A Sound and Video Production Company
TL;DR:More and more acting companies are moving online to bring their performances to audiences, via Zoom and other streaming platforms. Here’s how to work with playback cues in this environment. The Story:At the time of writing this (April, 2020) a deadly pandemic has been sweeping the globe. In response to people all over the world …
Continue reading “Audio Playback for Streaming Online Performances (like Zoom)”
I’ve had to teach about live sound in so many ways to various audiences over the years. I have always felt that an understanding, however cursory, of the past and development of the tools we currently have is key in understanding how and why we use them. Like graphic design and desktop publishing (a field …
TL;DR: Modern technology offers more and more musicians more and more options…with some new unforeseen issues, and a chance to re-use those monitor wedges. The Story: Years ago, my band Talking to Walls made a huge leap to what felt like the next level. We spent a lot of money to work with people bigger …
Continue reading “Silence on stage: In-ear monitors and modeling guitar rigs”
TL;DR: If you’re using Spotify for house music, here is how to control it using Qlab. Especially helpful for random little shows & presentations. The Story: Spotify has become a dominant player in how we discover and consume music. With almost 150 million active users and almost 20% of Americans using it every month, it’s …
Continue reading “Using Qlab to control Spotify and house music”
TL;DR: If you are using iTunes to play your house music, here is how to control it using Qlab. The Story: Ah, iTunes. That old workhorse of a music player that has bloated with responsibility for all kinds of media and syncing. Consumer music listening habits may have moved on from local libraries, but iTunes …
Continue reading “Using Qlab to control iTunes and house music”
TL;DR: Putting together house music, with the case made that you use Qlab for its level of control. The Story: When designing sound for a show. house music is much more than just an afterthought, whereby you just put on some random music and hit play. Properly done, house music – preshow, intermission, and postshow …
Continue reading “Designing house music – Qlab, CD, iTunes, or Spotify?”
Readers of this blog know how much we at Rocktzar love the odd, esoteric parts of live production – every tutorial even has a section named as such. Our love for Qlab is also pretty obvious. Which is why we are able to share a month’s worth of posts about house music – because there …
As our blog here on Rocktzar.com grows, we are happy to announce that we will start organizing our content into monthly themes, as appropriate. We don’t foresee every month being thematic, but as we get more content we will try to organize it to make sharing – and learning – more convenient, and help the flow …
Continue reading “July was Live Mixing Month! New blog themes are coming”
TL;DR: Work smarter and cleaner with multiple Cue Lists – re-use your work, and get all of that house music out of your main design. The Story: Design is a messy process. There are so many elements to consider and plan, and the brain often jumps about, tackling one part and then another, possibly in …
Continue reading “Qlab organization – Multiple Cue Lists and House Music”
TL;DR: Parallel compression is a common studio mixing technique. Why I use it live. Latency and digital mixers. The Story: Parallel compression was introduced to me when I was mixing a project in Protools (thanks to Greg Giorgio, the same guy who taught me about versioning (https://www.rocktzar.com/visions-for-your-versions/). For those who need to google that, it’s …
Continue reading “Parallel Compression in Live Mixing (Compression Part 2)”
