Hey guys, in this video we’re going to cover how to make a backing track to practice with
for guitar.
This method we’re using will be completely free, including the music and MIDI, as well
as all the software.
So to get started, there’s a few pieces of software we need.
First is TuxGuitar.
This is a free guitar pro tab program.
We’ll be downloading a Pro Tab online for our song, then using this program to export
MIDI files.
If you can’t find a Pro Tab for the song you want to make a backing track for, this
method won’t work.
First, search on Google for a Pro Tab for the song you want.
Then just download it.
Some of these sites will make it seem like you need to purchase their software to use
guitar Pro Tabs, but you don’t.
Once you have the file downloaded, just open it up with TuxGuitar.
TuxGuitar won’t be used to make the Pro Tab, but it will be used to export the MIDI.
You can play along with the music in TuxGuitar if you want, but it’s more difficult to
change the settings like the tempo and levels of the tracks, and the instruments don’t
sound as good.
Before we export the MIDI I recommend deleting some of the tracks we don’t need.
Right click on the guitar and synth bass 2 track and remove them.
This will obviously change based on your problem.
Now we can export the MIDI file.
Go to the file menu and select Export, then MIDI.
Save the MIDI file somewhere on your computer.
Before closing, take note of the different instruments we have in the Pro Tab and what
order they’re in.
This will make the next step easier.
The next piece of software we’ll need is called Cakewalk by BandLab.
This is the program we’ll use to actually make the backing track.
I’ll try to cover this process in as much detail as you’ll need, but I’ve also created
an entire series on using Cakewalk if you need more information.
First start a new project.
Then go to the file menu and import a MIDI file.
Now we should see there are 5 MIDI files in our project but that can change depending
on the Pro Tab you’re using.
For some reason it also created a blank first track first so we’ll just delete that.
All the tracks are displayed in the same order as TuxGuitar.
The first thing I want to do is move everything to an instrument track so we can play them
back and output audio.
To create a new instrument track, right click on the blank track area and select Insert
Instrument.
We’ll select SI-Bass as our first instrument.
If it doesn’t show up, it may be because it was not recently used and is hidden in
the menus down below, or we don’t have it installed with the program.
If that’s the case, check out the first video in the Cakewalk series where we installed
it with the program.
Now that we have the instrument track created, click and drag the bass MIDI file onto the
instrument track.
Then, click the blank area where the MIDI file was to deselect the instrument track,
right click on the original bass track and delete it.
We’ll do this again for the next 4 tracks, using SI drums, SI-strings, SI-electric piano,
and SI-Bass again.
At this point, all the MIDI files should be on instrument tracks, but we have a few more
things to do.
One of the problems we have when we export bass from TuxGuitar with this file is that
the bass is an octave too low.
When that happens, there’s no way for the SI-Bass plugin to play back those low notes.
This can depend on the Pro Tab you choose, and you might not always have this issue,
but if you do here’s how to fix it.
Right click on the MIDI file for the bass, select process effect, MIDI, and transpose.
We’ll transpose up by 12, which is an entire octave.
We’ll also do this for the synth bass track because we’ll have the same issue there.
Now we have all our instruments playing.
We’ve successfully created a backing track, but there’s more we can do with it to make
it sound better so it’s more fun to use.
The first way to improve the sound of our backing track is to change all the presets
for the virtual instrument from default to something that works better with our song.
To do this, we need to open the instrument plugin again by clicking on the instrument
icon for that track as shown.
I’ll use the dropdown to change the preset.
I’ll change bass to NiceBass, drums to Nice Recording Kit, Strings to FastAttack to make
it sound like more of a synth and keep the timing right, piano to Lush Electric, and
Bass to dance synth.
Now we want to do some quick mixing to adjust the levels.
I’ll keep the bass and drums high, and lower the synth bass and strings.
Finally, I’ll add a small amount of compression and reverb to the master channel.
When you’re done, you can go to the file menu, select export, and create an audio file
for your backing track.
Or, you can keep the entire project in Cakewalk.
This allows you to do things like transpose the sound through MIDI, change the tempo,
and change the levels of the instruments to make practicing easier.
Thanks for checking out this video on creating a free backing track using Tuxguitar and Cakewalk
by BandLab.
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