Backing tracks, loopers, etc for home practice

[Joe Garfield]

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

[jugglindan]

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

[Joe Garfield]

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.

[jugglindan]

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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[McCreed]

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.

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

[Simon Barden]

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.

[jugglindan]

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

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