I started singing in the mid 90s, I had joined a couple of bands and played the odd solo gig around town. In the 90s things where a bit easier as everything was analogue and sounded pretty good (or so we thought). Fast forward to today, we had just gone and watched a solo act (guitar/vocals/backing-track) and although the singer had an amazing voice, the overall sound quality was less than enjoyable.
Being a bit of an audiophile I have tried to improve my sound quality constantly and restlessly so I want to share my experiences with you and hope they will help even a little to get you to that awesome live sound with backing tracks.
The 7 Steps to a better backing track sound
Now this might be obvious to some but I have heard tons of backing tracks that sounded as if they were recorded using a gramophone. Now what are some of the reasons a backing track could sound bad?
- Bad Recording
- Bad Sample Rate
- Bad Signal or Playback Device
- Midi Track (Please don’t use midi 🙁 )
So the First Step in the chain is having well recorded backing tracks that have a good balanced mix and play at the same volume level. Getting a balanced volume level between tracks is another problem we will look at further down the line. You can find many free backing tracks online but a lot of them have a bad quality, there are dedicated websites such as Karaoke Version that sell backing tracks you can even mix yourself. These tracks are usually of the highest quality and are well worth the investment.
Note: When mixing or preparing your backing tracks you will almost certainly face a volume issue. You will prepare your backing tracks at home and when you play them live the volumes and EQ will sound VERY different. This is due to a phenomenon our brain experiences when listening to different volumes. Frequencies change according to how and how loud we listen to sound. The Fletcher–Munson curve demonstrates this. Now this is a very complex concept and I don’t suggest you spend time on studying it (unless you are a geek like me) but what I do suggest is this:
- Mix your songs at high volumes similar to your live environment
- If you cant do that then keep a note book handy and make a quick note on what do adjust before your next gig.
