Would taped music be a good option for me?

[jimmyray]

I love to sing and play music. I can't find anyone to get into a band with. All my friends are either in bands or talentless. So would it be a good idea to record the music and sing live with taped music. Would this be a good idea and is it common? Does it depend on the music?

[K]

Depends on the music, and what scene you're in. I've seen soloists do similar things, but filling a stage with taped music is quite a challenge. People often feel cheated if they've paid for a live performance and are getting a recorded one.

Get a loop pedal and layer sounds live. People love that shit.

[Dingle]

I'm with Keith on the loop pedal idea. You can get away with 'taped' music of sorts if you do electronic stuff and use a laptop, but loop pedal is defo the way forward.

[Rich]

I saw this awesome woman from New York who used vocal effects, guitar pedal loops and then had a drum set as well... So there she was, making crazy layered guitar loops, singing, then she would put the guitar down, walk over to the drums and start playing while singing. It was nuts, and it was awesome, in equal measure.

[METALMAN]

See I record most of my music myself also. But when I play live (very rarely) I either just get hold of some friends or just go it alone.

If you get a keyboard and some pedals it's quite amazing what you can do by yourself.

[hackerjack]

Seen a lot of people play like this recently actually, it works if your purely a vocalist to an extent, though it does limit people's opinion of you to that of a lounge singer level. It also works if you can play one instrument as well as sing, piano or guitar for instance, and the recorded tracks are fairly minimalist.

As the others said though, if you can at least do the mixing/layering live then those who know about music (probably those most likely to turn their noses up at recordings) will appreciate that.

The other thing is that once you get involved you will find plenty of other musicians who will either need new bands or at leat be willing to play a few tracks with you if your on a joint bill as long as your able to be flexible.

Edited February 10, 2010 by hackerjack