Kronos live

[geoelectro]

This week at church I had the click track duties since we had a sub drummer. I decided to make sequences for each song. Primarily for the click but as long as I have tracks I put in some cool parts. The third song was the only one I was worried about as we had our own arrangement which differed from the original. We had a run through before the service and everything went well. I was so relieved.

As we were playing the service all was great. When the third song came up I was confident. Then, the girl singer didn't come in, started about 4 bars late.

I had to reach up and mute a couple of tracks and we survived. Oh well...

Geo

[SanderXpander]

Ableton FTW.
But yeah that's reason number one to hate backing tracks.

[QuiRobinez]

yes ableton would be a fantastic solution for these kind of problems, but you could also do it in the kronos by splitting up your backing track in several parts. So for instance create the backing track in:
- Intro
- verse
- chorus
- bridge
- outro

Now set these to one HD1 program where you assign each sample to one note (in looped mode).

then assign the notes to your nanopad and then you can activate each part of the song whenever you need it and as long as needed.

So using backing tracks live with other musicians is always a risk but with a little bit of preparation you can minimize your own stress level hehe.

[MRedZac]

Well the most simple solution is not to make experiments and to let the singer practice more.

[AdDeRoo]

Now set these to one HD1 program where you assign each sample to one note (in looped mode).

then assign the notes to your nanopad and then you can activate each part of the song whenever you need it and as long as needed.

Qui, how would you make sure that the previous backing track pattern stops correctly and the next pattern starts, with a fluent transition?

[QuiRobinez]

Now set these to one HD1 program where you assign each sample to one note (in looped mode).

then assign the notes to your nanopad and then you can activate each part of the song whenever you need it and as long as needed.

Qui, how would you make sure that the previous backing track pattern stops correctly and the next pattern starts, with a fluent transition?

There are two methods:
1 (automatically):
you need to use a KARMA GE for this. Just create your backing track loops so that it loops in a specific time frame (like X beats in length) then use a KARMA GE that only triggers the start note on the first beat. You can use the quantise of the KARMA module to keep things in time. Now when you switch notes then the KARMA engines just keeps repeating that note so that the backing track loop will stay in sync. I use this method for drumloops that i use in my own combis.

i've used that technique for the loops and FX in this video:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/oqYw0aFNzr0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

2 (manually):
if you look at the demo on my channel where i use the vocals of will i am and Britney, that one was activated by pressing the note exactly in time through the nanopad. But what i did upfront was modifying the vocal to match the exact beat tempo of my combi. So that's why it works so flawlessly in combination with a combi.

I've used that technique in this demo.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/aaRwiPfSeto" frameborder="0"></iframe>



Now for the intro, verse, chorus, bridge and outro technique i think it would be rather difficult to use method 1, because they probably have different lengths, so in that case you could use method 2 which takes some practice to activate them in time. But if you want to use method 1 i think you should use 4 KARMA modules for keeping things in sync, in that case you could use one module for each different length, however, you need to stop the previous KARMA module that is playing when you switch the current module (limit them all to a note range of 1 note), i think it's possible to stop playing KARMA modules with dynamic events (but i've never tried that).

But these are all very advanced tricks to do on a kronos. The most easy way is the way sanderxpander described and to use ableton

[AdDeRoo]

wow. sounds very good. Will explore this. That'll keep me going for a while..

[Laste7]

In my opinion, backing tracks are just a reason for trouble, if they are the main part of the song and if the song can't be played without them anymore.

In our band, we use them on a few songs.
But we use them only for songs, which we played completly live for a while and the backing track has to fit to our live version. This has the advantage, that I can switch off the sequenzer in a case of trouble, and we can finish a song without sinking into chaos on stage.

Example without sequenzer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSUK1raqweU

Example with sequenzer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy9WIik0YBk

[geoelectro]

Yes, our tracks are occasional, not every song but we use a click on every song. My comment was more about how I did all this work and fretted about my making a mistake when it turned out to be someone else.

It reminded me of back in the 80's when we were sequencing tracks live using the Oberheim System. DSX, DX, and OB-8. One of our first songs was "She Works Hard For The Money" While the song was starting our young female singer was waving at the crowd etc. and suddenly realized she missed the intro. So I hit STOP. And started over...

BTW. Tth DX drum machine was the master clock, the DSX seq the slave. The clock was connected between units with a regular 1/4" cable. A few times, the two got out of sync because of bad connections with the jacks. No fixin' that in them days.



Geo

[JPROBERTLA]

I have performing in a completely sequenced methodology since 1998. Just myself and a drummer/vocalist who I have been working with since 1972. We started working this way because we could no longer tolerate the inconsistency (i.e.. people not knowing the music) and the ridiculous on stage volume of a completely live band. The only way to completely avoid problem this is for everyone to know what they are doing; work-arounds for this are too much work for something that should not be necessary.