Tips for using your iPod to play backing tracks
The iPod was designed for personal listening but that hasn't stopped singers and musicians realising the potential of this great little machine for playing backing tracks.

However, because it wasn't specifically designed for this purpose, here are a few tips on how to configure your ipod and best set it up for live on stage use. The iPod is pretty much the most user friendly mp3 player available now - it is ideal onstage because it responds quickly in an onstage environment (which is essential).

iPod auto pause
The first thing that strikes you about the iPod (especially if you have been using minidisc for your backing tracks up till now is that it has no auto-pause facility.

I personally have an old creative mp3 player which, although it doesn't have an auto-pause, it does play one song and then stops (which in a way is the same thing as auto-pause). The problem is, the creative player isn't very easy to use onstage (it's not very user-friendly).

The iPod on the other hand is very easy to use on stage (it is extrememly user-friendly), but doesn't have an auto-pause! However, there is a couple of work rounds to do this.

Firstly, you can have each song in it's own playlist. That way the ipod plays the song and then stops.

Another way is to make up a song which is purely 10 minutes of silence. Then when you make up your set list with all the songs you want to sing in the order you want to sing them, simply insert the "silent track" beteween each song in the list. This way, when each song finishes, you don't need to hit pause, the iPod will just move on to the next song (which is 10 minutes of silence). 10 minutes should be long enough to do whatever you want to do, or say whatever you want to say to your audience. If, after a few minutes or even a few seconds, you want to play your next song, just hit the >> button and the next song will start to play.

Minidisc to iPod

Many singers are still using the old fashioned minidisc format so find themselves with a problem - how do I transfer my minidisc backing tracks to my iPod? It's not an overly complicated process and, with the right software, is easy to do.

Firstly, you need to record the songs from your minidisc in to your computer and encode them to mp3 format.

Once you have them on your hard drive in mp3 format, you can easily transfer them to your iPod.

Even if your tracks are on CD, Minidisc, cassette tape or DAT, the process of transferring them to your iPod is the exactly same two step process...

Backing tracks -----> your PC -----> iPod

...and here's how to do it

There is no "quick" way of recording from Minidisc to mp3 but there are a few tips we can give and software that we can recommend which will make the job a whole lot easier and save you a lot of time, trouble and hadaches!

The process of recording your backing tracks from Minidisc to mp3 involves "playing" each song on your Minidisc player and "recording" the resulting audio in to your computer (ie a laptop or a desktop PC). To do this, you need to connect your Minidisc to your computer via a suitable cable. The type of cable you need will depend entirely on the output jack(s) that your Minidisc player uses and the input jack(s) your PC or laptop uses.

Many Minidisc players have Optical/Digital outputs (and some of the more expensive PC sound cards have Optical/Digital inputs) but most standard PC's and Laptops have simple audio ins and outs, so for the purposes of this article, we will be connecting the Minidisc player to the PC or Laptop via an audio cable. Most PC's or Laptops have a 6mm stereo line-in jack, so the cable you use will need to have a 6mm stereo jack (often called a mini-jack) at one end. PC soundcards do differ though, so make sure you check before buying the cable!

Most Minidisc decks use 2 RCA jacks for the output (these are sometimes referred to as PhonoPlugs). However, smaller personal Minidisc players (Walkman types) usually have a 6mm stereo mini-jack output. So, again, check the output before you buy the cable! Once you've determined the type of output jack(s) of your Minidisc and the type of input jack(s) of your PC or Laptop, and bought the proper cable, it's time to connect them together.

One end of your cable should be connected to the "output" of your minidisc player - the other end of the cable should be connected to the "input" or "Line-In" of your PC or Laptop.

Before you can record the audio from your Minidisc player to your PC, your PC needs some sort of software program which can record audio. Windows already has a built-in sound recorder (you'll find it at Programs/Accessories/Entertainment), but the bad news is that, not only is it not very good, you will still have to convert the audio to mp3 even after Windows has recorded it! However, you can save yourself a bundle of time, frustration and a thousand headaches, by using a proper dedicated program to handle the recording. We've found an ALL-IN-ONE solution which will do EVERYTHING for you - it'll record all your songs from your Minidisc and it'll convert them all to mp3 for you in real-time, while it's recording the tracks in to your computer. It's called MusicMatch Jukebox and and is simple to use. Click on the picture below to go to MusicMatch's website for a full list of features:

Once you have your recording software installed and you've read through the operating instructions for the software, you can now begin to record your backing tracks from your Minidisc player to your PC or Laptop.

Press "Record" on MusicMatch to begin recording. At the same time press "Play" on your Minidisc player. The Minidisc will begin playing the first song and at the same time musicmatch on your PC will begin to record the resulting audio. You may have to adjust the volumes of the Minidisc player until you get a good signal/volume.

Remember that the loudest parts of a song often come near the end of the song, so although you may think you've got a good healthy volume setting at the beginning of the song, you could end up with a distorted recording when the "dynamics" of the song increase towards the middle or end!

Repeat the process for every song you want to record, saving each song to your hard-drive as you go along (save it to a folder you'll remember like My Documents/My Music or alternatively you can save it to the recording softwares default folder).

MusicMatch Jukebox allows you to record directly to mp3. Other programs (such as the built-in Windows Sound Recorder) do not - they only allow you to record in WAV file format. This means you will need another program to convert the WAV file to mp3. It's a lot of work, you need loads of hard-disk space on your PC or laptop, and to be quite blunt - it's really not worth the trouble!

However, if you decide to do it this way, good luck, and don't say we didn't warn you....!

It will take you some time to record all your Minidisc backing tracks in to your PC or Laptop as each song has to be recorded individually and in real time (ie a 4 minute song will take you 4 minutes to record), however, the MusicMatch jukebox's real-time recording facility will save you a lot of time - as soon as you have played/recorded each backing track, go to the folder you saved it to and it'll be sitting there, already encoded to mp3 and ready to be transferred to your iPod.

Transfering the mp3 backing track in to your iPod couldn't be simpler - you've probably done this a thousand times via the iTunes program. Just drag 'em in and iTunes does the rest.

Using the iPod on stage
Organizing your sets / song order in a manual playlist is the best way to go. If you have several sets you may want to group them on the playlist menu by keep the first few letters of each sets playlist name the same.

great tip is to name the "album" on each backing track "trax". This way you can view all the backing tracks in one place by themselves.

The name of the album for background music (which presumably you'll be playing during your break) can be the actual name of the album if you want, or, ou could do what I do - make up half a dozen compilation albums containing 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, chart stuff and easy listening music so that during your break, you can simply pick an "album" to play that suits the audience/venue/age-group.

Placing the iPod on stage
Most musicians find that the best way to use the iPod on stage is to secure it with velcro strips on the back of their music stand. As long as you are not close enough to the audience for someone to accidently knock the music stand over (which will ultimately knock your iPod over), this is the simplest and easiest way to use the iPod on stage.

However, this needn't be a problem - there are many pouch type accessories available for the iPod which will protect it and many have belt clips, some with velcro patches on the back. Not only will these accessories help protect your iPod on stage, but it will also let you "velcro it" to the stand without having to stick velcro all over the back of the iPod itself.

Here's another idea. Ever thought about customizing your mic stand so that your iPod is right there, within arms length, right in front of your eyes? It's not as difficult to do as you might think. Any drum store will be able to sell you a suitable attachment like a plate that will clamp on to your mic stand and will allow you to attach the iPod and adjust it's height and angle etc. Like above, a little bit of velcro is all that's required to secure your iPod to the plate. Drummers are famous for having little accessories dotted all around their drum kits so any good drum shop will be able to supply you with something which will do the job - just take your mic stand in to the drum shop, show them it, tell them what you want to do, and ask them to advise on a suitable attachment.