks for your input!


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## noUser01 (Aug 24, 2015)

I would guess he doesn't want the main rhythm stuff to be weaker by not having that second guitar playing it. I would go right down the middle. I don't know if your setup permits this, but I would send your own guitar to two cabs, running two different preamps if you can (like a 5150 sound and a Mesa sound or something) to try and get a slightly bigger sound, and then backtrack the harmonies that the other guitarist would play.

You might find a different variation of that idea would work better, but I think somewhere in the middle would work best.


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## BenSolace (Sep 14, 2015)

While backing tracks can be abused by bands that either can't or don't want to play difficult parts live, they are also a perfectly viable option to fill out the sound in the absence of a real musician. My band use backing tracks constantly for synths and orchestration, but we also have a second guitarist that works a sh1tty job with sh1tty shift patterns, so we have found ourselves on more than one occasion having to gig without him. In that scenario we all go direct and send his pre-recorded part to FOH (I use Axe FX and bassist uses SansAmp). Maybe make a joke of it - we have a gig coming up that he will not be at, so we're going to try and make a puppet of him with a blow up guitar for laughs!

There will always be detractors of bands who use backing tracks, but with so many bands branching out from the typical guitar/(guitar)/bass/drums/vocals setup nowadays it's impossible to go without depending on your style. I'd rather hear a band with an absent instrumentalist on backing track than hear the band at less than 100%.


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## brutalwizard (Sep 15, 2015)

Seen so many bands do it. Just go for it homie its the future you know what you are playing.


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