How To Level Up Your Live Shows
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- Опубліковано 28 тра 2024
- Joey shows you how to deliver show-ready backing tracks for live productions. What mix elements do you use in your backing tracks? Let us know in the comments!
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0:00 Introduction
0:25 Setup
3:19 Mixing
3:49 Stereo Mix
5:20 Stem Mix
5:58 Mono Mix
7:33 Songs vs Set
8:34 Closing thoughts
Song used is "Chemicals" by Conquer Divide
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Tags:home recording,audio production,mixing tutorials
#homerecording #audioproduction #mixingtutorials
Immensely helpful! You're the best Joey thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Love your teaching and delivery man thank you so much ❤
Another great one! Thank you Joey!
Joey,
Thank you so much for this video man, you have know idea how valuable this was to me I learned so much from this short video. Thank you brother!
Very valuable information and thoughts! It has answered a lot of my questions
Soon will I be using the backing tracks. Thanks for the tips.
Well done video. It's just been "me and my guitar" for over 40 years of playing and I'm just making the jump into backing tracks and loopers. There is a LOT that I don't understand, but you took the mystery out of the process. Please post more!!! Thanks!
Very Helpful! Thank u
So awesome, we’ll be working on these
Great video. Another note is.. If you're making a mono left click track and a mono right front of house backing track, use a laptop and daw to do this. Simply rendering down a stereo file and playing it out of your phone or Ipod/MP3 player will bleed some of the click into your backing track. Crosstalk is a real issue if it's done via these alternate methods.
interesting! Where is the point of failure on that, the rendering language, the playback device, or the cable used?
Cross talk is for real a big issue here.
I can second this for sure. I used to fire my tracks off of a tablet and put a noise gate pedal after it just for crosstalk issues. Had to eventually get a small interface and incorporate the laptop!!
My band uses synths and orchestral backing tracks so we have to have backing tracks. And now with our bassist leaving we have the bass tracks in there as well. Seeing this made us decide to upgrade the interface so we can have multi outputs for the FOH guy. Thanks a lot!
This is awesome. I've always had the idea of just baking everything into a stereo track but I worried that it might not be "professional". I'm glad to hear that it's one of the legitimate options that you listed here.
Great video Joey.
This was a really cool video idea and of course executed fantastically. I think doing a video on monitor mixes and monitor rigs for the stage and studio would be super dope!
We run our tracks and lights with ableton and light works - it really helps us out live!
Reallly needed this
This was helpful!!
THANK YOU!!!!
Thanks for that Video. We are getting ready to set up a Mono-Backing Track. On The Left wie have, Click, count ins & count outs, on the right all the samples & Backing tracks we need for each song. After our record-production I will change it to a Set-BackingTrack-Project. We have our InEar Rack and love it. Your video gave me the chills, to do it in a good way, but i am still worried about our Debut-Gig, that everythink can works well together. In a Few Month we will replace our live-player and have more Outputs avaiable for Stereo Rhythm Gits, Stereo Lead Gits, Stereo Samples & Mono Vox-Backing-Tracks. Keep it going!
I just want to say thank you for this video. As a live sound engineer you would be surprised how many bands don't do these basic things!
As a live sound guy, do you prefer a mono or stereo feed from the tracks source?
@@kernelxsanders Generally I prefer Stereo, but I have no problems with mono.
Can I ask, I really am struggling with getting levels right with backings. Is it better off to essentially brickwall everything to avoid dynamics issues. So then the sound engineer can adjust to their taste?
I’ve recently changed me setup for running backing tracks.
As the drummer and producer & mixer, I handle everything from start to finish.
I used to use Logic to run the tracks, but looking for the right song in the giant project made me waste too much time between each song.
I purchased MainStage and it’s so easy now: one song = one patch. Click and track are both loaded and ready to start.
All songs are set up in one click.
Since I can add any plugin to any track or bus, I’ll add a limiter at the end of the chain to keep a constant volume.
Thank you for the tip Joey!
Great to hear that. I‘m using Mainstage as well. What setup are you using? The backing track template?
@@christianbauer8852 Yes, but I’m only keeping 2 tracks per patch instead of 8: one for the entire backing track and one for the click. Both are routed to the main console and the click is sent to our IEMs only (from the console).
there are 4 members in our band, guitar, bass, drums, lead vocal, I decided to include backtracks because there are no good piano players in my city. I use keyboard, synths, shakers, backing vocals, hits, basically everything that sound logical. we use a simple Y cable and run the consolidated tracks (never up to -12db ) with neural mix pro, it allows us to change the pitch and tempo on the fly if needed. and it's really good to have backing tracks with cues, because we hardly ever rehearse so, the cues are basically our live music director. I have some videos of my two bands in my channel.
We use a Cymatic LP16 (but want to switch to a PC/Mac runing Abelton Live). We are running stereo backing Tracks, Click and a mono Pilot Song (some of use just choose to only hear the own instrument and the pilot song in their IE (We are using a IEM Rack and Line 6 Helix Devices for 2 Guitars and the Bass. We are playing 2 x Guitars, Bass, Mono Synth 1 x Lead Vocals and Drums live. The St.Backingtracks contain Choir, additional Keyboard Parts and some FX Sounds and Intro & Outros. Thats a lot and not easy to mix it to a steady level. The Songs have very different dynamics. As we only use IE´s it is really important to find the right balance for the backingtracks. We are still not there to call it perfect. So Your Video helps us a bit and gives us possibilities to overthink what we did ;-)
Great video as always JST!! I know this question is off topic but just curious what theme you're using for Reaper??
Great video! When you put a limiter on the tracks whether it’s individual ones or the master bus what do you set the limiter to?
Question I've never been able to figure out. When going down the "Mono left click track, right backing track" route, how do I set it so that the click isn't triggering the compressor or limiter at the end? or do you render the backing track beforehand, and then paste it into a separate session with the click?
Hey My friend thank you for this helpful video. one question on setting the limiter. I'm kinda of new to this, so what would you suggest as a good limiter setting I should use on each backing track before I export? Thank you again.
Great vid, could’ve used this months ago, but now I got a vid to send people. Thanks!
Oh, quick question, would you recommend a backing rhythm guitar track during a lead live? I know most places/local bars are mono and don’t hard pan guitars like you would in a studio mix, but I’d like to somehow keep the rhythm guitars full without losing one when I perform a lead. We currently do this, back a rhythm during a lead, but I was curious what your thoughts would be.
probably wouldn't be an issue if you've checked your stereo rhythm guitars in mono, yeah?
@@AdamShepard I did, and even split my leads to be mono L/R. I just seem to run into venues that don’t seem the level them well. As I had our mix/live engineer meet up at a good venue where we tested levels and everything was fine.
I guess I’m more curious if it’s worth the time/energy to do that, or if in Joey’s opinion it’d be easier on not as knowledgeable live sound guys/gals to just keep it simple and run no backing guitars and just our sub drops/backing tracks.
I wanna have the best live sound as I can, but I also don’t wanna be that guitarist/bedroom producer that demands too much on the live engineer. I try to make it as easy as possible, all of our outs require only a XLR and our backing tracks being sent lower in volume as to not clash/overrun the mains, but it seems most the local places in my area struggle to get basic fader leveling.
As it stands, I’ve currently started sending our levels as I have it in our IEM’s and with EQ/Comp, in hopes that even if they touch nothing it’s useable and sonically appealing to the audience. But I suppose I’m answering my own question, as if sending less makes it easier on the live engineer to do better, than that’s the solution. And then we have the other sends if we have a more proficient engineer.
Do you have a video on using sub bass tracks with live instrument bass.
Loved this video! Is there any tips on backing tracks's EQ i should keep in mind? (Like boosting/substracting certain frequencies)
Yes don’t do a smiley face 😂 only slightly increase or decrease the frequencies of the instruments register ie why boost your vocal at 100hz nobody sings down there the hardest PART IS THE BASS TREAT IT WITH respect to much and will suck your power amps dry I was a sound man at the tower ballroom for 3 years in the 80s guitars always cut thru on there own even a tambourine be subtle less eq is more
Hey Joey! Thanks for your videos I,ve really learned a lot. Got one question, if you’re playing with your full band (for example two guitars and a bass), is it wrong to have the stems of guitars and bass playing in the backing tracks in the PA and also play that parts with your instruments live with individuals amps over the stems or tracks that are sent to the PA? Thanks!! 🙌🏻
In my experience, it came make things muddy, especially on the low end. Also, it can limit creativity on stage. I prefer having some rhythm guitar tracks in the chorus and solo sections to help fill out the sound. Maybe synth bass tracks if the genre allows. In general, let your band members play their own parts and use the tracks to support the band.
Hello Ian! Thank you very much for your response! :) I was wondering if you could help me understand what equipment should be used to send the backing tracks and instruments to the FOH (Front of House, referring to the main soundboard). Should the stems of the backing tracks be sent through a DAW with an audio interface? How can latency be managed between the stems of the backing tracks sent to the PA (main sound system) and the live-played instruments with activated VSTs (for example, backing tracks sent through the outputs of the interface and guitars, bass, and other instruments played and processed through the input of the interface with VSTs activated)?@@iancornelius260
This is a neat and timely. I've been playing solo in my industrial metal project doing vocals and rhythm guitars with everything else on a backing track through reaper and a scarlet solo. It's a bit basic but gets the job done. This may be a daft question, but if you split the stereo so the click is on one track and the backing on the other, wont the audience hear the backing in mono?
it mentions in the vid only one of the tracks goes to FOH thru a DI, the other cable goes to a personal monitoring rig. As long as the tracks are hard-panned 100% and decent gear is being used, it shouldn't be an issue
Yeah, you're splitting a stereo track L-R into two mono tracks, one for your ears, one for the audience
This video is absolutely Essential! But I have a question, our bass player recently left the band so we’re stuck without a bass which would be fine but I’ve been considering to use a bass back track. What are your thoughts on this? Could it be effective. Or really hard to balance?
I know a band that does this, it works great. They have a separate out in the audio interface for this so it can be mixed independently
hi, beautiful video. I wanted to ask you something. How do I put some vocals at the same volume as the microphone in a live performance? In order to create a lipsync track that allows me at certain times to use pre-recorded voices which, however, seem live. As Beyonce, Ariana Grande and many other singers often do
10 months late... Just have your "lip sync track" as a separate output. Have it dry (no effects) then the front of house sound engineer can treat it the same as your live vocal so it will blend more seamlessly...
Be aware that this is cheating and a kitten or puppy will die every time you do this.
Just play the album and pretend you’re playing. My band does this all the time and we’re told we sound just like the recording
😂
Way to think smarter, not harder!
I salute you.
@@BrianMagnan you know what they say, the sun shines on a dogs ass every once in a while 🌞
just wondering how do bands able to play the backing track with layers instrument and performing live in sync? kinda new to bands😅
I often find my lip sync shows are better if I half ass my way through it the same way Motley Crue does.
If you're using the mono version and you send a band-only mix through in-ear monitors, how do you get the other tracks in the monitors - the vocals and other live instruments?
For anyone reading this comment, I'm curious about your thoughts on actually running a stereo mix. I've been told in forums by live sound guys who say they much prefer mono feeds, and if they receive a stereo feed, they'll just sum it to mono since they mix the rest of the band's FOH sound in mono anyways. I much prefer stereo myself, for seemingly obvious reasons, but apparently that's not the way to go. But then Joey (a credible source) mentions to use stereo feeds in this video, so it's hard to tell. What do the rest of you (preferably experienced FOH guys) think about this?
Joey thank you so my question is about vocals during the chorus. Whenever my singer sings along with the chorus it sounds almost robotic. Should the backing vocals have a low pass hi pass filter on them with gain on them , or is there another way to eq them. We are talking main vocal on main vocal live?
Yes you need to eq the backing tracks to sound more like the live mic you’re using.
How about backing vocals? Things like a single harmony line. When you include them the way you mixed them, let's say bright and nicely compressed, it could sound weird with a more dull and more dynamic live vocal, right?
There are bands who have a really clever solution to this. They'll basically retrack backing vocals with a live mic and send it dry to FOH along with the main vocals, then they're processed together. It sounds ridiculously realistic.
Yeah it happens. That’s life tho.
Hey yall, can anyone recommend a nice pad sound for thickening backing tracks that's somewhere in between strings, organs and syntheseizer but doesnt sound that obviously like strings, organs or synth pop? :D
oui
👌
It seems that now backing tracks have been accepted I was a pro keyboard player for over 40 years 40 years ago I was accused of cheating cos I used a boss chourus on my fender rhodes if you don’t keep up with the times and tech you will be left behind
hey jst, can I ask how you would approach this if a band are using a drum sim like drum forge/ ggd ?....seeing a lot of bands recently without drummers using sims and id like to know how to get drums to sound as authentic as possible over a p.a system
man this is so tough to mix for. I don't know that I've seen a band pull it off (knowingly) yet. Having someone play an ekit sounded really good, I think they were running it through superior drummer. Not sure why it sounded better than recorded backing tracks I've heard, it should in theory be the same sounds.
as a FOH engineer, I'd say having the tracks separated into kick snare toms etc would make it easier to work with for the mixer since they can adjust the volume of each element to match the room!
@@AdamShepard cheers buddy, I run a mostly digital setup live for guitar, but our drummer is off with injury, and where we are, every drummer is in at least 7 different bands, so whilst we have gigs coming I wanna use my ssd5.5 drums live but worried about tonality and balance ;)
If you're planning to use programmed drums in a live show, please do the FOH engineer a favor and send him tracks for every element of the drums (kick, snare, toms, overheads). It will make everything much easier. So get an interface that can let you send out that amount of tracks.
I'm barely getting into this. I'm having an issue. I produce the music on my PC with reason software. On my PC I have click track panned on the right and all back tracks on panned hard left. When I transfer it on my laptop. Hook up the splitter to my mixer the song didn't seperate the mixx. My pc did. My laptop doesn't play it the way it was mixed. Puzzled. Would you know what's wrong?
Do you need a di box if you can just plug the splitter cable into the mixer without a di box?
You need to hard split the two channels. Need to do it with a high quality device or you’ll get bleed between channels.
This is something I'm looking to do with my current band, but I need to get a laptop or something to run the tracks from, and man is it hard to find a laptop that's cheap, but not a Chromebook, because Chromebooks can't install a DAW onto them
obviously you want to get something nice and dependable, but I'm sure some consumer-class laptop like an acer with the right settings will get the job done until then.
@@AdamShepard Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Either something like that, or an old Macbook.
I have a Toshiba Satellite from 2011/2012 still, but the battery needs to be replaced. Even if I do that though, I'm not sure it's up to snuff for it though
@@ParallaxSound315 I'd really recommend old macbook, I've tried doing lives with both and windows system is not reliable enough, one time audio drivers stopped working because windows got a notification for new update
@@felidae1994 Oof. Yeah, that's worrying. I'm trying to look on stuff like Mercari right now for an older Macbook, but trying not to go with one too old, lol
@@ParallaxSound315 I have a Toshiba lap top, an Acer lap top (needs new battery) and a Samsung tablet (not as expensive to buy) I found that the Acer and tablet produce much better sound. I used the Toshiba only once for a few songs and it sounded terrible. Luckily I had the other devices as back up and switched over quick smart. Good luck!
Gosh what if there’s tech issues? 🥶
Helpful as fuck
Is there an easier, a faster, and a simpler way for a solo musician who must learn the rhythm, the lead, and the words of 150 songs?
It feels almost criminal because I’m getting all this good information for free.
looking for sites that sell pop backing tracks
You are not miming like top of the pops you have put the work in to get a more pleasing sound I am solo now as a keyboard vocalist mixing and remixing gives me the purpose I need in retirement also I sing better over my own vocals I can take a couple of powered cabs a lightweight piano
Play as much or as little as I did in bands they still know I am singing as they can probably hear it from my own gob as bad as is
Practice? Get tight?
If you need backing tracks then you might as well give up as a musician.
Not true. Some songs are awesome with piano and violins and is too costly to tour with.
Ayt let me just hire an orchestra for my dive bar gig