Hi all,
I'm completely new to this forum and completely new to this topic!
I have a band, standard guitar, bass, drums and vocals. However I also make electronic music on my laptop and we were interested in incorporating some of this into our live performance. I.e. playing our songs with electronic backing tracks, breakdowns etc.

I have no problem with making the music, and I understand how we can use an interface to play it through the p.a.
I just didn't know how as a band we would hear it, and be able to keep in time? In ear monitors are insanely out of our budget, so I was just looking for tips on the best inexpensive ways to do this.
Thanks for any tips.

Click track to the drummer.

Only the drummer will need the headphones, and IEM doesn't need to be expensive, in fact it's really only very expensive if you go wireless.

Have a look at This Thread where some uses and costs involved are discussed.

However, all you really need is for one send from the laptop to go to the PA for sole use of the drummer. Then have it fed into his monitor feed, which should go to headphones and not to the usual amp/wedge. Most venues should be able to rig something up, though I tend to take some long XLR cables with me to venues to be sure.

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www.exaviormusic.com
www.manninmusic.com Music Teacher, Isle of Man

what if I want to play a track where the samples are triggered in the middle?, how will my drummer have to have a click connected to the track that doesn't sound through the speakers?
thanks for the responses

Okay, maybe we need to go into a little more detail.

Basic theory - you need to play in time with whatever is being triggered off the laptop, be that loops, samples, or synths, etc. So the drummer will need to be listening to a click. This will not be able to go through speakers (or the audience will hear it) and so the drummer will have to wear headphones of some description. It doesn't have to be specific/expensive IEM, it can just be standard enclosed/closed back headphones, or standard shop bought in-ears, and you just need something to act as the headphone amp, say a small mixer, or a dedicated headphone amp.

Now this doesn't mean the drummer cannot have a wedge as well. What he can do is have the click in the headphones, only wear one ear of the headphones, and have the wedge for the rest of his monitoring. I generally advise against this as it can lead to some quite high volumes in the headphones and wedge, and this can lead to hearing loss.

So what you then need to do is have a feed from the laptop with the click which goes to a mixer next to the drummer. The same mixer has a feed from the PA mixer aux that would usually server the drum wedge monitor. Instead of going to the speaker it will go to the mixer next to the drummer, and the drummer can then mix in enough click so he can keep in time, and hear the rest of the band through headphones alone.

Now, after that it just comes down to rehearsing so that all the samples fall in the right place if you're playing to a backing track. I've heard many click tracks, and some have voice counts so that the drummer knows when to start, and if there are any key moments to make him aware of.

Hope that explains it a bit better but of course, ask any more questions if you're unsure!

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www.exaviormusic.com
www.manninmusic.com Music Teacher, Isle of Man

Thanks that helps so much


I understand that we can have the click track, or voice metronome on the laptop fed into the mixer next to the drummer now, and that we can also have the feed from the pa so that he can hear the rest of the band.
I was just unsure about one bit. If we have the click track fed into the drummers monitors, how can we also play the backing track through the pa at the same time without the metronome being heard? Does it have to involve some sort of splitter?

Thanks again, massive help

Read the articles Sir Gav wrote for SOS:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug03/articles/clicktracks.htm
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov03/articles/backingtracks.htm