NWB - Community Blog

Hi guys, just had a listen to your myspace. Love your renditions of Something and Misunderstood, the vocals are great - I'd come and see you live for a nice chilled out evening with friends and really enjoy it!

Which brings me to my humble opinion of the cubase / drum machine tracks - I think you sound better without them - to me they are a compromise. For a start they don't sound like real drums (these things never do!), but I also like the naked, acoustic feel of your other stuff - and you do it so much better than a lot of acoustic acts I've seen. Personally, once you have a steady rock drum beat in there, my ear craves distorted guitar etc. Have you tried finding a bongo / percussion guy? - I think that would suit you much better, sound great and retain what's great about you as a band. Just my opinion!

Good luck guys,
Alan
Papa Legba

Helloo,

As I was reading your blog I was thinking to myself you wil be restricted with the Drum Machine, I know Roland, Boss, Yamaha all tried to get a realistic sounding kit into thier boxes but the output still sounds contrived, to me drum machines should sound like those used by Jean Michelle Jarre, Kraftwerk, Visage, yadda yadda.

Now, the drum machine yeah a great piece of kit as a tool song writing etc and unlike the organic forms of drummers - you only have to punch the info into it once (I thank you), but stick against vocals / live guitars and Bluuurgh. Works OK for "Oma Palom blanca" at some bar in Benidorm and thats it. The closest you will get to a real drum sound with a 'player' is the BFD software, but exspensive, time consuming and you need a laptop to gig with - more exspense.

So yeah you would be better getting someone to play bongoes conga's shaker or cabasa, these sounds will give acoustic guitar playing a much better 'frame'. Basic technique to get a sound from these is fairly easy. STAGG do loads of very good very resonably priced percussion.

I personally think you need to be a trio. Good Luck !

db

I have finally after many years of struggling to get a decent drum sound turned to the dark side and started using midi.
I'm primarily using EZdrummer at the moment and whilst it's much more limtied compared to the likes of BFD, it's still awesome to create full lenght drummer tracks that will allow you to completely customise the sound and volume of each part of the kit with it's own mixer. Sounds complicated, trust me, it isn't.
I know feck all about using midi and I've just about mastered EZdrummer in the last 3 weeks.

You could then bang them onto mini disk and chuck them through the pa...jobs a goodun

hope this helps lol

I've had a good listen and prefer the non drum machine versions.However I guess it depends on your target audience.

If you're going to go for the kind of cabaret kind of venues, where they're used to singers bringing in backing tracks then to begin with I'd use a drum machine and see how it goes. Make sure you get a decent one though, and make sure you know exactly how it works...nothing worse than having big gaps between songs whilst the band work out how to program something LOL
Might be worthwhile to stick all tracks on mini disc (or whatever they use now), in order, and use that,...then at least you know thats ok and not much can go wrong (where have I heard that before). If you start getting regular pro work, think about getting a real drummer, not so much for the sound but for the feel and the visuals.

If however you're going for a less professional approach ie looking at the local acoustic circuit, then a drum machine is 100% taboo. There's nothing that disses your cred more than a drum machine (although maybe ok on the (very) occasional track. I've been doing regular acoustic sessions both as an organiser and performer for 30 years and have only ever seen drum machines (I was gonna say a few times, but looking back maybe less than five times....and that's a lot of performances I've seen!) and then they either went wrong because of bad programming, or too loud/quiet or took too long to start (and even a few seconds gap detracts from a 'seamless' performance. My memories of using them is that they used to have the audience in stitches! LOL....

Like I said, a lot depends on where you are gonna play, if it is the cabaret type venues then try it...it ain't gonna be out of place with what your audiences are used to) but get a real drummer if things take off (and by then you might as well ditch the acoustic guitars) but if its the local acoustic circuit...don't even think about it LOL...if you think you need percussion get someone in on congas (not bloody bongos! LOL)....they add a whole load of brownie points to any band.

+1 for the MiDi option. You can get some stonkin MiDi tracks free using search engines like VanBasco. A 2nd Hand Yam Player and a Boss Dr Synth and you are away.
There are loads of editing programs available that you can use to get rid of the unwanted tracks or even make your own.
Just make sure the "click" track only comes through your monitoring.

Hi Kev

I been in a duo for the last 8 years using minidisc backers, self created using midi based DAW systems.

Its more than good enough for the average target audience; the trick is not to rely on the backing but to have good guitar/vocals/personality. The artificial stuff should be purposeful but not the focus in my opinion.

Cheers
James

we use minidisc backing, both guitars and vocals 100% live. Never done us any harm except for one place who said we were doing a drummer out of a job

Fnarr!Fnarr! my other band have been using home made mini disc drums and bass for 20 years!! (can see all the signs of the cross now!!!) All vocals, guitars (other than bass), keyboards and horns completely live. Predominantly a "wedding" band we also do well at pubs and clubs and as I've got more to grips with the drum machine I think we have some quite reasonable tracks. However, the downside to this when playing is every single song starts at the start and ends at the end ... no adding verses or choruses, no stopping for audience participation (unless programmed of course). have a look/listen and please comment.