Pre-recorded drums. Live...

[Combed20]

So my band is on it's 4th drummer. Current guy is very new (3 gigs in) and has been taken ill. I'm wondering what options we have to playing to drum tracks from the album live. Is there a pedal type gizmo where we can trigger the drum tracks from the stage? Presume we feed them to the PA and use monitors to hear them. We don't have in-ears...   Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated

[P-T-P]

Easiest option is probably getting them all made up as mp3 and playing them from a playlist on phone/tablet.

 

You will need intro/count-in clicks added at the very least, but more likely clicks all the way through. On a stereo track pan the clicks one side to feed monitors and drums the other side.

 

Theres an app called BandHelper which is slinkier and makes it easy to change set orders (and a whole lot more). If you have a USB interface with multiple outputs, BandHelper can play multiple stereo tracks at the same time.

 

In ear monitors will almost be essential for this to work well.

[fretmeister]

By the time you’ve bought the kit to make it work properly and rehearsed with it (unavoidable) you might as well have hired a drummer to fill in until your regular drummer is ready to play again. 

[mike257]

The problems you'll have is knowing when to come in, and keeping in time during any breaks where the drums aren't playing. 

 

If you were on in-ears you'd get round this by adding a click track that either played throughout, or at least played the count-ins and clicked through any gaps in the drum pattern. 

 

You could add a count to your studio tracks, but I'd maybe use a tight hi-hat sound rather than metronome click, as it'll be audible to the audience so it at least needs to sound natural when it's playing. It's a long way from being ideal, but the only real way of doing it on wedges. 

 

I think the best solution really is to hire a dep drummer to cover short term while your regular guy is out of action - if it didn't end acrimoniously with any of drummers #1-3, would they come and cover short-term?

[NancyJohnson]

A much repeated story.

 

Years ago my old band played with a band of young upstarts that were using an iPod to fire off backing vocals/keys etc. it did not go well and disaster/hilarity ensued.

 

If you're removing the human element, you really need to be completely on top of your game; no room for errors, nothing.

[Leonard Smalls]

We did a couple of live streaming gigs just after lockdown using drums I'd programmed from EZ drummer.

I recorded mp3s of the track with cymbal count-ins onto my phone and played that direct into the monitoring. Worked fine, though sound was a touch muffled - duff sound engineering by me I expect! Here's a bit, just before our proggypunk widdlefest!

 

[Cliff Edge]

You can add your own drum tracks to the Beatbuddy pedal. But this may be too much of a faff if the drummer is hopefully only going to be ill for a short time. 

[bass_dinger]

21 hours ago, Combed20 said:

So my band is on it's 4th drummer. Current guy is very new (3 gigs in) and has been taken ill. 

You are Spinal Tap, and I claim my £5.

[BigRedX]

As other have said, unless you are well rehearsed playing with recorded drums instead of a real drummer, you'll probably be better off hiring someone to fill in, as there are all sorts of issues that you'll encounter and you need to be prepared and have contingency plans for all of them.

 

You'll need to add count-ins for all the tracks and guide clicks for the rest of the band on any tracks where the drums don't come in at the beginning. Likewise for any mid-song sections with no drums. You'll be surprised how badly you'll drift out of sync on anything more than a single bar without something to keep the beat.

 

You'll need to be able to hear the drums loud enough to play too. Again you'll be surprised how loud this actually needs to be when you don't have a human drummer on stage with you, because you will be relying entirely on the sound, and there's no flexibility in recorded or programmed drum playback, it's completely up to the band to keep in time with the recording.

 

Depending on the genre it might look rubbish without a human drummer. Any additional clicks you need for timing purposes will detract from the performance.

 

And to be brutally honest, if you need to ask about how to do to it, you'll need to spend a lot longer sorting it out and practicing, and maybe even spend money sorting, then is worth the effort for a fe gigs.

Edited December 29, 2024 by BigRedX

[2elliot]

As mentioned earlier, drums on a backing track need to be loud, very loud! and the levels on each track need to correct within your set. We've been using versions of our previous LogicPro X recordings with added count in and clicks, etc. Run via an I Pad and a DI box. Works a treat.  Still prefer a real drummer though. 

[Woodwind]

2 hours ago, 2elliot said:

As mentioned earlier, drums on a backing track need to be loud, very loud! and the levels on each track need to correct within your set....

 

 

Good point!

 

Setting up a mix at home/studio needs to be done at gig levels - as loud as you play on stage.

 

That snare that sounds so good at home listening levels may not be audible on stage or conversely that kick drum that sits nicely with you bass at home may overpower the stage mix.

 

I've seen a few bands with backing track drums this year (and do something along those lines in my own performances)

These aren't "rock" type bands, so the visual aspect of missing a drummer wasn't pronounced, but I think for a pub band having a drummer is really important for the vibe

[rwillett]

On 28/12/2024 at 17:14, Combed20 said:

So my band is on it's 4th drummer. Current guy is very new (3 gigs in) and has been taken ill.

 

Are you Spinal Tap by any chance...?

[police squad]

This happened to the full band version of my 80s duo.

With the drummer, at least half of the set was totally live and a few songs have so much backing vocals, we did cheat and use a very stripped down backing track.

Then the drummer didn't want to do pub gigs any more, so we just added the drums to the already used tracks and downloaded the drum bits for the other songs.

 

It's all 80s stuff and we dont miss the drummer at all (and we get more money each, set up, pack down all easier too)

we're all used to BT so it doesnt cause any grief

[Cliff Edge]

The duo I’m half of has used a beat-buddy for a couple of years now, using drum tracks the other half created in Cubase. It’s worked well and we always do a proper sound check at every gig. We are currently creating some additional backing tracks, played by us, to beef up the overall sound. But it’s a cautious approach as I don’t want to appear just another karaoke act. There are more than enough of those around already.