Doing the one-man-band thing

Can I get some advice on how to use Cubase to do the one-man-band thing.

My ideas is to record tracks, create a file, burn it to a cd, then play it on my system, playing along with it on my keyboards.

Seems simple enough. Problems? Ideas for a better mousetrap?

Tia, 4God

I wouldn’t use a CD personally. I would recommend an iPhone iPad or MacBook / laptop iTunes. Or Cubase. Create a live project.

Export all your music with key and tempo info. Create a tempo track and import all your music, add the desired VST for live performances…

Check out this video:

AP, thnx for your response. My problem is not being able to understand much of what you are saying, and the guy on the video is way beyond my skill level. This is all new to me and so it’s almost like a foreign language.

What I currently know how to do in Cubase Elements 9.5:
Create a project, add audio track, choose a VST from NI Komplete 11, lay down the track, repeat with other instruments as desired. I understand how to eq, add compression, reverb, etc to a single track, and have played around a bit with the read/write automation.

My original intention when I started this project was to create a Christmas CD for the congregation of my church, where I lead worship. As I worked through the technology, which is a new trick to an old dog, I began to realize the potential for live application. I am currently using a Kronos 2 and a couple of Roland arrangers for worship. The arrangers do a fair job, and have their advantages. But the NI stuff is much better quality. My PC setup is at home, so whatever media I use, I need to be able to transport it to the church and then run it through the system. A portable CD was my first thought, but I’m not sure about pitch changes. For a Christmas CD, not a problem, but for live performance that would a deal breaker.

You mentioned using an iPad. Would I need Cubasis for that? Would I be able to upload my song from my PC to the iPad then play it though the system at church?

Again, thanks for taking the time to turn on a few lights for me.

Hey,
I’ve been doing this professionally for years. I just create the tracks in Cubase, then render them out as 32bit/48khz files and use VLC or Spider Player, on a PC laptop, to play them using a playlist. I’m a guitarist/singer and I do heavy pop and prog and it works just splendidly.

I once tried to use Cubase live for this, but it’s just too much tech overhead and the possiblity of Cubase locking up or going mad during the set is just to high…I have other things to worry about, being just one guy and all…so the hi-def-ish audio files are much easier for the comp to deal with and everyone is happy.

I agree with AP, using CD’s for live backing tracks is not the best choice. This is because the CD itself is prone to failure if the underside isn’t kept spotless clean. CD’s are also at risk of physically cracking or breaking. A much better idea is to get an ipod or some other kind of portable mp3 player. Better yet, get two or three. Load all your songs on to each. If the ipod itself fails or gets broken, you’ve got another as a backup. Just plug it in and go.

This app works great for live playback

Thanks so much to everyone for the great ideas.

JACKnight: I am researching VLC and similar programs. You mentioned creating 32bit/48khz files. I am currently recording using 64bit filepath to my NI instruments. Any problem converting them to 32bit when I export them from Cubase as audio files to my desktop? (hope I’m asking that correctly)
[edit] ok, I see that 32bit is highest offered, created a wav file on my desktop and played it with windows media player, sounds good. Also sent the file to a usb stick - it worked! Starting to get excited about this.

shanabit: Love the Sound Byte setlist concept. I have an iPad mini and I believe they make a version that will work with it. I have found usb/lightning adapters that would allow me to upload files from my PC. For that matter, I don’t see why simply emailing them to myself wouldn’t work.

Again, I really appreciate all the help from everyone. Any other thoughts are welcome.
4God

Onsong for iPad.

I have used cubase in my laptop for backing tracks before.
After creating all the tracks (each in its own cubase project) I export a wav with the mix and another with a click track for each track. Then I import each track along with its corresponding click into another project, I create an arranger track so I can change the order of the tracks and tell cubase to stop after the track finish and automatically go to the beginning of the next track in my playlist. That way I don’t have to manually look for the next one, just hit play directly in my laptop or using cubase ic pro in my iPhone.
Another method that I like to use is my iPhone or iPad playing the backing tracks.
I export a mix from each project containing a backing track with music panned left and the click panned right, connect an audio cable from my iPhone with a Y adapter and route the left side to the FOH console and the right side to a small headphone amplifier for the drummer.
Hope that makes sense!!

Update:
Built a 20 track song using Cubase and Native Instruments VST’s on my Studio PC.
Exported it to desktop .wav file.
Uploaded to a zip stick.
Downloaded it to the PC I am using live.
Using Soundbyte as a cart.
Worked great.
Back to Cubase - muted select instruments, repeat process using “live band” version.
Life is good.