StandardsTrax - Jazz & Standards specialists

does what it says on the box... and more! Keyboardist ALAN McPIKE makes otherwise unobtainable backtracks of jazz standards and 40's & 50 tunes (Gershwin, Porter, etc), soul and Motown classics and so on. Highest quality, fabulously arranged, played, and recorded. Brass parts are synthetic, but so well done that the arrangements work fine. Reasonable price, (6 quid). Only problem is the TERRIBLE search function on the site... be prepared to look hard for what you want! Most highly recommended!

No Backing Vocal

Proburn - Simply the best

has a great service... you can choose from a big list of trax from several premium suppliers, and make a 10 track CD for £23... great value, pretty good trax. Only problem is there is no preview or information on any of the trax... you buy and hope for the best. Sometimes the keys are wrong or it just sounds bad... most of the trax have backing vocals. Highly recommended

Mostly karaoke style... with Backing vocal

SBI - The original "Pro" trax suppliers

maybe no longer the biggest, after the advent of Proburn, but still a major force in the pro trax market: a catalogue of over 30,000 titles, every hit since the 1940's, they claim. With the introduction of their new website, SBI have also reduced their prices and implemented a downlaod service... so what was a rather creaky British pop-music business institution is now bang up to date, and good luck to 'em.

Pro grade tracks, versions with or without backing vocals. Quality varies, though and can be dodgy, although they generally use real guitars not keyboard imitations.

Available without backing vocal

Pocket Songs

is a big Karaoke supplier... mostly pretty good trax, sold mostly in themed albums (artist, genre etc). Reasonable price but expensive (ex USA) shipping unless you order large quantities. Selected titles available at Chappell of Bond St.

The Singing Station

is a US site with reasonable (under 10 quid) prices and quite a large catalogue, but many of their tracks have backing vocals on. They have a specialist Broadway category.

Karacool and Playback-Pro

Two French sites with a modest (and almost identicfal) selection of songs... not only French singers, but OK for the occasional Gainsbourg & Brel songs and other Frenchified stuff..

MP3BackingTracks

supplies reasonable quality MP3 backing tracks. Prices are 4 quid-ish, and the selection is quite large. Mostly the big hits. Online downladable delivey system partially implemented.

Steve's Trax

has an impressive catalogue of tracks on this plain but informative site. No fancy website downloading here: send a cheque, expect tracks in the post. A bit pricey at over 7 quid, but there are deals for bulk, and (uniquely) free service if you want transpositions and custom instrument combinations. As yet untried, but we will order some and keep you informed as to quality.

Toplist

has a (very) modest catalogue of hits and a few oldies. Prices range from 2 to 4 pounds. (MP3 instant downloads.) Beware they also sell MIDI files, which you probably don't want...

Musical Midi

has a fair selection of musical theatre and music-hall tracks... not the greatest quality, but they do have stuff not obtainable elsewhere. 15 US Dollars and inconvenient postal delivery from abroad...

Backing-Track.co.uk

has a small range of tracks, including some jazz and other less usual fare. Supplied by mail on CD from UK address or MP3 via email. Pricey at £10 per track.

Musicbackingtrack

s has a modest selection of very good sounding trax... at least, their demos sound good. Some less usual titles, such as songs by Eva Cassidy. Exorbitant price though... 15 quid, although there are quantity discounts.

Gigalot

supply trax with backing vocal. They have a fair-sized catalogue with a wide selection of styles.