This should be pro-audio related... and I hope it doesn't come off as too geeky, but after seeing some friends perform live to beats and music they pre-recorded, I thought of doing something similar.

They were using cassette tapes and players, but I thought I could use something digital with a remote to more conveniently trigger music at a certain spot.

Has anyone else out there tried something like this? I don't have a drummer and other musicians at my disposal all the time, and waiting to gig gets me ant-sy. Any advice?

Most of the time when I've heard about this being done or seen it done, it was a laptop they were using to trigger effects. There are plenty of programs that just use multitudes of plugins that you can customize and work with pre-concert that also allow in-concert improvisation. Some great stuff.

There are also synthesizers that can hook up to a midi controller board with a screen, but these are incredibly expensive. I've seen The Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails, and a bunch of others use them, but then you're talking something like $6,000 into a setup you seem to just want to mess around with.

Just letting you know the range of options.

Oh, and the laptop software is remote-controllable.

Laptop is just for the ease of being mobile. I have seen it done as well but even though I am a tad geeky, I have no idea how to work anything like that. Is it really that hard?

Thanks guys. I do have a laptop (a PC) so I can load Garageband on there and then load up some basic tracks to play to. The remote control thing would be a great addition.

At first it seemed like this route would be too much extra work, but it could be fun and really pay off in the future!

Thanks again!

Ah, the good old days of cassette tapes. Brought me back to some fond memories. lol

Shackman, a remote control software sounds fantastic. I am technologically challenged so tell me, is there a specific name to the software?

I wish I knew that off the top of my head Chitzy, but I don't. If I get some free time, I'll check it out for ya. In the meantime you can look up sampling software and modules. You might be able to find it in there.

Perhaps a perusal through some sites like these would help:
B&H Pro Audio
Sweetwater
Pianos 'n' Stuff

Those are the only three I can think of off the top of my head. Sweetwater is really friendly and would probably be the most knowledgeable and helpful with your questions.

I used to do a single act with a drum machine, and I've also used it synched to a sequencer in a trio when the drummer came out front.

That's a pretty basic but simple way to start. I had a foot switch to start the drum pattern, and I found it helpful to keep an eye on the pattern display number during solos or other parts of songs to confirm exactly where I was in a song - Because you can't nod to a drum machine to extend a section.

HA! So true.

We pretty much do this while singing at church. It's not quite karaoke because we don't use the screen. It makes it very nice because we don't have a band to back us up. The pre-recorded sound tracks make it sound very professional and we love it.

Years ago I used to use a cassette deck to store information for sequencers and drum machines, but I've never played to one.

Do you think you'd prefer a laptop running sequencing software to a piece of hardware? I wonder if the hardware sequencer would be more stable?

Ricardo...that's something I've often wondered, even though I've never seen or heard of problems with laptops running as sequencers in the past.