Multitracks

Multitracks are something that are used regularly in the church worship production setting. With many bands utilizing random synthesizer sounds and multiple keyboard and guitar tracks, it makes it almost impossible for even larger churches to accurately replicate in a live setting the sound some people have grown to expect from songs through listening to their recordings. For example, almost anything from Hillsong Young and Free has synthesizer sounds that almost require the use of multitracks. Another example is songs from Elevation Worship. These have roughly 6 separate guitar tracks and anywhere from 2 to 10 keyboard tracks that they recorded for their album release. These can be very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to replicate no matter the size of your church, which seems to be the primary reason that people utilize tracks for their live worship services. For those who are unaware, these playback tracks also come with a click and guide which help keep the band synced to the track. 

​

There are many different ways that I have seen multitrack playback being used in the church. While in a handful of instances, they aren’t used, they are being widely used, even in smaller venues. The most often used programs are Ableton Live, Prime, and multitracks.com's “Playback” system. No matter which software you decide to purchase for multitracks, you will need at least three things: The software (Live, Prime, Multitracks), hardware (a laptop, iPad, etc.) and an interface to extract the audio from the software to go to your mixer (DI box, Focusrite iTrack, Focusrite Red Net, etc.). Also, you will need to purchase or rent the multitrack stems for whatever platform you are using. For those who don’t know how to do that, it’s very simple. It can all be done through multitracks.com. Each platform has its ups and downs, but by far the most versatile is Ableton Live.