I gig for a living and would never trust one way to play my backing tracks.

There are many ways to do this, and what is right for me may not apply to you, but here is what I do.

I make high quality mp3 files and put them on a laptop. I have an old ThinkPad, as it doesn't take much to run mp3 files.

For redundancy I bring and boot up a second laptop (this one a 2002 ThinkPad that just won't die).

I've been working on laptops since 2002 on the gig, and in all that time I've had to go to the spare 3 times.
  1. the 7 year old hard drive started making noise and that worried me - I replaced it the next day
  2. The CMOS battery failed and it wouldn't boot - a $4.95 item at Radio Shack - replaced it the next day
  3. The screen developed lines in it, while under warranty - I didn't need to go to the second computer, but did anyway


In all 3 cases, I just switched the USB cable from the USB->AUDIO interface from one computer to the next and went on with the show.

I learned the redundancy lesson almost the hard way. I was playing with two redundant, hardware, floppy disk loading sequencers but with a 10 space rack full of sound modules. This was probably in 1998 or so. One of the modules was a sampler that loaded from a floppy disk - it had my electric bass (I sampled my own), a snare drum L-R pair so rolls don't sound like a machine gun, steel drum (pan), and numerous cymbals and other percussion sounds on it. I probably used it on 200 of the then 300 songs we did.

I was playing the last Christmas party of the year and whenever I touched the rack, the sampler rebooted itself and reloaded the samples from the floppy (took about 2 minutes). So I was careful not to touch it for the rest of the gig.

Next day I took it in to the local instrument repairman, he put a probe in it, sparks flew everywhere and he said I'd have to send it back to the factory.

The problem with that is the factory was closed from Christmas to after New Years day, and we had a big New Years Eve gig coming up. In Florida on NYE the demand far exceeds the supply, and we are usually booked 2 years in advance for well over 5 times our normal Saturday night rate. There was no way to re-sequence and re-balance 200 songs using the existing sound modules in a week so I had to find a replacement. And there was no way to find a band to cover us, and everyone else that is any good is also booked way in advance (I could book 5 years in advance if I wanted to).

I started calling music stores in Miami and worked my way north - I would have flown to Washington State or even to Japan to get a replacement even if it meant losing big money on the gig. Our reputation was at stake. Fortunately I found one in Melbourne Florida - somebody made a special order and then didn't buy it.

After that I collected spares of all my sound modules. A 10 space rack is too big to carry a spare on the gig, but at least I could go to the next gig.

Then a couple of years later, when XP was released with the ability to access larger hard disks, I started making mp3 files at 192kbps with CDex on the highest quality setting. That's when I bought 2 ThinkPads, one of which still bounces on the keyboard stand a few times every week (I do one-nighters). The other one finally went flaky - when I moved the screen on the hinge, horizontal lines flashed across the screen. It was about 10 years old, so it wasn't worth repairing, it still works at home though.

I also now have a flash drive with all my mp3 files on it, so that if I need to run to the store and get a new computer - I'd have ready access to all my files.

A gig is important, but my reputation is even more important. Bad news travels fast. I have never missed a gig, I've never been late for a gig, and I've never failed to finish the gig. Nobody is going to have a reason to tell other clubs or party people that we didn't do the gig and left the audience hanging. That kind of news can cost you a lot more than a second computer.

Insights and incites by Notes

Last edited by Notes Norton; 11/02/14 06:47 AM.
Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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