I thought this an interesting topic - in a response to Mac on another thread, I wrote:

Quote:

Although I'm by no means a purist, I'm debating how much recorded music I want to trigger, vs. playing it all myself. I sometimes feel a little cheated when I go to hear someone play, and they're playing to backing tracks. I just feel like some of the excitement of live performance is lost. As the artist (that I plan to become...), I'd like EACH SINGLE NOTE THAT I MAKE DURING A LIVE PERFORMANCE TO BE INITIATED DISCRETELY BY MY PHYSICAL BODY. Hence my question about triggering drum sounds with my foot tapping. I don't mind if the sounds are generated by MIDI in the most sophisticated way, as long as I am triggering each SINGLE note myself. This is where I plan to draw the line.




I'm not judging those that use backing tracks as a necessity to perform fuller arrangements live given the difficulty in finding other musicians, or making the gig an economic success. I believe it makes sense to use the backing tracks for certain types of gigs - a full band often sounds better than a single musician, and the output is more exciting to, for example, an audience that wants to dance to their favorite pop or dance hits.

I'm currently making detailed plans for the live performances I'll be giving some day (I've been making these plans for 20 years, and cannot at this moment play a song all the way through - but I like making the plans ). This might be the year it happens, and I'm of course setting the parameters of my future performance.