The One Man Band: Playing All of the Instruments At the Same Time

If you’re making music, you’re often going for a big sound, which is exactly why most songwriters tend to only perform with a full band backing them up. But some dare to take everything on themselves, building a one-person ‘one man band’ by playing multiple instruments at once or manipulating some kind of complex MIDI system that can sound just as big as a twenty-member-strong ensemble.

It’s Nothing New

The one man band is definitely not a new phenomenon. As far back as the thirteenth century, there were already musicians who had learned the art of playing more than one instrument at the same time. The classic ‘one man band’ image has a bass drum strapped to their back and a harmonica hanging from some contraption around their neck, leaving both hands free to chug away on a guitar or even a piano. However, with a little technological fairy dust, you can get pretty creative with your one man band setup. Add some laptops, samplers and hi-end effects units and the options are suddenly endless.

Keep it Simple

In the quest to find just the right tools for your live solo setup, it’s not just important to have a clear idea of the sound and feel you want to achieve, it’s also important to remember that you weren’t born with eight arms and legs, so you also need to think long and hard about the practicalities. If an acoustic drum kit is going to form the core of your rig, then a set of drum pads will be a much better option for triggering samples than some kind of floor-based pedal unit. But, if you’re playing a guitar and singing, then some kind of triggering pedal that you can set up on the floor will be a lot easier to work with than, say, a laptop.

Backing Tracks & MIDI

The most common and perhaps simple form of the one-man-band these days is a lone singer accompanied by instrumental backing tracks, maybe played back using a laptop. The possible issue with this kind of setup is that it can miss the energy that comes with creating something live. That’s not to say that you can’t prepare a few specific elements at home though, so you can do something like write and programme the drums and strings and then play one or two other instruments live. Of course, if you’re working this way, then you’ll be playing to the fixed tempo of the backing tracks, which won’t work so well with songs with a more shifting tempo. Most of the time, artists will ask the sound engineer to trigger the backing tracks for them, but using a laptop on stage is becoming the more common practice.

A backing track is basically your full band accompaniment and, usually, it’s entirely instrumental but sometimes it also includes vocals. They can be made up of studio recorded tracks, or you can build something in your home studio using the instruments that you can’t physically include in the live show. You can simply record real instruments or use virtual instruments (VSTi), which are sound modules that can be used in recording software and ‘played’ using a MIDI controller, or you can ‘paint’ in the notes and programme everything within your DAW. You can also download MIDI files from the internet, tweak the separate tracks and assign other instruments to build tracks so you can use the ‘karaoke’ version of a song and build on them with your own arrangements.

MIDI

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a protocol that allows electronic instruments and equipment to exchange information in real-time. If you think about how a keyboard works, the principle is already familiar: when a key is pressed, a MIDI command is sent to the internal sound engine or synthesizer that then generates the sound in response. Any one man band that specialises in playing covers will no doubt be delighted with the sheer mass of MIDI files they can find on the internet. A MIDI file only contains information about which notes are played, in what order and for how long which note is held, etc. and no actual sound. When you load the file into a DAW (like Cubase or ProTools), you can then assign a virtual instrument so that, when you hit play, the virtual instrument is instructed to ‘play’ the MIDI file. The result can then be saved as an audio file.

It’s also possible to translate MIDI information into sound live, on stage, with an entertainer keyboard. The advantage of doing it this way is that you have full control over how long chords are held for and so on. MIDI is actually not just about translating note information, commands like start, stop and the tempo can also be exchanged using the protocol. A fairly cheap foot controller like the Behringer FCB1010 combined with a laptop and interface can be a great solution when you need to start and stop backing tracks and samples. Music programmes like Ableton even give you the option to speed up or slow down tracks in real-time using the tap-tempo function of a MIDI controller.

Keyboards

Another really familiar version of the one-man-band is a solo performer sitting behind a keyboard with automatic accompaniment built in. This sort of smart accompaniment responds to the played chord and both creates and adjusts the backing track accordingly, depending on the selected genre, whether it’s rock, salsa, classical music or jazz and so on. The performer is then free to play solos and improvisations over the backing, thickening up their sound, and sing the lead vocal. If we’re being really picky, then this setup doesn’t really constitute a one-man-band, since the musician isn’t playing multiple instruments at the same time, so it’s a little less of a spectacle, but in essence, you’re getting the same result: a multi-instrumental backing for your live show. Of course, you can pick up a really great keyboard for writing at home for just a couple of hundred pounds, but you’ll see really professional solo entertainers playing keyboards with a mind-boggling range of functions and incredible sounds, like the renowned Yamaha Genos (the follow up to the Tyros).

Performance Art

A really advanced way to perform with MIDI controllers is using body-mounted MIDI sensors so that, by merely moving and performing specific gestures, you can trigger specific sounds and effects, essentially turning your entire body into an instrument. A well-known example of this level of technological performance art was when Imogen Heap donned her ‘musical gloves, which had tiny microphone sewn into them that could be used to sample her voice or other sounds, while the movement of her hands and her position on the stage dictated the triggering and manipulation of virtual instruments.

Loop Stations

A really popular live-arrangement method is to use a loop station like the Boss RC-505. These units are essentially recording devices that you can control with your feet by hitting start, recording your first looping layer and then building up from there. A lot of loop stations will allow you to record multiple loops, so you can play them back to a synchronised tempo and then turn individual loops on and off to create more dynamics. Musicians use loop stations for beat boxing, layering vocals or even playing out beats on a guitar or other equipment to build a self-made backing track live and in real-time. Using a loop station takes hours and hours of practice to master, since your timing needs to be really tight, but it’s still one of the most creative tools when it comes to building a solo multi-instrumental set.

Fancy Footwork

Despite the growing popularity of electronic gear, there are also acoustic instrument manufacturers that focus on accommodating less technical one-man-bands. Pete Farmer is one such manufacturer, who makes a whole range of products that are made up of various acoustic percussion instruments, all designed to be played by tapping your feet. Carrying a complete drum kit on your back or triggering a tambourine or cowbell with your feet: nothing is out of bounds. Some of their biggest innovations are the Farmer Foot Drums pedals, which can be set up to control multiple percussion instruments at the same time by simply moving your foot to the left, to the right or by moving your heel, so you can do things like hit a tambourine, a shaker and a cowbell with one foot while hitting a kick drum with your other foot. Again, this is a skill in itself so it takes a lot of practice to get it right, but for a motivated and determined solo performer, it’s just part of the job. If that all sounds a bit too extensive for you, then there are more accessible models like an Ortega Stompbox. While they’re not acoustic, they’re a really great starter tool (and are way more compact and easier to lug around than a bass drum).

One Man Everything?

While you can surround yourself with all of the digital equipment and tools to make performing on stage alone a little bit easier, you still can’t do absolutely everything on your own. Making sure that the sound of all that gear is on point will definitely involve a second pair of hands so, when you’re playing in a venue or pub that doesn’t have an in-house sound engineer, it’s a good idea to be able to send a simple stereo track to the PA system rather than connecting everything up to a separate mixer track. This way you can be absolutely certain that every instrument is going to sound nicely balanced and you’ll get the same sound that you’re used to rehearsing with. To pull that off, you might want to invest in a small personal mixer that you can set up on stage and that you’re already familiar with. Figure out the perfect level settings beforehand and you’re winning.