Look at how scornful we get at those amongst us (or shown on YouTube) that even fake playing the keyboard... And yet, if you step away from the keyboard, you are inviting your audience to think that YOU are one of those!

My backing tracks (no audio, just SMFs or arranger) get stripped down to the absolute minimum that I can get away with for each song. I try to stay as lively as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs! Probably at least half of them are just drums alone (I DO have a guitarist/singer), most of the rest are just bass and drums, only a few are much more than that. I try to do as much of the SMF production as I can (I have a MIDI drum kit and use drummers to provide unique drumtracks when I can) or if I use a web SMF, it is tweaked and changed as much as possible. I add a LOT of 'ghost' notes, ruffs, drags, lots of little drum things to change the mechanical nature of most web MIDI's. Basically, I work on it until it sounds 'live'.

But the main thing is to remain VERY busy (both hands!) so they don't see you relying on the track much. If you 'walk away' too often, you invite them to believe it is ALL backing tracks. This is just my opinion, yada, yada yada, but it seems logical, to me, anyway

Musicians, playing music. THAT is what my audience wants to hear. If they want a pre-canned show, they go to Disney!