Backing tracks for live shows: rigs, click, redundancy and honesty

A backing track is a recording of accompaniment parts that live musicians play or sing along with. It often carries rhythm-section parts, and also parts that would be impractical to perform live, such as string sections or choirs (Wikipedia). Done well, nobody notices the rig. Done badly, a laptop crash stops your set. This guide covers the setup and the ethics.

What goes on the tracks

Bands use tracks to add parts they don't have players for, to thicken the sound (doubled backing vocals are the classic case) or to match the studio recording closely. A one-person act can add bass, drums and keys without hiring anyone (Wikipedia).

The playback hardware has changed over time. Early tracks ran on synced tape. In the 2000s, smaller bands often used CDs, DAT, MiniDisc or MP3 players, while larger acts used computers or standalone MIDI-and-audio playback units (Wikipedia). Today most small acts use a laptop running a DAW, and some use a dedicated playback app or box.

Click to in-ears, not to the room

A click track is a set of timing cues, like a metronome. Drummers, and sometimes the rest of the band, hear it through headphones and the audience does not. Live, it keeps the band in sync with prerecorded tracks, lighting and pyrotechnics. At slow tempos the click can be subdivided, with an accent on the first beat of each bar (Wikipedia).

So the click needs a path to the band that never reaches front of house. In-ear monitors are the usual answer. Each performer gets a personal mix, stage volume drops compared with floor wedges, and most professional rigs use an offstage transmitter with a bodypack receiver (Wikipedia). Two cautions from the same source:

• Levels. Custom-moulded in-ears block roughly 25 to 34 dB of outside sound, but performers tend to set them to the levels they were used to on floor monitors, so training matters. Vented "ambient" earpieces that let the room in can raise exposure, because the musician turns the mix up to compensate.
• The crowd disappears. Without wedges you lose audience sound, so many rigs add mics facing the crowd and feed them into the in-ear mix.

Stem splits

Don't send one stereo backing file to the desk. In our experience, the practical minimum is separate outputs for the click and cues (in-ears only), the tracks (to front of house) and, ideally, the tracks split into a few stems, for example keys and synths, backing vocals, and percussion. Stems let the engineer turn down the backing vocals in a boomy room, or mute a part when a real player covers it. Software supports this directly: Ableton Live, for example, lets each track be routed to its own output, and its separate Cue Out for headphones needs an audio interface with at least four dedicated outputs (Ableton). Stems need an interface with enough outputs and a clear patch list sent to the venue in advance. This is our working advice, not a standard.

Redundancy

Every piece of the chain can fail: the computer, the interface, a USB cable, a power strip. The common professional answer is two identical playback machines running in sync, with a switch that moves the outputs to the backup if the main one stops. For a small act, a cheaper version still helps: a second device with the same set loaded, a printed set list with the song order, and a planned way to carry on unplugged if both fail. Rehearse the failure once. These are our recommendations from how rigs are commonly built, not claims from our sources.

Disclosure and audience expectations

Many fans dislike tracks, feeling they undermine the performance, and criticism tends to grow with how much the tracks replace. Extra synth or string parts draw the least complaint; tracks that reproduce most of the band draw the most (Wikipedia). Some acts have been open about it. In the 1980s Timbuk 3 put their boom box on stage as a "third member", and Sparks were among the first bands to tour with computer backing tracks, in 1994 (Wikipedia). Others go the other way: Frozen Crown hired a third guitarist rather than use a track, with Federico Mondelli saying "We wanted a real person" (Wikipedia, citing Guitar World).

What we think

There is a line, and it is the vocal. Backing tracks for parts no one on stage could play are just arrangement, like a sampler or a looper. Tracks that replace what the audience thinks it is watching, a lead vocal or a lead instrument, are a different thing. If you do that, tell people. Say it on stage, put it in the show notes, or make the rig visible as Timbuk 3 did. Audiences forgive a laptop far more easily than they forgive finding out later.

On the technical side, the rig that fails is the one that was never rehearsed in a failure. Put the click in the in-ears only, split your stems so the engineer can fix the room, have a backup, and test switching to it in a run-through, not at the gig.

FAQ

Can the audience hear the click? They shouldn't. Route it only to the band's in-ears or headphones.

Is using backing tracks cheating? Not in our view, for parts no one is miming. Replacing a lead vocal without saying so is where we draw the line.

Do I need in-ear monitors? If you use a click, you need some way for the band to hear it that the audience can't. In-ears are the usual way, and they also cut stage volume.

How many stems should I send? At least click (in-ears only) and tracks (front of house). A few more groups, such as backing vocals and keys, give the engineer room to adjust.