Now, to argue with myself (and why I made this a separate reply), I can't help but think about double standards among the listeners.

One guy I know, and I'll call him Bob, asked me about some local band and what I thought about them. His opinion was that they sound good but they cheat by using backing tracks. He went on and on about organ tracks where there was no keyboardist and horn section parts when there is no horn section.

And here's where it gets stupid.

This guy is a huge Rush fan. In the SAME conversation, he spoke of seeing Rush and how cool it was that Geddy Lee was triggering MIDI sequences with foot switches. I said "Bob, how is that different from that other band using backing tracks? You can't love it when Rush does it and hate it when anybody else does it. You either wear a black hat or you wear a white hat. You don't get to change hats mid discussion."

If your crowd doesn't care that you are playing tracks (no matter where the tracks came from) you just keep playing with tracks.

So let me toss a curve ball in here. IF you are on the "no tracks" side, at what point do we draw that line? I once played a song that had a persistent 16th note part played on a low G. I used a synthesizer that allowed me to play one key and have the oscillator keep retriggering that note as 16th notes. In a sense, I was cheating, in that I should have been able to play those 16th notes, on time with no fatigue factor, for a 16 bar intro and every 16 bar chorus if I was REALLY playing. I see that "cheating" as nothing more than using keyboard tools that are available to me and in fact bought a specific piece of equipment that allowed me to play that part that way.

So it comes down to "tool" or "crutch". When tracks cover a player's weakness, they are a crutch.

Last edited by eddie1261; 10/26/22 06:02 AM.