Running backing tracks and a click from an iPad at gigs

Most backing-track trouble at a gig is routing: the click turns up in the PA, the track never reaches the desk, or one cable gets knocked and the in-ears go quiet halfway through a song. This guide covers getting the click to your ears and the track to front of house from an iPad, through an audio interface or a small mixer, and the checks worth doing before you walk on. If you only have a Y-cable, start with the Y-cable guide. A night with no backing track, just a tempo for each song, is click-only gigs.

The rule: the click goes to you, the track goes to the desk

The audience should hear the track and never the click. You need both, with the click loud enough to sit over the kit. So the two have to leave the iPad on separate outputs and stay separate until they reach your ears. Everything below is a way of keeping them apart.

The easiest way to get that is a file with the click on one side and the mix on the other, or a click track with no audio at all. This guide covers making the files.

With an audio interface

A class-compliant USB interface gives you balanced line outputs and more level than the iPad's own socket. With two outputs, put the click on output 1 and the track on output 2. Output 1 goes to your headphone amp or the input of a wired in-ear pack. Output 2 goes to the desk as a balanced line, or through a DI box if the desk wants a mic-level XLR.

With four outputs you can keep the track in stereo: track on outputs 1 and 2 to the desk, click on output 3 to your ears. In Click Left, the click can go to any output and the track to any one or two, so set this once in Settings and it holds for every song. Most small venues run the PA in mono, so ask the engineer whether they want one channel or two before you bring a stereo pair.

Set the iPad's volume to maximum and leave it. Set levels on the interface and the headphone amp. Then the engineer gets the same level all night, whatever you do to your own mix.

With a small mixer at your end

Some drummers want the track in their ears as well as the click, plus a bit of vocal or bass. A small mixer by the kit does that. Bring the click and the track up on separate channels. Use an aux or monitor send to build your in-ear mix from both. Then send only the track channel to the desk, from its direct out, an insert or a second aux.

The usual mistake is leaving the click channel routed to the mixer's main output. If the main out feeds the desk, the audience hears the click every time it is turned up. Take the click channel out of the main mix, or keep its fader down and send it pre-fader to your aux. Then ask the engineer to solo your track channel while the click is playing. If they can hear a click, fix it before doors.

That pre-fader send needs a desk with an aux. With no aux, pan the click hard to one side and the track hard to the other, and send only the track side to front of house.Sending a click to your in-ears through a small mixergoes through the cabling, that pan, and the checks for hum, charging and a locked iPad.

When an output drops

A knocked USB lead, a hub losing power or an interface resetting can all take your outputs away mid-song. Click Left does not go silent when that happens. Click and track fall back to outputs 1 and 2, and the stage shows a warning that the audio output was disconnected. That tells you straight away the problem is a lead, not the track or the app, so you can carry on to the end of the song and fix it in the gap.

The fallback outputs are the iPad's own, so what you hear depends on what is plugged in there. Know what that will be before the gig. The best fix is not needing it: strap the interface to the stand, loop the USB lead so a pull takes the strain rather than the socket, and use a lead that clicks in firmly. During the line check, unplug the interface once on purpose so you have seen the warning before you need it.

Tempo, counts and the running order

On a click track you can nudge the tempo by 1 BPM while it plays, and the change lands on the same bar and beat. Backing tracks play as recorded, so their tempo cannot change live. In a setlist, any slot can have a gap before auto-advance, and the stage counts that gap down so you know when the next song starts. When a set has a click track, the pad stage keeps the beat lamps up for the whole set.

Share the running order with the band as a printable PDF, so the singer's list and your pads match. If you play in more than one band, keep each band's songs and setlists under its own band, with its own click level.

Pre-gig checklist

The night before

• Charge the iPad, and the in-ear pack if it uses batteries.
• Back up the library to a folder, so a lost or broken iPad does not cost you the set.
• Send the band the running order and check it matches the setlist on the iPad.
• Practise any song you are unsure of on its own from the library, at gig volume in the in-ears.
• Pack a spare USB lead, a spare jack lead and the power supply for the hub or interface.

At the venue

• Plug the iPad into power, through a powered hub if the interface uses its only port.
• Label each output lead at both ends: click, track left, track right.
• Line check each output on its own. Ask the engineer to confirm there is no click in the track channel.
• Set the click level with the in-ears in and the band playing at gig volume, not in a quiet room.
• Unplug the interface once and check you see the warning, then plug it back in and check both outputs again.
• If you use a page-turner pedal, step on it a few times to check it moves one song per press.

Just before you walk on

• Turn on a Focus so calls and alerts cannot cut into the audio.
• Open the setlist, arm the first song and check the iPad's volume is at maximum.
• Check the in-ear pack and headphone amp are on and turned up.