How to Use Click and Backing Tracks Live
There are two extra sounds on stage. Only the musicians hear one: the click, a metronome ticking in their ears. Everyone hears the other: the backing track, a pre-recorded version of the parts nobody plays live, like a synth, backing vocals, percussion or strings. Use them together and the band has to lock to the recording's tempo, because the recording waits for no one.
The count starts. The drummer has the click in their ears, the guitarist has nothing. The track kicks in on bar two and the guitarist is half a beat ahead. The crowd might not notice. Everyone on stage does.
When we decided to use tracks, we lost most of our time not on music, but on cables and channels. What follows is the short version of that process.
Who should hear the click on stage?
At the very least, the drummer. With tracks, the drummer has to hear the click, because they carry the band's tempo. For everyone else, there are two ways to go:
- Drummer only: Everyone follows the drums. Setup is simple. But on an intro or break where there's no drums in the track, the others can end up floating.
- Everyone: With in-ear monitors, everyone hears the click. The band plays tighter, but each member needs their own monitor mix.
Choosing between wedges and in-ear monitors also decides who can hear the click. Short version: putting click through a wedge doesn't work, it bleeds into the room.
Why send the click and the track on separate channels?
Because they're going to different places. The click goes only to the musicians' ears. The track goes to the musicians and the audience. Send them down one channel and there's no way to split them.
The simplest setup runs off a phone. You make one stereo file with the click on the left and the track on the right. A splitter cable sends the two channels into separate inputs on the mixer. Then the left channel goes only to the monitors, and the right goes to the monitors and front of house.
A bigger rig uses a multi-output audio interface. The rule there is one signal per output. The track goes out on a stereo pair, the click on one output, and spoken cues on another.
What you put in the track matters too. Only include parts nobody can play live. Putting a part someone in the band already plays into the track means that when something goes wrong on stage, the two clash. Keep parts on the same channels in every song, and the engineer can set things up once per venue and use it for the whole set.
One person starts and stops the track. Usually that's the drummer or the band's musical director. With two people reaching for the same device on stage, the wrong song starting is only a matter of time.
What should the audience hear, and what shouldn't they?
| Signal | Who gets it | Front of house? |
|---|---|---|
| Click | Drummer, anyone on in-ears | No |
| Spoken cues (count-ins, section names) | Whoever hears the click | No |
| Backing track | Monitors and front of house | Yes |
Keeping cues on their own channel makes the sound engineer's life easier too. If the cues share the click channel and it gets pushed into the room by mistake, the crowd hears a voice counting "two, three, four." On their own channel, the engineer can also pull them down mid-song.
How do you set up count-ins and spoken cues?
In a set with tracks, the count-in is the moment the song starts. A few habits get everyone landing in the same place:
- Same count-in length every song. Say, always two bars, however the song starts.
- Say the song title before the count. A voice in your ear says the next song's name, then the count comes. If the wrong file is loaded, you know straight away.
- Keep section cues short. "Chorus, two, three, four." Long sentences fill your ears.
- The click ends with the song. A click that keeps ticking after the song finishes messes up the next count-in.
- Keep the click at the same level in every song. A higher-pitched first beat of the bar helps you keep track of where you are.
How do you plan tempo changes and transitions?
Some songs slow down in the middle, some have a bridge at a different tempo. With tracks, those changes get written into the file in advance. That's called a tempo map: the click gives the right speed in every section. Without one, the click keeps going at the same speed through a slower section, and the band has to choose between the click and the song.
A short note per song helps the band: tempo, feel (straight or shuffle), who counts in, how many bars, how the previous song ends. Transitions get planned from that note too. Does the next song start the moment the last one ends, or is there talking in between? For ways to handle the silence in between, our guide to transitions between songs has ideas.
What if the laptop crashes?
Sooner or later, it will. A cable pops out, the laptop freezes, the phone cuts the audio for a notification. What matters is knowing what you'll do in that moment.
- Backup device: Bigger rigs run two computers playing the same files, with an interface or switcher that flips to the second one if the first stops. Both sessions have to be identical.
- Test the backup: A backup you've never tried isn't a backup. Pull the plug once at rehearsal and check the switch works.
- A no-track plan: Every song should have a version you can play without the track. We run that version of each song at least once in rehearsal. If the track stops on stage, the drummer keeps going and everyone follows.
- Put the phone in airplane mode: Simple, and the one people forget most. Turn off the screen lock too. A screen going dark mid-song helps nobody.
How do you get used to click and tracks in rehearsal?
Playing to a click is a skill of its own. Before you take it on stage, you need to be comfortable with a metronome at different tempos. The exercises in how to practise with a metronome are a good start.
To get used to it as a band, rehearse with the same rig you'll use on stage. Someone who practised with a click through a home speaker feels something different the first time it's in their ears. Check the balance between click and music too: too loud and the feel of the music goes, too quiet and you can't hear it.
In BandUp, each song's BPM sits on the song card. The visual metronome in the song view flashes the beat count at the song's BPM. If the track stops and you lose the click, it's a way to follow the tempo by eye. Since it doesn't work on songs without a BPM, getting into the habit of entering the BPM for every song on the setlist pays off.
At the last rehearsal before a gig, you don't have to play every song start to finish. Working on just the starts, endings and transitions covers the spots where tracked sets go wrong most. On gig day, run a short checklist: cables, levels, the first song's file, the backup device, the phone's battery.