Anton Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Hey guys, wondering if someone could give me some help. Basicly im in a 3 piece band and have a gig booked next week but our drummer is on holiday so the rest of the band have had to resort to using a laptop. The idea being that we play the drum tracks on a laptop that will play through the speakers and then we play our guitars to that. I have the laptop and the drum tracks, what cables do I need to connect the thing?thanks Anton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 <insert usual disclaimers about making sure you know what you're doing and practising it and making sure you can hear it ok given that it will be a laptop and not a big loud drum kit behind you here> The best way would be to have an external USB sound card, this minimises the chance of any nasty noises often caused by grounding of chargers and the charging process when a laptop is plugged into the mains. Some laptops are worse than others for it. And no, it is not limited to PC based machines either before the Mac brigade pipe up. This should give you balanced outputs that you can put straight into your desk. You'll then need to hear it yourself, so back through monitors will help. Oddly enough, if you normally use a drum fill, I'd suggest still using it and turning it up might help you feel better on stage as if the drummer is... there. Finally, you have to remember that you are to follow the "drummer" not him following you. If you've never done this before, have a rehearsal somewhere, this should be easy as you wont have loud drums but remember you will need to hear them really well on the gig as they won't wait for you. Don't play and intro for as many or as few bars as you want, it's a set time and you MUST follow it, it seems simple, but it's easy to forget if you're not used to it. I'm guessing there are no other local drummers that can do the job? Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyMitchell Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Anton Technicalities aside, have you made your client aware they're getting a 2-piece band and a computer, as opposed to your normal line-up? The performance is going to be very, very different to having a live kit.As Rob has suggested, surely a substitute drummer has got to be the best solution? Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 I endorse Rob's suggestion of a USB sound card. I'd also have a DI box (or two if your tracks are stereo) as laptops are notorious for developing earth loop problems when plugged into a mixer, even if they've behaved at every rehearsal. Finally, make sure you turn off all the various system noises, screen savers and hibernate functions (not always easy to find them all) as nothing is worse than having your track interrupted by one of the usual Windows bings or bongs mid number. Well, actually global thermo nuclear war would be a worse interruption, but you get what I mean! Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndenim Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Good advice from Bob re sounds.I once saw a chap using a laptop with backing tracks, he was some kind of meatloaf tribute. At the beginning of every track there was a generic loud 'click', which was very noticeable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Dean Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 I use a cheap USB to SPDIF optical/coax interface I bought for about a tenner, but that only helps if you have an optical/coax input on yur desk. I just plug the interface into the laptop via USB and connect to the desk via coax and set the interface as the playback device for only the software I want routed through the desk, Virtual DJ etc. that way any system sounds are still played back through the laptop soundcard/speakers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 I just plug the interface into the laptop via USB and connect to the desk via coax and set the interface as the playback device for only the software I want routed through the desk, Virtual DJ etc. that way any system sounds are still played back through the laptop soundcard/speakers. Surely you'd disable all system sounds on any computer you use for any playback / presentation jobs?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex222 Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Hi, If you HAVE to use a backing track then, I have one of these http://www.studiospares.com/Mic-Accessorie...mer/invt/255290 as my Hp laptop has probably the worlds loudest hum in the world and after using this box there is absolutely no noise at all. Alex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Technically you need cables and a DI (line level) box to kill hum. You must disable PC sounds. Artistically unless you are well rehearsed to the lappy you are likely to sound very different from the real thing. Serious risk of losing reputation. Hire a good drummer could be better. Also will the established amp and speakers take a full drum souns and still sound OK. There is a LOT of acoustic power in a drum kit that the speakers may not supply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Siddons Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Just a suggestion but I would think about recording the tracks on the lap and then transferring them as WAVs to CD then using a cd player ( other formats are available). This way you know exactly what you are going to get when the music starts and you won't be faced with the 3 minute boot time when the lap falls over as you go on stage. Also cd outputs on the whole tend to be more problem free than computer mini jacks and cd players are easior to navigate under stressfull conditions than a computer screen when you've accidently minimised the page/pages your using. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Dean Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 I just plug the interface into the laptop via USB and connect to the desk via coax and set the interface as the playback device for only the software I want routed through the desk, Virtual DJ etc. that way any system sounds are still played back through the laptop soundcard/speakers. Surely you'd disable all system sounds on any computer you use for any playback / presentation jobs?! Essentially they are disabled, the USB/SPIF interface is like a second sound card, the internal sound card is not connected to to the desk, only the interface, any software I want to hear through the desk I have to select the USB/SPDIF interface as the output device maually as the internal card is default. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljoshua Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 I have found that Windows will route any system sounds to the last connected soundcard though. I've plugged in 2x Behringer External Soundcards into my PC and the one that was connected last has the system sounds routed to it. How do you manage to get Windows and all associated software to continue to use the internal card? Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted July 29, 2009 Share Posted July 29, 2009 Valid point, but worth checking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 Just disable them. Seriously. They serve no useful purpose and are just another thing that's liable to trip you up at some point in the future. There are loads of tweaks that are beneficial to any computer being used for this purpose, all of which will reduce any unnecessary tasks and loading. I did a festival last year where a number of acts on my stage had laptops. About half of them had issues at some stage during their sets, both windows and mac. It's excruciatingly embarrasing and unprofessional so why risk it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Lawrance Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 Also, if your gig is on Friday, around 8 o'clock, make sure the virus checker is disabled. Been there, done that........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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