Backing tracks, loopers, etc for home practice

[jugglindan]

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.

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.

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.

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.