What are Live P.A.s actually doing up there?
It varies from performer to performer. Some Live P.A.’s push play on a CD, DAT, or DAW (nowadays usually a laptop) – this is called using “backing tracks” and is used by musicians that don’t want to take the risk of making a mistake onstage. Others take it a step further and remix that material on the fly and add live instrumentals and gear tweaking over the top. The “real” Live P.A.s take it further by recreating their studio sound live and have the expressive capability to improvise and change the music on the fly, because all of their instruments are right there with them on-stage. Therefore, you’ll see some Live P.A.’s play shows with racks of hardware gear, and others with just a laptop (as it’s possible with today’s powerful computers to create entire music tracks using just a computer). Part of the beauty of the art of Live P.A. is that there is no set method. Performers use whatever means they can to produce the music.
