[widetrack]

One of the great bones of solo performer contention is the Backing Track.

Some people call them Karaoke or worse, and other opinions are rife.

Being a sax player makes it very difficult to perform solo. If you want to, or have to, go that way, some kind of backing track is a must.

One of the most noted (heh, heh) solo (duo, actually) saxists around is Bob Norton. He makes an eloquent and useful defense/description of his use and philosophy of BTs on his site:

http://www.nortonmusic.com/backing_tracks.html

Leaving the moral issues to the theologians, I'd love to hear what others do to create a background for themselves to play against, and what, in their opinion, makes a good BT and a bad BT.

Is simple better than complex? Imitative better than original? What are the best tools?

What do you all think?

 

[Bill Mecca]

I've used BIAB to create some like Wild Weekend based on a sheet I got from David Woodford, for others, I have scoured the internet and found midi files, use Sonar 4 producer edition, muted the melody track, used the TTS-1 soft synth and had at it. I was also given about 10 CD's filled with tracks by a member here, stuff he had created or augmented. Only issue with that one was there was no information as to arrangement, key etc... but I have found some of them useful.

He told me the one thing he found was he really needed to pump up the bass so it would carry out to the crowd and not sound thin. I've gotten some others from a friend who sometimes works as a duo or trio with a keyboard player and they did up the tracks. (I've known him since about 1978). He started his latest project with the keyboard player, and old HS friend of his, who used to play all the parts with the keyboard, drums, left hand bass etc. They added a female singer (whom he later married) and now the band has a drummer, dancers, sometimes a horn section and he does themed shows up and down the east coast.


Honestly, I've only used the tracks so far to play with in my "studio", though I have burned some to CD and used a boom box when I used to go outside and play at lunch.

saxyguydestin has some nice videos of his solo performances up on youtube, he also plays keys and creates his own tracks, not sure if he is a member here or not. I'll reach out to him and maybe he will join the conversation.

 

[notes_norton]

It's hard to pin down what makes a good backing track.

The following are my opinions and my opinions only.

1) They should be MIDI and not real instruments - why? So they don't shout Karaoke

2) They should have the groove of a real band - never quantized or step entered unless you are dong a techno or other type of modern 'dance' music that is supposed to sound stiff and robotic

3) They should sound either close to the 'cover' version or completely different (your own arrangement) but not half-way

4) They should not have vocals (again - karaoke)

5) They should be appropriate for your target audience

6) They should be about 4 minutes long (with exceptions) and leave room for you to solo on

7) You should make them yourself -- you will never know enough about the chords and other structural parts of a purchased sequence to be able to solo over it properly unless you know it inside-out -- and you won't know it inside-out unless you do it yourself -- besides, it's more honest that way. When people ask, you can say with pride, "I pre-recorded all the backing parts at home. What you hear is all me."

8) There are always exceptions to the above rules.

I've been doing a track gig with my wife since the mid 1980s. It's been my primary source of income, and we've played on cruise ships, TV (MTV, CBS, NBC, ABC and the BBC), 5 star hotels, yacht clubs, country clubs, lounges, pool parties, and numerous other venues.

I've gone through many different methods of making and using the tracks on stage through the years, and my latest method can be reviewed at the link widetrack mentioned http://www.nortonmusic.com/backing_tracks.html

I'm in a duo, but the requirements for a modern duo are not much different from a solo act, so I hope other two piece acts will post here.

Notes

 

[Bill Mecca]

Bob,

could you expand upon #1 a bit, I would think the opposite. I just did a recording of Thorogood's Rock and Roll Christmas and had a friend do all the tracks except vocals and sax, he actually played lead, two rhythm guitar, bass and programmed the drums. Not sure if I could have figured it out enough to do it all as midi myself anyway (I'm always pressed for time and this is a hobby for me)

 

[widetrack]

Bob:

Great to have you here! You're a font of micro-group wisdom.

I'm excited to say that after unexpectedly many, many months of prep, I am looking forward to my very first gig in a couple of weeks. I've got enough tunes, I hope, of various sorts, and they all came out of my Sonar-based production station.

They have been all me, with the exception that my son, Liam, laid down several guitar tracks for me. He's gotten so good, I had to use him. The work he did on our version of Drift Away is spectacular, and rivals the quality of the original.

But amazingly (to me, anyway) I just today recorded myself playing a simple backbeat pattern on a Jimmy Reed tune with a Stratocaster! It's a little messy, but it should work. The thought of me playing guitar puts me on the lookout for ice coming up from below when I go outside.

I find your point #3 curious, since even though on a tune like Drift Away, I stick a tenor solo in there and have to modify the fade out end to have an ending that makes sense. I can't imagine this would disrupt someone's enjoyment of the song.

Regarding your MIDI comment: Sonar of course offers a lot of MIDI capability, but I found myself recording a lot of my VL70 via EWI lines as audio. I Hate getting caught in editing MIDI minutiae, and always opt for re-recording rather than editing an "almost" take, so I have a lot of VL violin and horn section parts, all recorded as audio. Even did a steel guitar, using 2 tracks of the VL patch.

 

[notes_norton]

Bob,

could you expand upon #1 a bit, I would think the opposite. <...snip...>

I said they were all my opinion. IMHO playing with a real instrument recorded backing track sounds like karaoke. So many people do karaoke that the sound is very recognizable. I think having good MIDI instrument sounds subliminally tell the audience that you are making the music, and not doing karaoke.

<...>

I find your point #3 curious, since even though on a tune like Drift Away, I stick a tenor solo in there and have to modify the fade out end to have an ending that makes sense. I can't imagine this would disrupt someone's enjoyment of the song.
<...>

IMO adding a solo is not going to take anything away. The song can still sound close to the cover, live arrangements of songs are often longer.

I should have added another point.

9} NEVER-EVER fade out. Put a real ending on the song.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

 

[rsclosson]

I am not a fan of backing tracks myself, but sometimes "necessity is a mother..." I found the late Ralph Patt's Jazz Guitar Site has over 400 great standards backing tracks with what he called "The Vanilla Changes" Not midi, each one has pretty much the same ii-V-1 intro but has gotten me through some tough times when I had trouble finding players.

 

[BrianMitchellBrody]

In my humble opinion the method that works for me is to use a mix of pre-made backing track and then add instruments and percussion or remove piano insert dynamics using Pro Logic in Garage Band.

I generally utilize tracks from various sources such as Hal Leonard, SmoothJazzBackingTracks etc... and then modify them to the tempo, dynamic range and remove any vocals including count in and NEVER FADE OUT.

I also write/program originals using royalty free loops that I have purchased from places like Sony, Loopmasters, Big Fish Audio.

I am currently working with many musicians via the internet to create new music. These musicians are from places like Russia, Germany, and New York City.

I say be creative and find what you feel comfortable with.

BB

 

[Bill Mecca]

thanks Bob,

I forgot about some other tracks I have from former SOTW member Al Stevens, each has a piano solo in it, which is kinda nice, gives you a bit of a break (if you remember where it is and don't step on it..lol)

One good thing is the backing band never gets drunk and always shows up on time. ;-) and also doesn't hit on someone's wife.

 

[Enviroguy]

What makes a good Backing Track?

It's the one's you make yourself.

That answer sound snide, but it's really not. Once I developed the skill to create my own backing tracts and modify existing ones, a whole other world of performance opened up. I design the track around the music I want to play on the sax and not the other way around. So the track is truly "backing" me and I am not just playing along with it. Also, this extends my creativity throughout the entire performance. Often I feel just as proud of my track as I do my sax playing.

This week, I am going to just modify an existing track. I plan to take the regular backing mp3 of the Gaither version of "Mary Did You Know?". It's designed as a duet for two singers. I will seamlessly add an intro section for soprano sax. I will also add a break in the middle for a sax solo and probably extend the ending for more sax. I may also add little cues in the music for my wife and I so we can easily come in exactly at the right points. And if needed, I may even add a faint line of strings playing the melody to help keep my wife on pitch. And for the performance, my wife will sing, I'll play, and the whole thing will seem like it was made that way.

 

[widetrack]

but has gotten me through some tough times when I had trouble finding players.

rs: Your comment is so on the money it's a kick.

IF you know good players, if they're reliable, if they're ok with playing the material your audiences want, if they didn't steal your gear, girlfriend, gig . . . A thousand ifs precede the unarguable pleasure of playing and gigging with a sympatico group.

A set of backing tracks clearly does not have the personality or dynamics of a band, but always give you what you need. It a question of balance.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna check out those Patt trax! Thank you for the tip.

 

[rsclosson]

Here is the link to the Patt tracks:

http://www.ralphpatt.com/Backing.html

 

[widetrack]

What would you all think about swapping tracks?

I'm not sure how I'd feel, but it would save me enormous time.

What file specs do you use?
Adhering to my theory/principal that for all the trouble it is, I need to milk the electronic assistance I use for everything it's worth. So I render to WAV (not mp3 or other compressed format) at 24-bit, 48k. I found that win media player (for XP, at any rate) can't play 24/48 files, so I had to download the Free VLC player. It does the job.

It wouldn't be hard to re-render at 16/44 if necessary, but as long as this player works, I'll take the increased headroom.

 

[Chris_Kn]

BiaB Realtracks and Realdrums plus a good Daw for editing. Then just get creative with the changes 2nd time round..Simples!!!

 

[widetrack]

RSC:

Go hang a salami. I'm a lasagna hog.

 

[widetrack]

Bob:

It just occurred to me: are you suggesting using a MIDI sequencer to play synths live, and not to record the track to audio at all?

Or are you just talking about not using BIAB's "real tracks"?

 

[rsclosson]

:

RSC:

Go hang a salami. I'm a lasagna hog.

It took me a minute, but :yikes!::yikes!:

 

[widetrack]

It took me years, but finally having a couple of bright kids who got excited about the idea spurred me to actually make one of my own:

Won't a bee bat now?

I also like the one about Teddy Roosevelt:

A man, a plan, a canal: Panama.

 

[widetrack]

To (ahem) get back to the topic, What about the complexity of a track? I find myself wanting to put in horn sections, different instruments playing harmony lines together, drum parts that play fills to lead in new verses and choruses, bass and drum lines that change, even a little, from one chorus to another.

Seems to me it can be the difference between a blah song and one that catches the audience's interest. but gawd, does it take time!

Am I casting pearls . . .? Does a track/performance played live, that most of the audience will hear only once, need this kind of detail?

 

[The Saxist]

Hey Enviroguy,

I started a hip hop shuffle version of "Mary, did You Know".

Anyway, I use a DAW to create my back tracks. I've used commercial midi's, web found midi's, from scratch midi's, ripped wav's from J/A-Hal Leonard(which I've added midi parts to).