What are people using to back them up live?

XHipHop · 1st August 2005, 08:21 PM

I'm sure some of you here have artists that play live now and then. What are people using for backing tracks lately?

The last guy I worked with uses a turntable and an ibook with a dj mixer between the two. I'm not sure what software he was running on the ibook but the show ran smoothly.

I saw De La Soul last fall and they were using scratchable CD decks, i think...Talib Kweli had two turntables... I've seen MPC's on stage many times....

Any interesting new combinations out there? What about when on a budget or doing a really small show? Do you know any artists that go right off cd without a dj? How do they pull it off?

G-3 · 1st August 2005, 09:10 PM

The cats I work with are as low budget as it comes.... guess that makes me low budget too? Anyway... most of the mainstream/commercial-indie-trying to come up types in my neck of the woods (Central Valley Cal - SF Bay) will do a show with a CDr backing. Unless it is some "backpack" stuff (Def Jux, etc.) I rarely see a DJ setup.

G-3 · 1st August 2005, 09:16 PM

Oh yeah... to answer the last question: some pull it off very well, and some Crash N Burn. Depends really on their ability as a performer. Seen some really good "studio" types flame out.

All of it is out the window though if the Cdr starts to skip... then it's like "Showtime at the Apollo".

XHipHop · 2nd August 2005, 02:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by G-3

Oh yeah... to answer the last question: some pull it off very well, and some Crash N Burn. Depends really on their ability as a performer. Seen some really good "studio" types flame out.

All of it is out the window though if the Cdr starts to skip... then it's like "Showtime at the Apollo".

Are they bringing their own cd player and going out to the mixer? How are they triggering tracks? Literally walking back to it and hitting play? Just curious...I have an artist that is about to start playing really small clubs in the fall and I want to have their show as tight as possible.

G-3 · 2nd August 2005, 02:37 AM

The shows I'm talking about are usually done at a club, and the artist usually just gives the Cdr to the Club Dj to cue up when they get on stage.

Fajita · 2nd August 2005, 02:35 PM

loops on a 360 Systems "Instant Replay" It's a radio gadget for dropping in sound bytes. has digital outs and plays from hard disk inside.

dharma one · 2nd August 2005, 03:46 PM

cdr maybe scratches from technics

Sobe · 2nd August 2005, 05:44 PM

talent I hope

jlotto · 2nd August 2005, 06:06 PM

TV tracks on an INSTANT REPLAY is standard.

Jim Brown · 2nd August 2005, 10:06 PM

the first live show i ever performed, i used backups from a CDR. didnt like it one bit.

luckily since that show, ive always had a hype man/other half of the crew to do backups. thats much more live and comes across much better. ive done a few shows with djs and havent had them really do backups, but i wouldnt be entirely against it.

as far as clients that use my studio, they ALWAYS want their backups on the set CDs. although i did it once, i have zero respect for it. if they are on stage purely solo, they need to get their breath control right. if they have another person performing with them, they should be doing backups. no respect for CDR backup vocals at live shows.

11th March 2006, 04:31 AM

Just digging this up Can I replace an instant replay with a laptop/ableton live/ and a trigga finger ?

con?one · 11th March 2006, 04:41 AM

i use serato mostly and an instant replay

cynic · 11th March 2006, 04:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by no ssl yet

Just digging this up Can I replace an instant replay with a laptop/ableton live/ and a trigga finger ?

how would you do that? just have all the instrumentals in the sample browser and drop em on live one by one? have em all in arrange view and play back to back?

for small shows you guys taking your own mixer/eq/comp/mics/fx?

my boy has a hip hop band kinda thing, they bring along an mpc, a rhodes, a sax, 1 turntable, dj mixer and a small mackie to do their shows (http://www.myspace.com/whocaresmusic)

11th March 2006, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cynic

how would you do that? just have all the instrumentals in the sample browser and drop em on live one by one? have em all in arrange view and play back to back?

for small shows you guys taking your own mixer/eq/comp/mics/fx?

my boy has a hip hop band kinda thing, they bring along an mpc, a rhodes, a sax, 1 turntable, dj mixer and a small mackie to do their shows (http://www.myspace.com/whocaresmusic)

I dont know live that well, (I"m looking into it instead of an instant replay) but yes pretty much trigger them from the session view page.

Although I may go instant replay/serato like con

I've done shows with an MPC and a roland VS unit that worked pretty well along with a pair of 1200's

11th March 2006, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Brown

the first live show i ever performed, i used backups from a CDR. didnt like it one bit.

luckily since that show, ive always had a hype man/other half of the crew to do backups. thats much more live and comes across much better. ive done a few shows with djs and havent had them really do backups, but i wouldnt be entirely against it.

as far as clients that use my studio, they ALWAYS want their backups on the set CDs. although i did it once, i have zero respect for it. if they are on stage purely solo, they need to get their breath control right. if they have another person performing with them, they should be doing backups. no respect for CDR backup vocals at live shows.

What do you mean by "backups" I keep adlibs on my TV trax but I kill the main vocal, BUT I NEVER rap over a vocal I HATE that

jazzy655 · 11th March 2006, 05:51 AM

yo, i play in a hiphop band. http://www.myspace.com/somobe
ok shameless plug. but here's what we do.

we are actually a two man group, but when we play out we hire live musicians (we both play also). what we did was invest in a Roland VS-2400CD.
We sit in the studio, in cubase, and edit out songs together to make a good show. SFX and all. Drops, whatever you want you can make it happen. It's basically like when you go to a mastering house and they arrange the songs with gaps and fades and stuff.

We render a click track to audio for every song, for all the musicians. We've got wireless in ear systems for all of the critical rhythm musicians (i.e. drummer, bass player, and I rap, and i like to have the in ears so i can hear myself no matter what the monitor situation is)

The 2400CD has like 32 tracks or something like that. This is how we use different tracks.

Track 1 - Full Click track
Track 2 - Count offs and cues (Helps people NOT forget parts of the show i.e. in the inears we have a voice recorded that says the name of the next song, and stuff like "extended intro". trust me, it can save your butt.)
Track 3 - Music track. We render the WHOLE show down to 1 2track.

So... The really beautiful thing about this system is that #1, the roland is really really stable. The thing just doesn't hiccup at all. #2 the possibilites are endless.
And #3 being that it's basically also a mixer, you have A LOT more control over how things sound. Your monitors are always the same no matter what the venue. You've got the power to route anything to anywhere. You can automate efx (i.e. i've had certain phrases in a song have an echo, and then the echo goes away and people are like "how the hell did they do that!?")

all in all, our whole system cost use about $5000, but thats with the roland, all of the shure wireless systems(and these are the really decent ones) and some shure wireless mic systems.

people take us seriously when we show up mang!

filterayok · 11th March 2006, 09:52 AM

the only off kilter thing we did, was plug in a midi keyboard into my laptop, to trigger a drumset in reason, which i played live, while my friends played live bass and live nylon guitar to it-----we only did one song that way, but it came out so good, we were told to do more of it----we'd never even rehearsed the song as a group, i just showed my friend a riff, and told the guys to spit two sixteens around a hook one of em came up with-----check it out:

jazzy655 · 11th March 2006, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by filterayok

the only off kilter thing we did, was plug in a midi keyboard into my laptop, to trigger a drumset in reason, which i played live, while my friends played live bass and live nylon guitar to it-----we only did one song that way, but it came out so good, we were told to do more of it----we'd never even rehearsed the song as a group, i just showed my friend a riff, and told the guys to spit two sixteens around a hook one of em came up with-----check it out:

that was hot dude

Arka · 11th March 2006, 06:07 PM

We use Stanton Final Scratch with the Traktor FS software on a PC Laptop. Stability has been a bit of an issue, but its been mostly due to worn out timecode vinyls, not having a dedicated power supply for the FS thingy, and a somewhat corrupted windows install (been using the laptop for web surfing without a firewall).

With FS2 or Serato on a dedicated laptop, tuned as you would with any DAW, it´ll probably be rock solid.

Using this setup is probably only motivated if you got a PROPER DJ who can actually handle the ones and twos. If its just gonna be a dude who pushes play/pause between songs you might as well go with just a DJ CD setup or a laptop with some DJ software or even an app that just plays files.

My crew rock a pretty classic hiphop setting where the DJ definitely plays an important role, doing cutbacks and scratch hooks etc. So for us its been a real revolution doing shows with final scratch... being able to instantly try out our new instrumentals and fully incorporate them into the set and so on. Being able to do cutbacks on exactly anything you could imagine is a whole lot of fun too. And we plan on doing a setting incorporating some live musicians as well, then we´ll use the FS for a stripped backtrack.

I´m definitely thinking about trying to get an endorsement from either Stanton or Rane, dunno how hard that would be, but at least one DJ I know got a FS for free. Here in Sweden I don´t think there´s anyone incorporating Final Scratch/Serato in the show at the level we do it.

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2nd August 2005, 02:35 PM	#6
Fajita Gear maniac Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 207	loops on a 360 Systems "Instant Replay" It's a radio gadget for dropping in sound bytes. has digital outs and plays from hard disk inside. __________________ Back in the 70's they use to use both sides of the tape deck when channel jumping

11th March 2006, 04:41 AM	#12
con?one Lives for gear Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 665	i use serato mostly and an instant replay __________________ : : c o n ? o n e : : www.conone.net www.myspace.com/conone

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1st August 2005, 08:21 PM	#1
XHipHop Moderator Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 2,022	What are people using to back them up live? I'm sure some of you here have artists that play live now and then. What are people using for backing tracks lately? The last guy I worked with uses a turntable and an ibook with a dj mixer between the two. I'm not sure what software he was running on the ibook but the show ran smoothly. I saw De La Soul last fall and they were using scratchable CD decks, i think...Talib Kweli had two turntables... I've seen MPC's on stage many times.... Any interesting new combinations out there? What about when on a budget or doing a really small show? Do you know any artists that go right off cd without a dj? How do they pull it off?

1st August 2005, 09:10 PM	#2
G-3 Gear nut Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Modesto, Ca. Posts: 107	The cats I work with are as low budget as it comes.... guess that makes me low budget too? Anyway... most of the mainstream/commercial-indie-trying to come up types in my neck of the woods (Central Valley Cal - SF Bay) will do a show with a CDr backing. Unless it is some "backpack" stuff (Def Jux, etc.) I rarely see a DJ setup.

1st August 2005, 09:16 PM	#3
G-3 Gear nut Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Modesto, Ca. Posts: 107	Oh yeah... to answer the last question: some pull it off very well, and some Crash N Burn. Depends really on their ability as a performer. Seen some really good "studio" types flame out. All of it is out the window though if the Cdr starts to skip... then it's like "Showtime at the Apollo".

2nd August 2005, 02:37 AM	#5
G-3 Gear nut Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Modesto, Ca. Posts: 107	The shows I'm talking about are usually done at a club, and the artist usually just gives the Cdr to the Club Dj to cue up when they get on stage.

2nd August 2005, 03:46 PM	#7
dharma one Gear maniac Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: manchester UK / helsinki Posts: 160	cdr maybe scratches from technics

2nd August 2005, 05:44 PM	#8
Sobe Gear addict Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 319	talent I hope

2nd August 2005, 06:06 PM	#9
jlotto Lives for gear Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Gotham City Posts: 640	TV tracks on an INSTANT REPLAY is standard.

2nd August 2005, 10:06 PM	#10
Jim Brown Gear interested Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 11	the first live show i ever performed, i used backups from a CDR. didnt like it one bit. luckily since that show, ive always had a hype man/other half of the crew to do backups. thats much more live and comes across much better. ive done a few shows with djs and havent had them really do backups, but i wouldnt be entirely against it. as far as clients that use my studio, they ALWAYS want their backups on the set CDs. although i did it once, i have zero respect for it. if they are on stage purely solo, they need to get their breath control right. if they have another person performing with them, they should be doing backups. no respect for CDR backup vocals at live shows.

11th March 2006, 04:31 AM	#11
no ssl yet Guest Posts: n/a	Just digging this up Can I replace an instant replay with a laptop/ableton live/ and a trigga finger ?

11th March 2006, 05:51 AM	#16
jazzy655 Gear addict Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 434	yo, i play in a hiphop band. http://www.myspace.com/somobe ok shameless plug. but here's what we do. we are actually a two man group, but when we play out we hire live musicians (we both play also). what we did was invest in a Roland VS-2400CD. We sit in the studio, in cubase, and edit out songs together to make a good show. SFX and all. Drops, whatever you want you can make it happen. It's basically like when you go to a mastering house and they arrange the songs with gaps and fades and stuff. We render a click track to audio for every song, for all the musicians. We've got wireless in ear systems for all of the critical rhythm musicians (i.e. drummer, bass player, and I rap, and i like to have the in ears so i can hear myself no matter what the monitor situation is) The 2400CD has like 32 tracks or something like that. This is how we use different tracks. Track 1 - Full Click track Track 2 - Count offs and cues (Helps people NOT forget parts of the show i.e. in the inears we have a voice recorded that says the name of the next song, and stuff like "extended intro". trust me, it can save your butt.) Track 3 - Music track. We render the WHOLE show down to 1 2track. So... The really beautiful thing about this system is that #1, the roland is really really stable. The thing just doesn't hiccup at all. #2 the possibilites are endless. And #3 being that it's basically also a mixer, you have A LOT more control over how things sound. Your monitors are always the same no matter what the venue. You've got the power to route anything to anywhere. You can automate efx (i.e. i've had certain phrases in a song have an echo, and then the echo goes away and people are like "how the hell did they do that!?") all in all, our whole system cost use about $5000, but thats with the roland, all of the shure wireless systems(and these are the really decent ones) and some shure wireless mic systems. people take us seriously when we show up mang!

11th March 2006, 06:07 PM	#19
Arka Gear nut Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Sundsvall, Sweden Posts: 86	We use Stanton Final Scratch with the Traktor FS software on a PC Laptop. Stability has been a bit of an issue, but its been mostly due to worn out timecode vinyls, not having a dedicated power supply for the FS thingy, and a somewhat corrupted windows install (been using the laptop for web surfing without a firewall). With FS2 or Serato on a dedicated laptop, tuned as you would with any DAW, it´ll probably be rock solid. Using this setup is probably only motivated if you got a PROPER DJ who can actually handle the ones and twos. If its just gonna be a dude who pushes play/pause between songs you might as well go with just a DJ CD setup or a laptop with some DJ software or even an app that just plays files. My crew rock a pretty classic hiphop setting where the DJ definitely plays an important role, doing cutbacks and scratch hooks etc. So for us its been a real revolution doing shows with final scratch... being able to instantly try out our new instrumentals and fully incorporate them into the set and so on. Being able to do cutbacks on exactly anything you could imagine is a whole lot of fun too. And we plan on doing a setting incorporating some live musicians as well, then we´ll use the FS for a stripped backtrack. I´m definitely thinking about trying to get an endorsement from either Stanton or Rane, dunno how hard that would be, but at least one DJ I know got a FS for free. Here in Sweden I don´t think there´s anyone incorporating Final Scratch/Serato in the show at the level we do it.