JoeCo has announced the launch of its Band-Mate 24-channel backing track player for performing musicians who don’t want to be tethered to a laptop, with potential crashes and slowdowns right when you don’t need it.
Touting it as “the most reliable member of your band” it is said to make it simple to create remarkable live performances without the risks associated with a laptop computer.
Twenty-four channels of audio playback alongside MIDI data for control and update of linked equipment such as effects pedals and lighting controllers, plus two intuitive apps for setting it all up.
The BandMate app lets you put together a set list of tracks, and once the performance starts, the unit automatically loads up each track with its associated settings in the order required. Playback can be triggered from the front panel, foot switch, MIDI command or the Remote app. Audio, MIDI and playlist data stored on a local USB memory stick.
The 24 individual balanced outputs can be sent to a mixing console, with BandMate also able to send outputs 23 and 24 to an unbalanced stereo TRS jack. There’s built-in protection against the risks associated with messing up phantom power, plus earth lift. The front panel LED shows audio tracks and signal.
Supporting BandMate via Bluetooth is the BandMate Remote app. Available for iOS and Android devices, it can be used on the road to create, edit, save and load playlists. In addition to this, the app can select a song, start playback, pause, false start, skip songs and alter the output levels or mix. The app has been designed to work in either landscape or portrait mode and while control is only through one device, it will allow other band members with the app on their device to view BandMate Remote.
The BandMate Loader app runs on MacOS and Windows machines. This features two core elements to ensure a gig runs smoothly – Track Loader makes it easy to organise the source files you need for each song, whilst Playlist Editor organises the prepared songs into setlists for the gig. BandMate Loader will copy the source wav files onto a USB stick in an organised filing structure and create the files that BandMate requires to output the correct sound on each channel for that song.
Full specifications, price and launch date to be confirmed.
