? about full electric bands and backing tracks
 

I am about to embark on a series of concert appearances with a 4 piece + singer group. I received an e-mail about a song to work up and mention was made of the backing keyboard track being downloaded.

My question is, are backing tracks a pretty common thing now? My first knee jerk response is to back out of the gig. I don't call the shots in this group but.... I detest the idea of band karaoke.

'Common'? depends on the music and the band.
Rush uses them these days - no way Geddy can do all the bass parts and keyboard parts at the same time on some of the songs. Todd Rundgren's current 'Global' tour is mostly backing tracks. When I saw Cheap Trick last year some of the vocals were definitely on a backing track as you could hear backup vocals when no one was near a mic - and those songs were obviously counted off by the drummer (who had an in-ear monitor for the click track).

I have absolutely no problems with backing tracks as long as there's no Milli Vanilli business (i.e. pretending to sing or play as opposed to playing along with a track).

Our church does them now, and it really fills in a lot of "space" in the music.

I work as a recording engineer. Part of my job is mixing national bands for live and/or recorded performances for TV. I'd say probably 80-90% of full bands use backing tracks that consist of extra guitar, keys, orchestra, background vocal, and/or drum tracks to fill out the performance. It can be as simple as a stereo pair coming out of an iPhone to as complicated as six stereo pairs coming off a DAW. I actually prefer the large breakouts because it gives me more control.

These are tight, full bands who simply want more girth to their performance than a four- or five-piece ensemble can offer.

Bob

As others have stated, the use of backing tracks is now commonplace for live performances, both for the major artists and in your local pub.

My (minority) opinion: Don't like 'em, if I'm part of the band. Cheesy and, depending on how pervasive they are, an embarrassment. Again, only an opinion. Lastly, if I'm the keyboardist, the role of preparing the tracks will/would fall on me, so my vote counts. : )

No doubt, it's a bit of a generational topic: There are now entire festivals of EDM, etc., where "virtually" all of the music is digitally stored and regurgitated, live.

Nowadays, using pre-recorded tracks is very, very common... mostly for those artists who have a slick, produced, lush sound...

They ahve been employed for decades, however; I seem to recall James Taylor performing on Saturday Night Live, back in the 70's. He sat down on a stool with his guitar, reached over and punched "play" on a big reel-to-reel tape deck that was sitting on another stool next to him...

...and proceeded to play and sing "Shower the People", replete with vocal chorus in the background... afterwards, he made a crack about "the band"...

Interesting how these amazing technical advances in fake presentation have coincided with a panoply of celebrity hack performers whose 'work' will be in the trashcan and forgotten in less time than it takes to knock out their replacements.

Prett sad, in my book. I guess times are too tough for these small-time acts to hire actual human musicians for their "live" concerts...

Rush = small-time?? :eek:

Todd's tour consists of two girl singer-dancers plus a 'DJ', so no question he was saving money compared ot dragging a full band around, he's playing the usual <500 seat venues to less than full houses. Cheap Trick is, well ... Cheap Trick. They've never toured with any more than a 4-man band, but they tour a lot to 1000-2000 seat venues these days.

I've always said I would never perform with anything but live musicians. But a couple of weeks ago, I played and sang with a with a guy at a church, and he had this "humming" track playing along with all four of our songs, which were in the key of A, and so was the track. It's so hard not to be a hypocrite, you know?

Matter of fact, I've been compromising a lot of my old standards lately. Like not playing with other musicians, now I'm playing with the church band every week, never using a capo, now I'm using one allatime, playing a carbon-fiber guitar, what's next?

Ohhh, no, not the dreaded autotune! Arrrggghhhhh!!!!

Some of these responses have opened my eyes to the new reality, which I don't think I will accept. I can see adding additional musicians for live performances- no problem. The backing tracks--- :(

I think that it depends on the situation for me. I probably wouldn't like it too much too much if I were listening to a bluegrass group, a jazz trio, or something like a blues band. Therefore, if I primarily listened to just one or two of these genres the majority of the time, I probably would feel more strongly against them as well.

I think it comes down to whether or not backing tracks actually fit the genre. For example, I play drums with a group of folks that does primarily Americana music (mixture of bluegrass, country, folk, etc.). Backing tracks just wouldn't fit. In contrast, I think backing tracks work out quite well with our worship team at church. Here's a video from our set this past Sunday: http://subsplash.com/mpbc/v/1d70de7

Here's one thing that I think's pretty cool: Our backing tracks that we use not only have the click track, but they also have auditory cues as well which are EXTREMELY helpful. So if we are playing a song in 4/4 time, a voice will pop in when we are going from the verse to the chorus and say something like, "Chorus, 2, 3, 4" with the beat of the click. I really, really love it. It comes in especially handy during second service when I've already played everything at least twice before, and my mind is wondering elsewhere while playing. We are going to three Sunday morning services starting in October, and once I've played the same set 4-5 times within a few hours, it's easy to get lost...especially when my tendency to zone out begins.

All in all, I like them, but I don't think they fit all genres.

I am strongly in favor of the band "doing it" themselves... too frequently, backing tracks give this illusion that the group is somehow MUCH better than they really are... that just seems dis-honest to me, as a performer, an artist and a musician who has worked his entire life to improve my skillset...

Again, I assert that the best bands DO NOT use backing tracks; without doubt, the band I have heard in concert that sounds the best in recent years is Steely Dan... with 10 players (or more) in their live presentation, they absolutely KILL IT! Without backing tracks...

I love the way that Fagen rearranges tunes so that they can be performed live and sound "reasonably" like the album track... his live arrangement of "Sign In Stranger", from the Royal Scam set, is a great example...

I have friends who use them when they perform in local venues... and although the tracks and total sound are good, I would MUCH rather hear REAL MUSICIANS playing, with all the faults and foibles that accompany live performance...

I'm thinking that Jazz artists aren't using them... at last not until you get into the whole "Kenny G" aspect of that genre...

Also, it's a whole 'nuther thang when a backing track is used as an effect; when it's obvious and acknowledged by the perfomers, as opposed to something "behind the curtain" that is designed to amaze and obfuscate the lack of ability on stage...

In the final analysis, it is ALWAYS a decision that the artist has to make... and there are folks who use 'em, no two ways around it. Depends upon your own idea of artistic integrity, I suppose...

Not for me, thanks...

I used to photograph 200-400 family portraits a year. Last year I did 2 family portraits. The iPhone has made it too easy to over saturate family pix. Tech killed a viable biz.
Fill in music = unemployed musicians.
Nothing you can do but lament. And no I don't want to hear your mix of other peoples music. I learned that phrase to be cool around my kids.

I agree entirely. In fact, it can be a revealing test of a band's quality whether they can pull it off with no props, live in front of an audience. That is real music played in real time, with no 'virtual' or illusory embellishments. One group that really could do this was the Stray Cats. I saw them around 1980 in my university union concert hall, and I'm telling you, that band could do everything they did on their record and more, and they were only a three-piece. Pure talent, inspiration and energy: these guys could really play! Jethro Tull was another amazing band for playing great music with no props.