backing track player

Walter Hamlin · Post by **Walter Hamlin** » 21 Aug 2011 1:18 pm

O.K. call me ignorant. I am trying to find out what the name for a machine is that quartets use on stage to play their song tracks on. I see them all the time when at a major concert. They are about 8" square have a pop up screen about 2"x3" on the top and you punch in a song and here it goes. Our church wants to buy one.

Gary Skelton · Post by **Gary Skelton** » 24 Aug 2011 7:31 pm

360 system instant replay, great tools but expensive, another option is Emcee Pro it's a computer based system that can be operated by sound people or remote controlled by the performer, it's much cheaper. I recommend it, been using it for 3 years with no problems (testifysoftware.com)

Robert Tripp · Post by **Robert Tripp** » 30 Aug 2011 8:47 pm

Many gospel groups still use and depend on the old faithful Mini Disc system. I played at a southern gospel gathering a couple of years ago, and some of the groups that performed there were still using the MD system. Including Ronny Hinson when he did his solo performance.

Remote operated hardly ever a glitch.

Walter Hamlin · Post by **Walter Hamlin** » 1 Sep 2011 8:04 am

Thanks for the input on this subject. We are in the process of checking some equipment out and trying to determine which is best for our use. I think we are leaning toward the computer operated system because of the simplicity of it. We are also trying to go visit some groups that use different types of backing track systems.
Thanks again for your input.

Kenny Yates · Post by **Kenny Yates** » 5 Sep 2011 3:30 am

The emcee pro by testify software is very good and simple to use. You can download and try a fully functioning copy of emcee pro...I believe it is for 20 usages. It is for PC only, no mac version

Landon Roberson · Post by **Landon Roberson** » 10 Nov 2011 1:59 pm

When I use my laptop I get noise from the laptop with the audio how do you stop the electrical hum?

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 10 Nov 2011 7:30 pm

I have downloaded the Emcee Pro software (the trial version) and I like it. I will be getting it eventually. $300 with the ability to use it on more than one computer. I also plan to use it with a foot switch. It's a good one.

Gary Preston · Post by **Gary Preston** » 17 Nov 2011 7:45 am

We sang with another Gospel Group a little while back and they had the emcee pro unit and i was amazed as to how great it worked . They used a remote control and had one song after the other with little or no delay time . Maybe in the future we will go to that . I think they said it would play 20 songs without having to change anything . Did i understand this right or not ? Please educate me on this because i could be wrong . We are using my laptop with songs that i downloaded onto a cd but it will only hold 22 songs . Then you have to insert another cd with your backing tracks again and thats the only problem i think ! One more thing and i will shut up ! I have found that when you do an outside concert with your laptop you will have a problem trying to find the curser and your song titles . The screen is very hard to see . G.P.

Keith Davidson · Post by **Keith Davidson** » 17 Nov 2011 3:50 pm

Gary, why don't you "rip" the songs from the cd or if you already have them on your laptop just put them in a folder and all you have to do is double click on the song you want. Then you don't have to worry about removing and inserting cds.

Another option with all of your songs in one folder would be to make a playlist or a number of different playlists of the songs in different orders, or different combinations of other songs, etc.

Open whatever playlist you want for that day and hit play. Lots of options there.

Ripping a song from a cd is not difficult and can be done in windows media or other software. Just make sure you have the path picked out (destination folder) where you want the songs to go.

Hope this helps.

Keith

Keith Davidson · Post by **Keith Davidson** » 17 Nov 2011 3:57 pm

Landon, not quite sure where you would be getting noise from the laptop. Did you try changing outlets? Are you sure your getting it from the laptop and not some outside interference like lights, etc.

We use a laptop for our backing tracks at dances every week and never experienced any kind of hum.

Is the hum coming from the cd/dvd hardware or is it there as soon as you power up the laptop?

Keith

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 17 Nov 2011 8:20 pm

Landon, I had the same problem with my laptop and just used a ground lift adapter (three prong to two prong adapter) to get rid of the hum.

Bill Ford · Post by **Bill Ford** » 30 Nov 2011 7:54 am

[quote="Andy Sandoval"]Landon, I had the same problem with my laptop and just used a ground lift adapter (three prong to two prong adapter) to get rid of the hum.

I have used this to eliminate hum on amps also..BF

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