🇬🇧 English · 🇮🇹 Italiano · 📖 Documentation

Write the chords, pick the groove, play along.
Backing tracks with rhythm guitar and drums sampled from real instruments, generated from a simple YAML file or from a graphical editor.

✨ Features

• 🎸 Real guitars (Fender, Gretsch, Epiphone, acoustic) through real amps and cabinets, sampled drums, optional bass
• 🎚️ 153 grooves in 9 styles: rock, blues, rockabilly, country, bluegrass, jazz, funk, reggae, soul
• 🖥️ Graphical editor with bar grid, progression templates, player with loop and scales on the fretboard (CAGED)
• 📤 WAV, MP3, MIDI and stems; 2 minutes of song in about 5 seconds
• 📚 90 example songs, English and Italian interface

📦 Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wdog/backingtrack/main/install.sh | bash      # Linux / macOS

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wdog/backingtrack/main/install.ps1 | iex             # Windows

It installs ffmpeg if missing, the program and the samples (~460 MB, only once). More: installation.

🚀 Quick start

backingtrack examples/blues/sweet_home_chicago.yaml     # → out/sweet_home_chicago.wav
backingtrack gui                                        # graphical editor

A song is a few lines of YAML:

title: My blues
tempo: 90
groove: blues
sections:
  - name: Verse
    repeat: 2
    chords: |
      | A7 | D7 | A7 | A7 |
      | D7 | D7 | A7 | A7 |
      | E7 | D7 | A7 | E7 |

📖 Documentation

wdog.github.io/backingtrack — tutorial · editor · song format · grooves · songs · commands · FAQ · development

🙏 Credits

Code: MIT. The samples are downloaded by backingtrack setup straight from their authors:

Library	Instrument	Author	License
Black & Green Guitars	Gretsch guitar	Karoryfer Samples	CC0 1.0
Emilyguitar	Epiphone guitar (optional)	Karoryfer Samples / D. Smolken	CC0 1.0
Electric Guitar FSBS	Fender guitar (default)	FreePats	CC0 1.0
FSS Steel-String Guitar	acoustic guitar (optional)	FreePats / FlameStudios	GPL 3+ with an exception for songs
Jester's Emerald and Brutal IR	guitar cabinets (IR)	Jester Dyne Productions	free, commercial use allowed
Salamander Drumkit	drums	Alexander Holm	CC-BY-SA 3.0
Double bass (Rubner 1958)	double bass (optional)	D. Smolken	CC0 1.0
Sneakybass	light double bass (optional)	D. Smolken	CC0 1.0
Black & Blue Basses	electric bass (optional)	Karoryfer Samples	CC0 1.0

If you publish songs made with the Salamander drums, credit the author: "Drums: Salamander Drumkit by Alexander Holm (CC-BY-SA 3.0)". The songs in examples/ contain only chord progressions; the titles are there only to recognize them.