OK for everyone that uses backing tracks, what is your prefered set up and why?
I have been thinking along the lines of playing the tracks from an iPod but by the same token a laptop might give me more options?
Thoughts and advice will be greatly appreciated.

machman,
I've been using backing tracks since 1998.I started out using midifiles on a Roland MT-80 midi player,then used a laptop in 2000,dumped the bulkiness of a laptop,converted midi files to MP3 for iPod in 2001,then quickly turned to the Digitech Jamman Looper and have never found anything as versatile for backing tracks since.What I like about the Jamman is being able to stop and start a song over again on the fly without missing a beat for those last minute dancers that always choose the last minute to get up and dance.I also like having three part songs,INTRO;VERSE;CHORUS,to play indefinately if I so choose.The Jamman being a Looping device by design,has proven to be a very good backtrack machine for me as well as a guitar Looper.People are amazed when I play the song Tequila.I'll first start the eight bar drum beat,then layer the rythum,then the bass line,I'll then play lead guitar on top of those layers.Like I said it is very versatile,and the footprint is very small,so that's why I choose it.I know you asked about a MP3 player or Laptop for backtracks,but this might be an alternate choice to consider.I'm attaching a picture of my setup,as you can see,I no longer use the harmonizer,I overdubbed the backup vocals onto the backtracks.Very small stage footprint now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: J.D. Puente,

JD that sounds interesting.Not only that but it seems a very versatile set up.
Please excuse my ignorance but do you feed the MP3 files through the looper?Or is it some other type of musical files?

Hello machman,
The Jamman uses WAV files.I converted all my mp3 and midi files to WAV for the Jamman.The Jamman will hold up to 99 songs on various size Compact Flash cards up to 2GB. A 2GB Compact Flash card will hold up to 6.5 hours of loops.My 99 backtracks take up about 1.7GB.I have several cards for different venues,which have songs for that venue's prefered genre.Once you have your files converted,it is so easy to save to computer and create custom cards,plus you always have a backup of your backtracks.They came out with a new Jamman with four footswitches onboard which I tried out,but I prefer my Jamman.If you buy the older Jamman like mine,be sure and get the external footswitch for it.You can scroll up and down your list without having to bend over to change songs.
Compact Flashcards are so inexpensive these days.It's great.I have been trying for years to find a replacement for this pedal,but haven't found one yet that compares to it's versatility or ruggedness.