mettelus
Another simple point with communications, especially if this entails (most of) the same folks each run, is to get feedback right after doing things. In all of the hubbub there is no time, but if not gotten while fresh in people's minds afterwards, it is more likely to repeat next go round. Five minutes of postmortem can save an hour of preparation for next time.
Great idea. We recently introduced backing tracks. The feedback from members really helped. We don't use em' all the time but spread them out in sets. This week I probably won't use them at all. For those who have the problem fireberd mentioned, I have found it's easier to control everything from the stage. This doesn't eliminate the problems completely but it minimizes them.
We have the same hardware every week. I simply feed one mono track through a decent D-box to the house board and send the second channel with the click to ONLY a headphone amp sending out multiple monitor outs to the players wearing IEM's.
I'll admit there were a few bumps in getting to something that worked. Feedback was very helpful. Word of advice- If picking backing tracks, don't pick tracks in high keys or tracks with unusually long fills between verse/chorus if people are following along.
I buy the stems so I can better control the individual elements of the mix from my laptop. If you are ok with a basic two track mix you could use any smart phone or an ipad. Loopcommunity.com has a decent iPad app called Prime that allows multi track control from an iPad. I downloaded it but haven't used it because I prefer the laptop. They are soon to release their own interface made especially for this. It has a bunch of monitor out channels.
What I was trying to tell davedud if he hasn't died is that you can share your selections with everyone on the team using Prime. All they need do is access it.