Pieces of Malarkey- How the Backing Band Works

[aquaduct]

OK, the last time I posted with the Pieces, Terry and Majorminor expressed some interest in how the Trio+ pedal works. I originally thought I'd demonstrate that when I finished the next song, but then last night I hooked up the effects rig and had such a great time jamming on Room 335 again here in the basement I decided to do another video showing the fully programmed pedal in all its glory with that song again.

So in the video, you'll see 5 green lights (in truth there are actually 6 green lights but I didn't use one of the segments on this song). The left most green light is the "Sequence" light. The 4 to the right of that are the 4 song sections used- an intro vamp, a basic changes fill, the chorus changes, and the bridge changes. Each of these segments were programmed to by playing the parts into them.

The blinking green light at the far right top is the tempo of the individual sections. You can program different tempos for each section or record each individual section at the tempo of the one just before it (immediately to the left). There's a special way to hit the buttons to make that happen.

The 3 knobs right beneath those buttons are from left to right- tempo adjust (center is as recorded), genre (12 of those), and style (a bunch of those). There's also a small button right beneath and between the genre and style knobs that turns the style knob into a song manager (kind of like a file manager on a computer).

The 3 knobs below those knobs are the mixer knobs. From left to right- loop volume, bass, and drums.

Then at the bottom are the looper and band on/off switches. The looper is part of the band and if you'd really like to get nutty, you can do layered loops, etc. I just barely escaped with serviceable rhythm guitar parts for each section. However, I do have some ideas on using layered loops in the future.

You can also see the Fly Rig effects pedal board in the effects loop of the Trio pedal. And I kind of have to use that since while you can separate out the bass and drums to a PA or other amp, the loop and the guitar part you're playing can't be separated into two outputs. So if you kick over to the lead channel in the Boogie, all the rhythm parts kick over as well. Oh well, minor inconvenience.

So if you watch, you'll see the song when launched step through all the various segments in the 4 section lights with the next section light flashing in anticipation of moving forward. And yes, I did add some soloing so it does more than just step through linearly.

Again, thanks for any feedback or comments and I hope I've helped some here understand the tool better.

[TKennedy]

That's pretty cool and sounded good. So you used the first segment for both the intro and ending. Worked well.

Does the song segment switch happen automatically?

[aquaduct]

Nov 8, 2020 22:53:37 GMT -5 TKennedy said:

That's pretty cool and sounded good. So you used the first segment for both the intro and ending. Worked well.

Does the song segment switch happen automatically?

Yes. Once you have all your segments, you use the sequence button to spell out the order. From there it's automatic.

I think there's a way to step through the segments manually but that gets complicated since you hit the next button and it indexes to the next segment up. Kind of a pain if you're trying to get from segment two back to segment one while actually trying to play something coherent. So I don't do that.

[aquaduct]

I also rediscovered a pretty cool little bit about the pedal last night.

Digitech has a little program for the computer where you can catalog your songs with proper names (not red LED #4) and notes about what each segment is set to, etc. all in English with cool graphics and not impenetrable computer code. You can keep your entire repertoire preserved there and pull down whatever you want onto the necessary SD cards for managing gigs.

Going to catalog the Room 335 song tonight. No sense risking it after all this work.

[TKennedy]

Do you think you would trust it enough at this point to use it for a solo live background gig without a solid plan B if a technical glitch developed? That has always been my fear with devices like that.

[aquaduct]

Nov 9, 2020 10:31:54 GMT -5 TKennedy said:

Do you think you would trust it enough at this point to use it for a solo live background gig without a solid plan B if a technical glitch developed? That has always been my fear with devices like that.

Definitely, but with some caveats. I'm doing this for mental health mostly with no clear goal other than to keep ticking tunes off and promote myself with my little dorky Facebook page. Ultimately I can envision a path to gigging, but it will go through freebies in a number of places around- down on the walking mall or even here in our little backwoods suburb of the Winchester metropolis, in one of the wineries, restaurants, or art galleries we've frequented before, etc. Free and/or cheap is much more forgiving.

And really the big goal could be to sell the concept and attract some compatriots who might be willing to have some fun (I know a lot of them but the ones who are capable of this are already working enough that there's really no room for goofy shit) and ditch the pedal. And who knows, if I get out there I may get invited to play with the University faculty combo (I know and have played some with the individuals at community events in the past).

Maybe anyways.

Right now I'm just focused on learning to be a band leader. It's foreign territory for me and I'm learning even through these exchanges.

Thanks for your help.

[TKennedy]

We have had a background act for a long time. Pretty similar to what you envision. Wine bars, restaurants, events. Mostly all showtune and jazzy standards. Usually two guitars, horn, and bass/vocals. What I did was record fairly straightforward four to the bar backing tracks with intros and endings using ProTools as practice aids but found they work surprisingly well for gigging if our full group can’t do a date. I just put them on an old iPod with another in my pocket for backup.

You can tailor make them with room for vocals and as many solos as needed. I have used them for not only solo stuff but frequently with a horn player and surprisingly they work quite well with a bass player/vocalist and fill out the sound.

Our second guitarist who was a professional jazz guitarist and taught guitar his whole life and was a jaw dropping player turned 90 this year and in March age caught up with him and he has been unable to gig. We had to use the tracks for our outdoor patio gigs this summer, horn/guitar/tracks or horn/guitar/bass/vocals/tracks. Several good musicians who came to listen said the same thing, “wow that sounds better than we thought it would”. The trumpet player is a pro and the bassist solid and a great singer so even without our star guitarist it has remained a fairly respectable act. (But not near as much fun as hearing the old guy play)

I hope you can continue to develop your concept and can find some good players to hop on board. Hope you can find someone that sings. You don’t have to have vocals on every song but we have found tips go up significantly with a little occasional singing tossed in. I love playing background.

Good luck!