Backing tracks, loopers, etc for home practice

A lot has changed since I last played guitar, so I’m wondering what people are doing these days for practicing and jamming alone at home. Do you use looper, or a backing track? What do you like, what do you want to change?

I think the last time I owned an electric was 10 years ago. I had just bought a Digitech Jam Man and it totally transformed my at-home playing experience. It was the most fun I’d ever had alone with a guitar. It had built-in drum rhythms with bass lines. I hardly used even half the features of the pedal, but having a few different basic rhythms that I could loop a few chords into and jam over was really fun.

That said, it’s a big complicated pedal and I’m sure new things have come out in the past 10 years (eh hem, ‘apps’) and probably smaller pedals that do even more. So I’m curious to hear what you like to use.

Thanks,
Joe

The Digitech Trio+ is an interesting idea. You play a chord progression into it, and it then generates a backing track with drums and bass for you. You can adjust the tempo, genre, and style. It also has a built-in looper that has synchronised playback with the backing track.

I have the original Trio. All the backing track features but no looper. I also have a looper but don't use them at the same time. Lately I use the looper much more than the Trio. I enjoy layering different things. It's also a great practice tool. It can be very confronting hearing myself play with more objective ears!

My THR amp connects to my PC by USB and gives full audio IO. So I can also play backing tracks from youtube or elsewhere direct into my amp and play along with them.

There are lots of other options, but that's how I roll at the moment.

DC

It is an interesting idea! When I got the looper I didn’t really know about backing tracks. The built-in jams were a nice surprise. Layering is one thing, backing track is another thing, and having a never-ending groove to experiment with is like something in the middle.

I forgot to mention that for practicing I often use a metronome set to half or quarter time. It makes me work harder to keep good time (compared to a solid drum+bass track) but still lets me know when I am ahead or behind.

I use Garageband almost exclusively for at home jamming and songwriting. If you have a mac or iPhone it's free and incredibly powerful.

I can't stand playing to a metronome, so the virtual drummer in Garageband is a godsend.

All good suggestions above. I'll just throw in that there a tonne of backing tracks on You Tube also.

And further to the pedal idea, there are quite few that offer drum rhythms nowadays, but AFAIK the Digitech Trio is the only one that also interpret a bass line.

I use a NUX Loop Core Deluxe which has 25 drum patterns and I just record my own bass loop into it. It's a good unit, but doesn't have all the bells & whistles of some more exy ones available. Works for me though. Sub 200 bucks AUD.

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Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain

I use Garageband almost exclusively for at home jamming and songwriting. If you have a mac or iPhone it's free and incredibly powerful.

I can't stand playing to a metronome, so the virtual drummer in Garageband is a godsend.

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I don't play to a metronome, but I use it specifically for scales and other practice. I usually set it to only play every 4th beat.

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Originally Posted by McCreed

All good suggestions above. I'll just throw in that there a tonne of backing tracks on You Tube also.

And further to the pedal idea, there are quite few that offer drum rhythms nowadays, but AFAIK the Digitech Trio is the only one that also interpret a bass line.

I use a NUX Loop Core Deluxe which has 25 drum patterns and I just record my own bass loop into it. It's a good unit, but doesn't have all the bells & whistles of some more exy ones available. Works for me though. Sub 200 bucks AUD.

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The Trio is a sort of a pedal version of Band in a Box. It really needs a computer plugged into your amp though.

A big disadvantage of the Trio is that you can't choose a specific rhythm at all. You can only play something and hope you like the result.

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A big disadvantage of the Trio is that you can't choose a specific rhythm at all. You can only play something and hope you like the result.

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This is why I disliked it when I tried one in the shop. It just didn't "think" the same way I do.

I bought a Trio+ and I really don't like it. It's quite fiddly to set up and use, and I don't like the sounds it makes or the patterns it picks, everything is generally far too complex or just 'wrong' sounding. I should probably have another go with it, but can't be arsed. And IIRC, you need to set up a pattern before you can use the looper, you can't use the looper on its own.

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Originally Posted by McCreed

This is why I disliked it when I tried one in the shop. It just didn't "think" the same way I do.

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It's possibly one reason I don't use it frequently. Although another reason is that I keep getting distracted building things :)

I've been using BIAB since early 2018 and think it's brilliant for building songs.

Roughly 70% of the tracks in the link in my Sig are built in BIAB, we build the backing, load into the DAW, lay down the vocals and then I strip out the guitars & bass to lay down human stuff.

From 2019 onwards BIAB opens as a VST in the DAW of your choice.

BIAB Pro is the most basic version but is more than enough for most, I use the Ultra package.

Note. Realband is not available in the Mac version

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Originally Posted by McCreed

All good suggestions above. I'll just throw in that there a tonne of backing tracks on You Tube also.

I use a NUX Loop Core Deluxe which has 25 drum patterns and I just record my own bass loop into it. It's a good unit, but doesn't have all the bells & whistles of some more exy ones available. Works for me though. Sub 200 bucks AUD.

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Great suggestion! That looks like it does most of what I want. JamMan Stereo has been first choice up until now, Loop Core Deluxe looks like a real competitor.

I personally dislike fiddling with a computer or other device when I'm playing music. It takes away from the experience - for me, playing music is a break from the computer, my phone, etc. I know there are computers in the pedals, etc. but somehow it's just different. I have a hybrid piano that has all the electronics tucked inside a real piano cabinet, and I get the experience I'm after. I just couldn't get there with digital pianos with LEDs, wires, speakers, etc.

It's a bit (lot?) more expensive than the Nux unit, but the BeatBuddy gets some good reviews. I have never tried one though. And a cheaper option if you just want some drums without the looper is this Mooer pedal.

I haven't used either though. My only experience is with the Trio, playing stuff off the PC, and for a while I was using a Zoom MRS-8. As well as an 8-track it is also a programmable drum machine with a bunch of built-in rhythms. The pads on bottom left are touch sensitive inputs for the drums. I still have it but it sits in a box. The interface is clunky to use and all recording is to SD card with a very painful method of getting tracks off the thing into a computer. I ended up using it as an excessively complicate metronome.

I would give the thing away if someone wanted to cover the postage cost.

Sorry, a bit off topic but...

I used to have the MRS-4. It was good for what it was back 14 years ago, but it was a pain transferring files & formats.

I now have the Zoom R8 which is much better and it will transfer straight to my laptop and also has an interface.
I know there are heaps better set ups and gear, but I'm pretty crap as an engineer. It suits my needs well enough.
Use the R8 as a capture device and mix with Audacity on the LT. It has very good drum patterns and sounds which is a bonus.