Duet with backing tracks, right or wrong?

[Col]

I'm thinking of dueting with my wife (she sings), jazz/latin/blues in local pubs and was wondering the best way to produce an acceptable backing.

I dep'd at a gig last week with a guitarist and he used mini-discs, which though easy to load and control didn't sound great. That could have been down to his backing tracks though and I'm used to playing with a band, however the audience loved it.

Would MP3s sound better? should I get my band to record backing live onto MixPad or Audacity for realism?, do punters care or are they able to tell?

 

[Flipper2008]

A lot of folk tend to use backing tracks mixed in stereo, I find mixing them to mono so you get the same sound from each speaker works much better, the listeners then get the same mix no matter were they are positioned. If you are listening to a stereo mix sat near the left speaker and a specific instrument is mixed over to the right hand speaker, you aint going to hear it. Also tracks that are rich in reverb will just be swamped even more by the room acoustics, try to use tracks that are fairly dry in that dept.

Hope this helps

Flipp

 

[Pjonah]

Have you considered Band in a Box? It takes some getting used to but is surprisingly good.

Maybe worth consideration