Re: Dennis Taffee and backing tracks..

["Mike Biffle" <mbiffle@svg.com>]

>>> "future perfect" <artmusic@gte.net> 03/03 3:46 PM >>>
I haven't heard the track yet, so I can't comment on that directly.
But Reverend Bob does bring up an interesting point.  It seems to be
mixed among musicians- some feel a drum machine really adds to a live
performance, others think it is distracting and superfluous.
Personally, I don't particularly like them used live- I am more likely
to bring a hand percussionist along on those types of gigs, or play
solo and force some creative rearranging. Any other opinions? How
about from an audience member's point of view?

This backing tracks thing is a repeating theme...

For Dennis' genre of music, anthemic melodic rock (hope that sits ok
with you Dennis! 8-)) I'd say the drum tracks are pretty common and
create the requisiste ensemble/team sort of vibe... As in a group with
a common purpose... The problem with doing this alone with a machine
is that the visual doesn't support that vibe and creates confusion. 

As an audience member I feel a bit cheated if I don't see the
performer input the drums into the machine live as well... It's even
better if at least a part of that machine's output is routed to a
filterbank/dsp/vortex/looper for live tweaking, so the performer can
interact with it. I pretty much want the performer to create all the
elements live (even if it is just building up a machine track or
loop...)

That said... I feel (drum sync problems aside) that Dennis' tracks
show a good feel for this style of music. The looping is pretty
seamless and integrated. I usually prefer a solo performer to either
be experimenting more, or to be more intimate, ala folk music.

-miko