How do you like it? Do you prefer it? Do you have to wear headphones? Do you feel restrained at all? I never did it. Not even once! A looper is the closest I've come. So do your mates hear what you do? Feel free to bitch about it or sing it's praises, I just don't know what it's like.
I do backing tracks 99% of the time in two bands and I have a love/hate relationship with the machine (SPD-SX)
I don't wear headphones. The whole band needs to hear the tracks in order to stay on track.
I don't feel restrained but I certainly feel the pressure to focus.
Generally, I don't prefer it. Playing with a talented keyboard player and horn section would be WAY WAY easier. When I do play with a full band, it seems almost impossible to noticeably screw up.
The praises?
1) It allows 3 of us us to play 4 and 5 piece music.
2) It gives me more to do since I trigger the track segments.
3) It has taught me to write and understand music much more than I ever have.
4) I have to assume that it has helped my tempo ability as well as the bandmates because we have to keep up with perfect tempo while the tracks are playing and we have to be close between segments when it's not playing.
The problems?
1) When I forget or mistrigger a segment, I feel really really bad because it kind of leaves us hanging. If it's a quick loop, I can quickly recover. If it's a 30 second segment, it rather apparent that something is lacking.
2) The added pressure (when gigging) takes some of the fun out of it for me unless the performance is flawless.
As far as playing with a click live? I'm not sure I could do it if no one else could hear it. When someone strays off tempo, I have a tendency to follow them and, within a few seconds, I'm not sure if we ahead or behind. With the backing tracks, at least everyone can hear them, even though they are in the background.