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I play in a duo for a living. There are other duos in our area who use karaoke tracks they purchase on the 'net. Nothing wrong with that either. However, IMHO having real instruments in the backing track sounds like karaoke. Something about the timbre, the mix, and the blending of the instruments sound like a recording instead of a live performance.



Regarding the notion that songs recorded with Real Tracks sound like karaoke: I've researched the karaoke route, and an awful lot of it is MIDI. I dare say it's the MIDI stuff that gives karaoke a bad name. The BEST karaoke is recorded by real musicians in a studio. Now, if you're saying that real Tracks sound like the karaoke that's recorded by real musicians in a studio... that says something completely different about the sound of real tracks.


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Judging from the comments our audience members, many audience members know the difference too, because they tell me comments like, "Band X is only doing karaoke". The word only is the killer to my ears.


I dare say, the difference the audience notices is in your vibrant performance more than in the backing tracks. We're talking about the same audiences who barely differentiate between a real band, a DJ and karaoke.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ey71h8ep047758h/AAC12jNM0Hz9Q8zsh5iDeqNHa?dl=0