What Are Backing Tracks?
What Are Backing Tracks? Maybe you don’t even really know what backing tracks are. You may have heard of them before but still aren’t sure. Let me help you understand what they are, and the benefits to using tracks when using them properly.
First of all a backing track is a music recording. Different track providers can do things different ways, but here at Backing Tracks For Bands, we like to keep things simple, so we make our tracks in a way that are easy to use and less likely to have problems occur, as opposed to running them from a computer program (Computers crash after all...).
First of all a backing track is a music recording. Different track providers can do things different ways, but here at Backing Tracks For Bands, we like to keep things simple, so we make our tracks in a way that are easy to use and less likely to have problems occur, as opposed to running them from a computer program (Computers crash after all...).
The recording itself is mixed down to an MP3 format. Sure, you can use other formats, but MP3 is the easiest. It takes up less space in terms of storage, and you can run the track from a wider variety of devices. The recording consists of two things, the music and the click track. We channelize these so the click track ends up on the left channel and the music ends up on the right channel. The MP3 is played from the player (i-Pod usually) and the channels are split right away by using a stereo plug coming out of the i-Pod. The left side is used to count the band in, and keep time throughout the song, so that you don’t get ahead of the song or behind it. It will most often be sent to the drummer via headphones. Depending on your set up, you may want a headphone amp for this. In my bands, we send it to an in ear monitor system. We each wear a headphone from that system so we can each hear the click track. Because we do it this way, we all know where and when to start or stop, without having to rely solely on the drummer. The right side is the music. It will be sent from the i-Pod to the sound guy via the snake and he will actually see and hear the track on his board as an instrument. Since it comes to his board, he is able to put the instrument sounds in the monitor mix for everybody onstage to hear, as if they had a keyboard player right up there on stage with them. He also mixes it at the Front of House so that it has the right level for the audience, compared to the guitars and drums etc. And presto! Just like that, you now have the keyboard part to help supplement your live performance!
So let’s say you have a band that consists of four members, a drummer, a bassist, a guitarist, and a singer that maybe plays guitar (or not). Now just by having two guitar players, you really open up the sound of a band because you lose that effect of the “bottom” dropping out when the lead guitarist switches to a solo. Having the rhythm guitarist there help keeps things sounding full. But you may not even have a rhythm guitarist. Having two guitarists can at times help you create a version of a keyboard oriented song, but this rarely works too well for any band I’ve ever seen.
In fact, I’ve been in this situation countless times. Along comes a song that you just love , and want to play really badly, but the signature riff is a keyboard riff and you have no keyboardist. OR – you have this really great song that’s mostly done on guitar, but there’s a very important keyboard or violin part (or horns etc) in the middle (for me it was Ozzy Osbourne’s No More Tears). Not doing these parts, or adapting it to suit two guitars, would leave your performance of that song sounding a little less than complete.
This is exactly the type of situation that tracks have been created for. They help bands and artists to play a more complete rendition of the song they’re trying to cover, by providing the keyboard part or piano part, or whatever instrument is so important. There is no longer a need for the band to adapt the song to the instruments they have, they can now do the song live, as it was intended to be played, and the audience reaction is much stronger and more enthusiastic as a result. Remember, most of them don’t play an instrument. All they know is that the song sounded pretty good, or that it sounded exactly like the album!
Here's a band using keyboard tracks with live instruments!
Now I won’t lie, there ARE bands out there that use backing tracks in a way that makes them more of a karaoke act than a performing act. That is to say, they basically have a karaoke track, complete with guitars and everything, and the lead vocalist just sings over top of that. Well, that’s NOT how we do things here. I’ve always been of the belief that tracks are supposed to enhance your live show, not take control of your live show. Tracks should never actually BE the live show. So what we do here is create tracks that contain the instruments that most bands wouldn’t have with them onstage already.
We can use Van Halen’s “Jump” as an example. Now there’s a band that doesn’t have a full time keyboardist (they certainly didn’t in 1984) but they still perform the song live. I know that they’ve gone between using a live keyboardist and using tracks over the years, but as far as I know, they’re using backing tracks today. We have “Jump” available on the website. Click the link and you’ll hear how the click track and music are separated. You can hear plainly that the click track is on the left channel, and the music is on the right channel. This separation also ensures that the audience never hears the click track portion of the track.
*** Incidentally, Van Halen is a testament to why I choose the MP3 format over any other format. I mentioned above that I like to keep things simple and there’s a reason for that. Van Halen has one of the most documented track failures in history. They were at a show, using some computerized format. From what I understand, the bit rate was not set correctly, and the track came out playing far too fast, which caused the music to be sharp by three half tones or so. The band played on through this “train wreck” in front of their audience which likely numbers between 20,000 and 30,000 people. Check it out here.***
Why are MP3 versions better for most of us then? Because there so many devices equipped to play MP3’s on the market, that you just can’t go wrong. They never play to fast or too slow, the tuning is always the same, and so the only problem you may encounter, would actually be a human error, i.e. losing count in a part etc. But this kind of thing will nbever happen with MP3’s unless your player is questionable in it’s reliability.
We can use Van Halen’s “Jump” as an example. Now there’s a band that doesn’t have a full time keyboardist (they certainly didn’t in 1984) but they still perform the song live. I know that they’ve gone between using a live keyboardist and using tracks over the years, but as far as I know, they’re using backing tracks today. We have “Jump” available on the website. Click the link and you’ll hear how the click track and music are separated. You can hear plainly that the click track is on the left channel, and the music is on the right channel. This separation also ensures that the audience never hears the click track portion of the track.
*** Incidentally, Van Halen is a testament to why I choose the MP3 format over any other format. I mentioned above that I like to keep things simple and there’s a reason for that. Van Halen has one of the most documented track failures in history. They were at a show, using some computerized format. From what I understand, the bit rate was not set correctly, and the track came out playing far too fast, which caused the music to be sharp by three half tones or so. The band played on through this “train wreck” in front of their audience which likely numbers between 20,000 and 30,000 people. Check it out here.***
Why are MP3 versions better for most of us then? Because there so many devices equipped to play MP3’s on the market, that you just can’t go wrong. They never play to fast or too slow, the tuning is always the same, and so the only problem you may encounter, would actually be a human error, i.e. losing count in a part etc. But this kind of thing will nbever happen with MP3’s unless your player is questionable in it’s reliability.
In fact there are programs that are available for cheap or free to help you run tracks from your i-Pod, i-Phone, or even android device.
I don’t know of free ones for i-Phone or i_pod but you can get a cheap one here.
For Android devices, there is a free on available in the Google Play store here.
I always say, if you want to take your band’s show to the next level, you really need to seriously consider using tracks in the songs that need them. Not every song needs tracks, I get it. AC/DC is a prime example of that. But there are a ton of songs out there that just sound fuller and better when they have all of the parts incorporated properly. Go to any page in the song library, click on a “listen” link of a song you know, and try to play along with that part, and imagine as you play, how that music would fit in for the rest of your band. It won’t take you too long to see the possibilities. You can access the song library by clicking here.
So that’s my explanation of backing tracks in a nutshell. Hopefully I’ve done a decent job of helping you understand what they are and roughlygive you an idea how to use them. Click here to go back to the top of this page or click here to go back to the home page.
I don’t know of free ones for i-Phone or i_pod but you can get a cheap one here.
For Android devices, there is a free on available in the Google Play store here.
I always say, if you want to take your band’s show to the next level, you really need to seriously consider using tracks in the songs that need them. Not every song needs tracks, I get it. AC/DC is a prime example of that. But there are a ton of songs out there that just sound fuller and better when they have all of the parts incorporated properly. Go to any page in the song library, click on a “listen” link of a song you know, and try to play along with that part, and imagine as you play, how that music would fit in for the rest of your band. It won’t take you too long to see the possibilities. You can access the song library by clicking here.
So that’s my explanation of backing tracks in a nutshell. Hopefully I’ve done a decent job of helping you understand what they are and roughlygive you an idea how to use them. Click here to go back to the top of this page or click here to go back to the home page.
Click here to return to the top of the page and enjoy the site.