Left Hand Labs Music
Free practice plugin // Left Hand Labs Music

Backing Track Plus

Your riff. Our rhythm section.
No drummer to feed.

Load a MIDI file exported from Guitar Pro and Backing Track Plus plays the bass and the drums. You play the guitar. Loop the bar you keep botching, drag the tempo down, crank it back up when your hands catch up.

  • Free
  • Windows
  • Standalone (ASIO)
  • VST3
Send me the download Email only. Windows only for now.
The free practice plugin's main window: the Backing Track Plus header, transport with loop and count-in, loop-bar and tempo sliders, a bass panel with tone picker and knobs, and a drums panel with kit picker and faders
What's inside

A rhythm section that shows up

4 drum kits

Leviathan Drag, Sunset Riot, Razorback, Meatgrinder. Thrash to doom to hair rock to brutal death. Pick one from the drop-down and it loads.

7 bass tones

Built from our own bass recordings, with more coming in free updates. Switch between pick and finger playing with one button.

Humanize dials

One for bass, one for drums. Leave it tight like a machine, or loosen it up until it sounds like people.

Practice controls

  • Bar-range looper
  • Tempo slider
  • Count-in
  • Bass transpose

Drum faders

Kick, snare, toms and cymbals on their own faders. Pull the cymbals down if they wash over your tone.

Follows the file

Tempo changes in the MIDI file are followed, so the prog song with six tempo changes plays the way it's written.

How it works

Three steps. No session setup.

  1. Export

    Open your tab in Guitar Pro and export it as a MIDI file. Bring your own files: Backing Track Plus ships with one original demo riff and nothing else.

  2. Load

    Open Backing Track Plus as a standalone app or as a VST3 in your DAW. Hit Browse and pick the .mid file. Bass and drums are read from the file.

  3. Play

    Pick a kit and a bass tone, set the loop, set the tempo, turn on the count-in. Then play the guitar part until it stops being a problem.

Built for practice

Not a DAW. A band.

No tracks to arm, no project to save. Open it, load a file, play. Running it standalone on an ASIO driver keeps the latency low. Running it as a VST3 puts it next to your amp sim in the DAW you already use.

The drum kits are built from open, Creative Commons drum sample libraries recorded by real drummers and engineers. Every source is credited on the About screen and on the credits page.

FAQ

Questions

Is it actually free?

Yes. No price and no trial timer. The cost is your email address. The emails include offers on the paid Left Hand Labs Music drum kits; ignore them or unsubscribe whenever you like.

Does it run on Mac?

No. Windows only for now: a standalone app and a VST3 plugin. There's no Mac version yet. If that changes, the email list hears first.

Which MIDI files work?

Backing Track Plus is built around MIDI files exported from Guitar Pro (.mid). It reads the bass track and the drum track (drums on MIDI channel 10, the General MIDI standard) and plays them; the guitar part is yours. Other MIDI files laid out the same way may work too. You bring the files. It ships with one original demo riff, no song library, so use files you have the right to use.

What's ASIO and do I need it?

ASIO is a low-latency audio driver standard on Windows. Most audio interfaces ship an ASIO driver. The standalone app can use it, so your guitar and the backing line up without lag. If you run the VST3 version inside a DAW, the DAW handles the audio driver.

Does it follow tempo changes?

Yes. Tempo changes in the file are followed. The tempo slider scales the whole thing up or down from there.

Windows warned me about the installer. Now what?

The installers are code-signed, and Windows shows the verified publisher name from our code-signing certificate. Because the releases are new, Windows SmartScreen may still show "Windows protected your PC" until enough people have installed them. That's Windows saying it doesn't know the file yet, not that it found anything. Click More info, check that a verified publisher is listed, then click Run anyway. Only run installers you downloaded from lefthandlabsmusic.com or our store page. If Windows blocks it outright with no Run anyway button, see the next question.

Windows blocked it and there's no Run anyway button.

That's most likely Smart App Control, a Windows 11 feature that blocks apps it doesn't trust. Signed installers like ours shouldn't normally hit it, so please tell us if you see it. Microsoft doesn't offer a way to allow one app through; the only option is turning Smart App Control off in Windows Security (App & browser control). Recent Windows updates let you turn it back on later without reinstalling Windows. If you'd rather not change that setting, email hello@lefthandlabsmusic.com.

Where do the drum sounds come from?

The kits are built from open drum sample libraries released under Creative Commons licences. The bass tones are built from our own bass recordings. Full credits are on the About screen, in CREDITS.txt and on the credits page.

Questions about the paid kits? See the full FAQ.

When you want more

The full kits

The 4 kits inside Backing Track Plus are also sold as full drum kit plugins for your DAW, alongside five more genres. One big knob each, plus an optional mixer.