BackTrax

BackTrax is the fast, easy and fool-proof way to run backing tracks on stage from your iPhone or iPod Touch. There are many features that make it much better for this purpose than the built-in media player, and it's designed for maximum consistency and minimal errors.

Features

  • It stops after every song automatically; no more jumping to stop the next track from playing, maintaining playlists for every song, or inserting padding in or between your tracks.
  • Volume automatically sets to 100% on startup (you can still turn it down if necessary).
  • Single screen interface means no flipping between screens to start a new song.
  • Dark color scheme minimizes the illumination it creates on stage, and it's less harsh to look at in the dark.
  • You can select the next song without it automatically starting.
  • There's no pause button, it's a stop button. That means you can preview a track, stop it, and know that it will still start at the beginning when you push play.
  • It uses iTunes playlists, so you don't have to poke at a tiny editing interface to set everything up.
  • Big, colorful Play/Stop/Next buttons at the bottom that are hard to miss, and it's hard to accidentally hit the wrong one.
  • It will never automatically switch songs on you and will never play a song until you hit the Play button.
  • The song list displays the running time of each song.

How to Use

  1. Create playlists for your backing tracks in iTunes and sync them to your device. The sort order you set in iTunes is how it will be sorted on the device.
  2. In BackTrax, hit the Add button at the top left and select playlists or songs to load from your music library.
  3. Select a song in the list by tapping it.
  4. Tap the big green Play button and the selected song (highlighted in blue) will play.

Tips

  • Try creating setlist-ordered playlists for each show, but also keep a playlist of *all* of the band's backing tracks in alphabetical order. At the show you can load the setlist-ordered playlist, then load the all-songs playlist on top of that (the list is not automatically cleared each time you add). That way you can speed right through the ordered setlist, but if the band decides to throw in an extra song you can scroll down to the alphabetical list and play it.
  • As noted in the FEATURES section, selecting a song does not cause it to play immediately. If there's a big break in a song or an outro during which you don't play, you can tap on the Next button or on a particular song to have it queued up and ready to play when the current song ends.

Feedback

If you have any comments on BackTrax or ideas for how it can be improved, drop a line to BackTrax@aisle4.com. We look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions!