I know of 2 bands locally where the singer has a scrolling teleprompter in front of him and nobody is any the wiser because from the from the front it looks like a monitor/speaker. Same angled, upward facing design. I'd rather see a singer use a prompter than forget the words and freeze.

Years ago I was in a band that did one particular song that had a lot of "off the beat" stuff and it was very hard to stay in time. We needed to do something about that or drop the song. I had a drum machine that had an output that sent 5v out, and we rigged up some lights (car backup bulbs I think is what we used) and strung them across the stage to where the bulbs (2 per guy) were right under the wedges. When we did that song, I started the drum machine dialed into the right speed. The drummer wore headphones to hear the click track, the rest of us had lights to pace us, and we played that song in time after that. I never once considered it cheating. I considered it using all the tools we had available to us to create the best product we could.

I don't like when bands use tracks, and that could be considered them just using all the tools they have on hand, but I consider it denying musicians a spot in a band in order to make $25 more bucks per guy. I would rather play with 6 pieces and make less money (per gig - just play more!) than use a backing track for keyboards, horns and BGV. If you want horns, hire horn players. They are sitting at home doing nothing. Give them a job. That is the ONLY thing I have against tracks.

Last edited by eddie1261; 09/03/15 04:03 AM.