How to setup a click track and backtrack through mixer 

Very quick and to the point tutorial without hearing someone's life story and a rundown on all the equipment they have in their entire studio! Well done.

This video needs to be Emmy nominated for being the most comprehensive, straight to the point and illustrative instructional video on the entire internet. I absolutely love the way that it was descriptive, intended and articulate. It is almost a masterpiece for technical visual Direction and gives somebody an exact synopsis of “what-to-do”. Five Stars, Bravo. Goodnight.

Ta, I'm with the others who have been looking for an informative video on how to do bands with tracks and clicks. great job

Even in 2020, this is useful. Thank you sir!

YOU ARE THE MAN! Thank you SO damn much. I've been looking everywhere for this explanation!

Amazing!!! I have been looking for this exact solution for a while now. Thank you very much for the vid and the info!

lol at 5:22 a cat tries to get in the shot and he just pushes it away

Thank you! Can't tell you how much that helped me, honestly

Thank you very much for this man!! i'll try this to our church

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! You just made my life easier!

@Alexdrum18 thank you so much bro. I was looking for something like this for a long time.

very helpful video sir. maybe i can get my band's backing tracks sounding better now.

Dude thank you SO much for making this video

This is such a great and helpful video thank you so much!!!!

that makes sense, thank you

The only way I can truly trust my click to not bleed through is to run my backing track out of something with a L and R output like a stand alone cd or minidisc player...........I use a Roland TM-2 module with an SD card with all my tracks on it and set up my mixer the same way you do.Great video!

Is it necessary to pan the tracks on the mixer? The fx send should be pre fader. And is the DI also necessary? The fx send is already line level. Wouldn’t a trs to male xlr do the job?

Thanks man!

Excellent thank you!

hey dude! this was the most helpful video ive seen, all those forums online just confuse me with all those words. I have this exact same mixer but I have been having so many problems with hearing click come out of the speakers. im going to go get a di box and a small guitar cable and try sending the backing tracks through the AUX out and hopefully that solve my problem! I do have one question though does it matter if my channel splitting is two 1/4 inches instead of male XLRs or no? thanks dude! seriously so helpful!!!!

I have an electric drum kit and in-ear monitors I wanna use, but I’m a solo artist that also sings and that’s gonna have to have a different setup for each place I play at, especially if they don’t have their own PA system. Any tips or resources you guys can point me to so I can learn the best way to setup my rig? I have no sound engineering knowledge beyond what I set up myself at my place.

I use a Digitech Jam Man Sampler/Looper for tracks. You don't need to go in and edit the samples with a click, it's already in the unit. And you can control it with your feet. Only problem is if a song changes time signature throughout you can't change the click to accommodate. Good for pop/rock, bad for prog.

Great tutorial! Thanks! Still wondering though, can I hear the click and the other instruments and the vocal on my ear monitors?

Dude thanks a lot for the info man! Could you ellaborate on how to make those pans in a Daw? Or do you have any video on that topic?

Thank you so much for the explanation! I was wondering what I'd need to do if I wanted to give the backing track to the singer on top of all this. Is it possible with this same mixer and setup, or would I need to do something else? Thanks in advance for the reply!

Thanks for the great video! I'm curious how you mixed the click and backing track in your daw. I'm unsure how you were able to split each track individually with one 1/4 cable via your iPod.

Thanks a lot !

I have 2 questions. I didn’t get the name and kind of the short guitar cord and where does it get plugged into. Second question is are both FOH speakers playing only the backing track and not the click ?

Sir.. How to connect the headphones amp for the gigs? I mean for 6 people can hear the click tracks..

I see the Y cable (maleXLR channels 1 and 2), and that goes back to the 1/8in connector to the iphone. What is the source of the click? Is your iphone playing 2 synchronized tracks (bcktrack and click) ? and if so, how is it splitting the click and backing track?

I've tried this but I keep hitting the same problem. I'm using Garage Band. I've got 2 track. 1: click track 2: backing track. I've got the click pan Left and the track pan Right. But because the backing tracks are in stereo, when I pan I loose half the track. Does that make sense? If so what can I do? Many thanks

Why would you need a DI box?

I'm so green to using backing tracks/sequences, so please excuse my utter ignorance. hugely helpful video, I'm just wondering...it seems like both your signals (track, click) are hooked up to the speaker system, and I understand how you have control of each of them, but how do you SEPARATE the signals you want going to the speakers and the signals you want going to your in-ears? obviously, when you turn up the click volume you don't want it to come out of the speakers. How do you make it so it's just going to your in-ears?

Can't you teach me how to use this mixer for make my own iem on my e-drum?

Sorry I'm confused, if anyone can help please reply, so will the track going to front of hose only be in the right speaker? As well as in the in ears being in the left ear phone?

Helpful video. Is there a way to daisy chain mini mixers like this so that 3 band members could use headphones and hear one person's click track all synced? I want to run ARPs and delays using MainStage and sync them to a click that others can hear (lead guitar/vox, drummer, me - keys), but we can't afford a whole Axiom IEM setup. We *could* all have one earbud and hear the click that way. Thanks for sharing your experience. Trying to find creative solutions here.

Nice Video Alex . . . I was wondering what has changed since you made this one . . . Is there another that you would recommend ? Thanx

Nice set up. Very informative. Thank you. Question, what device are you using for your actual click? Solid state metronome? Or an actual app?

Great video Alex, just what I need. Could you let me know the make of your DI box, as the link seems to be broken now?

Hey My click channel sounds at very low volume in my music channel, do u know why this happens?

hello, please i have question. if i connect Trs to 1/4" Male TRS to 1/4" Female TS Insert Direct-Out Adapter ? can change insert to work a direct our ? or sec ,way if i connect TRS male to adapter Ts female to trs male. can change the insert to work a direct out ? yamaha MG 166 C

I'll go ahead and say that's pretty nifty little bro

Great video Alex, thank you so much ! Quick question (sorry in advance - this may be an obvious/dumb thing to ask but, I'm not to up on the technical side); Does this mean that the backing-track that is being sent to the front monitors/audience, will not be stereo? I kinda want my backing-track instruments panned to create the illusion of a "real band" on stage. Is there of sending a stereo mix to the front whilst having a click/mono mix in your ear? (I'm the only one who needs a click)? Thanks in advance for the advice :)

Another question is if the click on headphones will be played on both channels or on the left channel only with this configuration?

just curious, from the DI box you have a mic line going to the house mixer .. obviously for backing track purpose. But how does the house mixer know you're wanting what is panned right? I was shown another set up of going from the ''right output'' of mixer to a DI then a mic cable from there to house which makes sense but this video left me confused only in that regard. Everything else makes total sense, thanks

Could you make a tutorial where good show connections you explain everything there? I'm from chile and I care a lot this topic

hei Alex, Good video going on here! :) I'm interested to know a couple of things: 1) when preparing the backtrack, could you advise on whether the click track should pan on the left or the right side and what about the volume? 2) Will the sound of the click track and back track automatically split when we use the split connectors for the channels on the mixer? Sorry, learning a lot of stuff here and i'm just keen to find out more.

So so what do you need if you want to get the back track and click to the drummer ?

How can you add 2 mics to your current setup? So only you can talk through mics and hear through the ears ONLY?

Hi Alex, please help me figure out my problem in my setup. I do exactly what you have taught in this video. Panning click to the left and backing track to the right. But the click won't be heard unless I turn up the FX volume which is obviously wrong because it will be heard on the mix. Why is this happening?

does that mean that during performances, the drummer will only hear the back track and click in their in ears? or can they still hear what the rest of the band is playing too?

So i have a question, where do you plug in your iem?

So how would a wireless in-ear monitoring transmitter tie into this? Would I need a mixer with more XLR ports? We'd like the band to be able to hear our click track as well as our backing tracks along with the stage mix. If that makes sense.

Do you think it would work to just use a stereo/mono spliter (once you got a voice with click and track panned opposite sides) And just send the click to the drummer and the track to the PA?

I looked through the comments and couldnt find anyone with my problem so ill ask. I purchased the same mixer used and when i connect the adapter to use my headphones i have to find a sweet spot for both the adapter and heaphones to work. I tried a different adapter and a different set of headphones. Have you had this problem before? Thanks!

Great video, but on the stores there are only 6 inches patch cables. The only "6 in. instrument cable" is the one you are using. Any opinions?

Is there any particular reason to connect the source of the signal to XLR sockets instead of jack? I am asking because the 2x mono jack to 1x stereo mini jack cable is a lot more common and cheaper as well.

This is a great vid. Question though. What if I need a monitor feed also?

What about for a vocalist, is there a way where i can have the Click, and some Vocals in my ears using this mixer

Where do you plug in your IEM’s ?

How well does an iPod perform for playing tracks in 2020?

Excellent! Question, can i use cable from my track source to the mixer but the 1/4" ones? what would be the difference between using 1/4" cable and mic cable?

What if two people need the click? (Drummer and Guitarist) Would that mixer still work?

Great video! thanks. I see that your dual XLR goes to your iPod, giving you the click and music... i only have my iPod doing the click. Will the 2nd channel come directly from the house board and plug directly into the 2nd channel? Sorry, just interested in trying this out!

Great Vid Alex thx for posting dude. One question is the DI BOX passive or active? Which one are you using? Thx again.

is it ok to use TS cable instead of Xlr?

My only question is with the “Y” cable. If you had say an iPad for the back track, and a separate click track machine like a Boss, you would have 2 individual cables running to channel 1 & 2 correct? Their wouldn’t be a need for the Y cable right?

Thank you..

with your setup, can you still hear the singers from your in ear monitors?

If I use 3.5mm to Two 6.3mm instead of 2 XLRs, would it be okay?

With the backtrack panned to one side, that means FOH either gets one channel or mono tracks? What I'm getting at is you can't give FOH stereo backtracks with this method?

What's the purpose of the DI box here? Thanks for the video, very informative.

and those 2 XLR cables are mono now?

my tracks have a chopped up guitar part in the intro that pans left and right. How do I manage to get those in both monitors instead of one?

What wire do i need to plug in to send the blue wire you dont show

I see How this works but I thought those slots were for the Mics "Talkback" for Musician's to communicate with each other.

could I run 2 sets of in ears out of this? one for me the drummer and one for the keyboardist?

Thanks Alex, do you use an Active or Passive Di ?

will the audio/click on the backing track only come through one headphone as its completely panned? or will my click track come through both ears? I would prefer my click to come through both headphones rather just my left or right side

Any benefit of all this over just using a breakout cable(with mono to stereo)?

I'm confused??? how does the FX send only send the channel 2 signal???

How do you get click to come out both sides of your ears

Thanks u just give me a light !!!

are you able to control the volume of the track that's coming out of the house speakers as well?

Conect to Mixer input to xlr low Z the cable to send iPod prosessing to Direct in box?

Thanks for this. How would you set it up if I needed a different balance of click / backing track than someone else in the band. (i.e. I want more click and a bit of track, but the singer wants more track and less click)

Not sure if you still respond to these, but is that 1/8 to XLR splitter, a L/R splitter(left in one input and right side in the other input) or are you doing that within the mixer? Thanks

Great video but if my band only has one mixer can this method still work at practice is speakers are plugged into main out?

Two questions man, first, for the splitter, I have an 1/8th (headphone jack) to two 1/4 inch plugs. Does it make a difference if I use xlr like you are or is it okay to use the quarter inch?

Hi. Just want to ask if we can pan center the backing track when in a DAW and the click track on the left. Will the FOH get a stereo backing track?

Any way to get this where the click will come through both sides of the in ears?

Does it work with the X32 ??

Could you post a video about how to set up a backing track on logic? There are no good videos!

WIll this keep the bleedover out of the Mains?

Set mine up exactly the same as this, but when i pan the click FX knob towards the Backing Track channel to get some of the backing track into the click, there is no backing track coming in at all even panned completely towards it... You sure this works? Im 100% certain i did it exactly same and i have the same mixer.. Weird.

would the entire band be able to hear the backing track and click or will the drummer only hear it?

Would this work if you use a simple cable with 1/8 stereo pulg in one extreme and RCA stereo in the other? Each RCA would end up in a different channel in the mixer. and the stereo plug in the mp3 player. Sorry if question is lame. I'm just starting to work with backing tracks and click.

I think this set up produce mono sound not stereo.

is the one channel good enough for front of house?

Hey dude, very nice video. Can I plug other XLR from main mix and use it as a monitor?