PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Playing live and solo

Recently I observed an entertainer using a laptop with Cakewalk, a Rohland sound Canvace and some sort of effects device that was about 18" long and looked of red plastic. He used this to play the back tracks while he did vocals and played lead guitar. I was watching from a deck above him on a cruise ship. Can BiaB be used the same way. Where do I find Music for this purpose?

Hi Darren. The answer is yes ... and more.

Darren:

I don't suppose you were on the Carnival Spirit, listening to the
vocals and guitar of one Pat Moore were you?

We just got off that ship last week and enjoyed his playing.
Bought his CD's too.
He used a laptop and a red Line 6 Pod and played the sweetest "Tele" I'd heard in a long time.
We watched him from above too, on occasion.

Wish we were back there on the Mexican Riviera.
We're freezing our tailfeathers off here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada today!

LLOYD S

Wow, small world. Yes it was the Spirit. Were you with the Barndance group?

I use Real Band and Band in a Box for this purpose. I prefer Real Band which is a lot like Cakewalk, but it has some of the BiaB features and the real tracks to boot. Also both BiaB and RB have the lyrics window where you can scroll the lyrics and chords on screen.

As you can tell I'm a green horn when it comes to music, but My daughter is a 12 year old entertainer and I am looking at setting her up with what she needs to perform in public. We have done numerouse performances with a PA, mixer, guitar and back tracks that were done in a studio or just using karaoke tracks. I'm curious as to how you build your tracks for your performances? My daughters website is www.kayla-patrick.com

Darren,
There are several solutions to the issue of playing live and solo. I can't tell of personal experience, because I don't. However, depending on what you want to do would determine how you do it.

1. Do you want to play a fixed length song, or be able to vary it. Since you daughter is 12, I'm going to assume that she wants to play a fixed, known length song every time. The variation comes from the Conductor feature of Band In A Box, which is very sophisticated, but comes with several drawbacks, including not being able to use Real Tracks.

2. What sound quality do you want? Using Real Tracks feature of Band In A Box means awesome quality sound being generated each time, but can take a couple of minutes to load each song, something no performer wants. The song has to be ready to go NOW, with no dead time. Real Tracks can be saved in a song using a Digital Audio Workstation like Real Band or Sonar, and then saved as a wave file or mp3. However, it'll always be the same, none of the spontaneity that BIAB will give you with each song play.\

3. You can use a MIDI synth, but the higher quality device requires you to spend more money. The most 'bang for the buck' right now appears to be the Ketron SD2, which you can purchase right here on PG Music's webside for $379.

4. One of the things I'm not sure of is if Kayla plays guitar. If she doesn't, do you have a guitar player? She does have a lovely voice, by the way. Most of the people who play out have at least one instrument that they play. Band In A Box is not going to give you the finished track that you could get from a professionally created backing track, at least right out of the box. For most musicians, not all, BIAB starts as a place to start from, and then tweak to a final product. Some of our jazz musicians may just use two or three of the parts, and play in a trio or quartet style, but it sounds as though Kayla needs a full backing track, and that will need some work.
I'm not saying it can't be done, it can, but it will take time to get everything right for her.

I wish you luck in your endeavors with her, she is a talented young lady.

Gary