Jim,

I agree that a person creating their own sequences deserves more credit than someone who buys pre-recorded backing tracks. I have no problem with someone benefitting (financially or otherwise) from playing back their own sequences. This is as fair as the case when a musician makes money selling his own CDs.

But I think the originality is only part of the story. I felt cheated, as I hope many others in this forum did, when Milli Vanilli turned out to be lip-syncing, even though their songs sounded good and were original. I agree with Scott, that a true live performer is able to connect his music with the mood of the audience, and change spontaneously to adjust to the situation in the room. I think this is missing from the pre-recorded music, but can be accomplished with the arranger keyboard.

I am not saying that playing back one's own mysic is wrong - it is not. But lip-syncing (or play-syncing) in my book constitutes cheating of the audience.

I think that it is possible to demonstrate ample showmanship and talent, even while utilizing the pre-recorded backup tracks. But if you read this thread over, you come across people lamenting about being replaced by the Karaoke performers, while they themselves do the same thing.

Donny, I do not pretend to be cheater police. I recognize that using the arranger accompaniments constitutes relying on help from electronics, although we could argue about the degree of this reliance. I am happy that so many talented members on this forum are making a living utilizing their gifts. I also agree that when you pour your soul into your music, the audience can usually feel it. Whichever way you can do it is fine with me.

But you must agree that lip-syncing is fraud. In the same vain, when one pretends to play while a midi or MP3 is all that is really playing, this is the same thing (as opposed to playing something audible while using a midi or MP3 file as a backing track).

To make a long story short, IMHO in a live show it is perfectly acceptable to use MIDIs or MP3s (or other audio files) when you are either playing something over top of them, or singing (while not pretending to play), or when you go on a break. Another acceptable use (in my book) is if you play it after giving full credit to the author (even to yourself).

Regards,
Alex