Customisable 'Karaoke' backing tracks for practice over well known songs

[DavidW]

Over in his topic " Another way of looking at modes–from a sax player", @woodyhaiken wrote

@woodyhaiken

The way my wife and I play together is we come up with a song. We decide if it is one we will perform. f so, she plays and I play along. Usually I just automatically play in the right key. If we decide to go ahead with the song, we record a backing track with her singing and playing, leaving gaps for my solos. I then practice with the track, work out the fills and get a sense for my solos. All this is by ear, with no chart. I don’t try to do the melody in my solos because I want to improvise.

That reminded me of a site I came across last week : https://www.karaoke-version.com/custombackingtrack/

In the forum where I came across it, one of the members had just used it to try out an idea he had, which was to see if he could set up an arrangement of the Joe Cocker rendition of ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ for the 4 member (bass, drums, lead guitar, vocal/rhythm) cover band he plays lead in. He wanted to see if he could use his guitar to take the place of the organ and the brass.

On the linked site you can tweak the instrumentation for such a track, e.g. take out instruments for part or all of the track, alter levels & panning, change the tempo, change the key.The demo he produced of his arrangement was most impressive.

For those of us without a @ShelleyHaiken to make a custom track for us, maybe this could be a useful tool?

Working on-line it appears to be free (if there’s a time out I’ve not found it). There are some songs for which prepared custom versions can be downloaded without charge, but for most there’s a small charge if you want to cut & download a soundfile. However, once you’ve paid that you can come back again & make other versions of that same song if you wish.

[mem]

@DavidW

Working on-line it appears to be free (if there’s a time out I’ve not found it). There are some songs for which prepared custom versions can be downloaded without charge, but for most there’s a small charge if you want to cut & download a soundfile. However, once you’ve paid that you can come back again & make other versions of that same song if you wish.

Looks interesting, thanks for posting @DavidW, looks like mainly Christmas carols and nursery rhymes in the free section.

[DavidW]

@mem

looks like mainly Christmas carols and nursery rhymes in the free section.

House of the Rising Sun is one of the more interesting
(to me) free songs. https://www.karaoke-version.com/custombackingtrack_free/traditional/house-of-the-rising-sun.html

[Angela]

Hey! I love that site, I use it every so often when I really want a backing track for whatever reason–to practice piano with, to sing along to. I love that I can adjust instruments and change keys. It’s only $3 for a song and as noted you can change and re-download forever after that.

[woodyhaiken]

@DavidW

Working on-line it appears to be free (if there’s a time out I’ve not found it). There are some songs for which prepared custom versions can be downloaded without charge, but for most there’s a small charge if you want to cut & download a soundfile. However, once you’ve paid that you can come back again & make other versions of that same song if you wish.

@DavidW before doing duets with @ShelleyHaiken, and during lockdown, she and I hosted a weekly virtual open mic over zoom. We were virtual for 1-1/2 years. I would find backing tracks of standards to play with. Karaoke Version was one of the sites. I love that you can not only transpose the tracks, and as you said, go back, re-configure and download again, but you can also download each of the individual instruments as tracks. That way one doesn’t even need to go back to the site, but can put them in a DAW (I use Logic) to remix them. As far as I know Karaoke Version is the only site that gives you this flexibility, and their tracks are good quality and reasonably priced.

Thanks for starting this topic!

[DavidW]

@mem

looks like mainly Christmas carols and nursery rhymes in the free section.

There are also 4 tracks ‘Blues in A’ (& E, C & F) in the free section, each which of you can transpose into aby other key if you wish.

https://www.karaoke-version.com/custombackingtrack_free/play-along-backing-tracks/

I was sure I’d seen those before but couldn’t find them last night as the browser on my Android tablet seems to have some ‘interesting’ issues with navigating the site. Looking now on my desktop computer they were easy to find.

[DavidW]

@Angela

Hey! I love that site

@woodyhaiken

I would find backing tracks of standards to play with. Karaoke Version was one of the sites

Glad to hear of more positives for the site @Angela & @woodyhaiken. I already knew that my friend Stu on the other forum was very impressed by it (he often uses it when preparing songs for use with the covers band he plays with as they very rarely get the chance to rehearse as a group).

[mem]

@DavidW

There are also 4 tracks ‘Blues in A’ (& E, C & F) in the free section, each which of you can transpose into aby other key if you wish.

Thanks, I’ll check out those Blues tracks