Accompaniment? Metronomes & AI tools

[Phip]

I play 99.9% alone and at home. I write songs and sing covers. My question I'm wondering about has to do with the easiest route to have something alone for the "ride" of a song.

I just want a little bit of percussion, say, a metronome with a drum sound would be enough most of the time (is there a metronome that doesn't sound like a friggin' alien?). And/or a little tambourine or other light percussion?
Any resources for the above that you can recommend? I have some percussion apps that are so heavy (no thank you). I do tap a tambourine on the floor, a la Chris Smither.

I'm taking a class on Artificial Intelligence (I'm a teacher) and started exploring the many AI resources that apparently can build backing tracks and wondering if anyone has a suggestion for an online program that I can upload my song and the AI tools can build some light accompaniment. What I've read about so far is mostly for song generation; I have that covered.

My best route is to have some musical friends. Doh. I know. My brother is a frickin drummer. Anyway, some day ... but I still want some easy online resources if there are any thoughts ... let 'em rip? thank you!

[Robin, Wales]

A few years ago when I used to mess about with dulcimers at home in the evenings I would get my percussion accompaniment from YouTube.

There are hundreds of tracks on YouTube. Just pick a rhythm and a bpm and see what comes up. In the example above I was trying a new tuning one night and thought the chords I was creating sounded quite Latin American. So I searched for a bossa nova drum track on YouTube and improvised over that. I thought it sounded quite cool so I made a little recording for a dulcimer forum. The whole project from first tuning the dulcimer to creating the track was done in an evening. I don't think that l ever tried that 1-3-5 tuning again after that - so I'm glad that I caught the moment!

I've found all sorts of rhythmic accompaniment tracks on YouTube to mess around with that use all sorts of percussion - from light to heavy.

[JonPR]

If you want to spend money on self-contained hardware, there are drum machines - although (even cheap on ebay) they can seem expensive in comparison with modern software (free or very cheap). The software apps, of course, require a computer tablet or phone, but we all have those already, right?

If you have a Mac, Garageband is a great program for making your own backing tracks. Personally (on PC!), if I want a backing track I either record myself playing guitar into Audacity (free), maybe bass too. I'd probably use a metronome to keep myself in time, but if I want drums I'll use a VST instrument with Reaper (an almost free DAW), although that can be time-consuming - too much choice!! (I've had Reaper for a few years now, but still only managed to get one or two songs produced on it... ( )

For rough and ready self-accompaniment - practising time-keeping especially - I might use my looper (Boss RC-1), but that's more suited to short looping sequences than full song arrangements (although it stores MP3s for playing along with).

As Robin says, of course, there are countless stock backing tracks on youtube, and if the tempos (or keys) are not quite right you can record them into Audacity and change them.

[FrankHudson]

Years ago I used to use the somewhat cheesy drum backing features from a Casio keyboard. Tempo adjustable easily. Not too expensive new, very cheap used, simple to use, and you can use them as a keyboard instrument.*

I often use a Digitech Trio for quick and dirty practicing. Tempo adjustable. Can quickly "AI" compose some kind of bass lines too if you play your chord progression into it.

Neither of these are as good as modern computer drum software for faking a real drummer, but I read you as just wanting something to quickly give you a rhythm reference while you practice that is more drum-like than a click.


*Too embarrassingly cheesy? Leonard Cohen got a couple of albums off of his.

[zuzu]

I just ditched all the digital percussion from the bed tracks of my own project yesterday. I simply have not the computer prowess to achieve a satisfactory outcome, matters little the quality of the plugin. It is all, of course, perfectly timed, but I can't ever make it sound like a person, though others whom I know are adept at that very thing.

So, now it's onward with a borrowed hi hat, a $40 craigslist popcorn snare, a really nice cardboard box and back scratcher for a kick drum, a couple of AKG P170s, and the various percussion dodads I have accumulated over the years (tambourine is a high art form and I can really do it, if I do say so myself). Already sounds better than the digital, judging from the few tracks I laid on last night. Took a bit of EQ time on the console, but I have time.

[Glennwillow]

I think a simple drum machine is the best answer. The Alesis SR-16 is a very good drum machine and you can find these used for cheap all over the place. It's programmable, but there are plenty of patterns that can be used without any significant effort. And it sounds excellent.

I have used Band in a Box, but it takes some effort to input all the song information and the result can often be fairly stilted depending on the style you are using.

I do most of my band accompaniment stuff in my recording program, but that is after many years of learning how to use the program. In that recording program (Steinberg Cubase) I use EZ Drummer, which is an excellent program and which sounds terrific.

- Glenn