Who's looking down their noses? All we're talking about is putting on a successful gig. If someone gets hired for a gig and they do all the stuff Notes and I say won't work but they love that persons act and they get more gigs, great.

A vocalist standing and singing to full pro quality backing tracks is exactly what most of the lounge acts are doing in Vegas now. I've seen acts where the performers are all singers, none play a lick of anything but they use guitars, basses and even drums in one case as props. Nobody is playing anything. This is Vegas, those shows are still very high level pro quality and tightly produced. A vocalist at a corporate function singing to tracks is pure karaoke and everybody knows that up front. So what? That's not what we're discussing here.

The vision I have of the OP's question is of someone sitting on a stool strumming a guitar. That's fine, lots of folks do that but to do that in front of those same high level pro backing tracks you saw at that function just looks lame in a small little coffee house or quiet lounge. Apples and oranges.

My sister is a very good karaoke singer, she even competed in the southwest US regional competition some years ago. The room had at least 500 people in it, full stage, full PA, lights, props, backup singers and even dancers. She made it to the final 10. It was a good show and I was impressed.

Are you going to try doing all of that at some of the places you play? I doubt it which is why a high level function like that is not the point of this thread.

Bob

Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.