[TimCurtis]

Me and Gaby have been asked to play our first gig!!  Probably - still waiting for the venue booking to be confirmed.  A 30-minute or so support slot.  Perfect!

But to add a bit of variation to the set, I suggested we try one or two songs with a backing.

I've got an old Roland R70 drum machine and still use the sounds from it a fair bit (having sampled them onto the PC many years ago), so I've fetched it down from the upstairs cupboard, dusted it down and have programmed one of our new songs into it - both drums and bass.

Not tried rehearsing with it yet but we thought we would try it at an open mic if we feel it adds something.

My main worry is that we'll get lost in the middle of a song and, as it's a machine, we won't be able to recover without anyone noticing as we have before.  Also, playing to a machine - does it sound a bit robotic....?

But I'd like to ask you guys if you've ever used such a set up, how successful it was and any problems/pitfalls you had that I can learn from?

T

[Skub]

Hey Tim.

I played with a band who used a recorded drum track and everything else was live. Some folk get a bit sniffy about such things and I suppose there are degrees of Karaoke. I don't have a problem with tracks,it's the full on mimers that I don't like.Nothing compares to playing with a real skin basher,but almost every one I know is f***ing radio rental in one way or another!

I'll tell you one thing,playing with either a drum machine or a pre-recorded track will tighten up your act. You can't signal a track to take the verse around once more 'cos you forgot the words,you better be on the ball,as you can be sure the 'drummer' is exactly right each and every time. It's utterly merciless.

If it's just the two of you,maybe it would be best to relax and just give them what you do best,without the added complication and stress of being mindful of the machine. Try it out in rehearsal and see how comfortable you are,any worries during that stage will be amplified on THE NIGHT.

Hope some of that anecdotal tripe helps ya.  

[Yodasdad]

I think it's the way of the world now, you can't get away from it.

I don't think you'll find many top names who don't use either backing tracks, samples, pre-recorded parts or click tracks to some degree.

I was the keyboard player in a band for many years both original and covers. We never actually used any kind of backing track but the reason for this was:

The other band members didn't have a clue how to go about it and me being the keyboard player, well most of what I was playing could easily come from a backing track so I wasn't going to push the idea and do myself out of a job.

Most musicians and bands that we came across on the circuit though were using them, either openly or covertly.

It's amazing how many people in the audience either don't notice or couldn't care less that most of what they're hearing is pre-recorded and they might as well be listening to a cd sometimes.

I remember we were playing with a Wham tribute band one night and I was in the audience with my girlfriend and I said 'where's the sax player?' - what sax player she says - 'this is a sax solo, where's the sax player' is said - 'oh yeah' and she carries on dancing. I even caught Mr Gary Barlow miming his piano at the queens birthday bash when I was watching it. My wife who's a big Barlow fan was not impressed when I pointed it out!

Also supported a Bon Jovi tribute. They had one guitarist a bass palyer and a singer (no drummer) but close your eyes and you'd swear you were listening to the real Bon Jovi. I wonder how they did that?

In terms of using a drum machine or click track. practice, practice, practice is the key.

Make sure you can hear the damn thing, maybe use earphones/in ear monitors - but however you do it, make sure you can hear it.

The less complicated the drum track the better. If it's just a repeated rhythm for example, if the worst comes to the worst you can wait a bar and get back in time. If there's lots of changes programmed in you got to listen carefully and really stay on top of it.

Saying that, it's done all the time, just takes a bit of getting used to. You'll be amazed at how many drummers play out of time and change tempo when you start to play with a track. Even how much you yourself don't play rigidly, it can be quite strange at first.

Don't give it a second thought.

Good luck

Yodasdad

[Jamie]

Hi, we went through a period when we couldn't find a drummer and played quite a few gigs with a drum machine programmed for the songs.It's not ideal, You can't beat a real drummer it just adds to the experience for the band and the audience, but when needs must! The main thing is you need to know your stuff.if you mess up it can be a real car crash . Practice, practice and more practice!
Cheers
Jamie

[TimCurtis]

Thanks everyone.

Yes indeed - my main fear is the potential car crash when you cock it up (and I make enough of those!).  Would much prefer a real drummer and bass player but so far it's been hard to find either, although all we've done is ask muso friends rather than advertise or anything. 

I've also got a bit of a thing about using a backing track but as you say, it's so prevalent nowadays I thought I'd toy with the idea (though I think you lot already convinced me against it).  And having just the two of us does make me work a bit harder to come up with more variation on the guitar.

I'm also in a covers band with some of the Dad's from my kids' school - we call ourselves 'Breaking Dad' :-) - which has the full compliment of drums, bass guitar and keys.  Really can't beat the sound and feel of having it all live.....

[Yodasdad]

No point advertising for a drummer, drummers can't read, everyone knows that

[Skub]

What about using one of the big looper pedals,Tim.

[TimCurtis]

I borrowed a looper pedal not long ago and it sounded good - a bit of a new instrument but I got the hang of it and came up with some lush sounding, layered guitar parts.  It felt like it needed the songs written to be loopable whereas many of ours ours seem to have so many twists, turns, extra beats, pauses and chord changes.  Might be good to have a couple with a looper just to add some variety to the set but I think we'd have to write the song with the pedal in mind.

Got my birthday coming up and I'm off down the shop in the morning to try out a Boss MC80 multi FX. :-) That's got a looper built in (only 38 seconds but that should be enough) so will have to give it a go. After the FX really, but if it's there......

Q: What's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?
A: You only have to punch the rhythm into the drum machine once....  ;-)