A Sound and Video Production Company
TL;DR: How to use multiple compressors in a live mix, when your digital desk only has one compression plugin per channel. The Story: A lot of starting live engineers work vertically, adding EQ and compression on each channel individually, and then use groups/bussing for mixing and routing control. This is fine, but I often rely …
Continue reading “Multiple Compressors in Live Audio (Compression Part 1)”
TL;DR: Qlab is not just a tool for theatre. And it isn’t just for playing back media cues! The Story: I have been the North American sound engineer for Pain of Salvation (https://painofsalvation.com) for a few tours. I could go on at length how awesome that job is. One of of the issues we deal with …
Continue reading “Rock & Roll tours with Qlab (and help from Evernote)”
TL;DR: Use Qlab to control every application on your Mac, so you can focus on your show. Also, ToneGenerator is great for soundcheck and room tuning. The Story: By now, you know that I am a big fan of using Qlab for everything. Part of that is the unified interface with the shows I work …
Continue reading “Let Qlab run other applications with Applescript (with ToneGenerator as example)”
The director chose this as an ensemble piece. It was for tech, too! February has fallen into a pattern over the past few years. It’s when things start picking back up from the quieter January. The gradual changeover between maintenance, and repair throughout the theatre leading into prep for my usual season of shows coming …
Continue reading “An Occasional Midsummer Night’s Dream (David Bowie)”
TL;DR: A primer on what you have to pay for – and what you don’t. And how it’s more affordable to use QLab than you might think. The Story: We have all been there. People use iTunes and Keynote (or, gasp, PowerPoint!) for a live production, because they don’t know what’s better out there. (That’s …
Continue reading “QLab licensing, costs, and what it all means”
TLDR: Combine audio hardware interfaces into a singular virtual device. The Story: As the head of sound and video for the theatre department at NVCC, I often will bring my own gear in for use in the show. It’s a learning-and-sharing thing for everyone involved, including myself. But it can also be a bad habit, …
Continue reading “Aggregate Audio Interfaces in OSX (to use in Qlab, of course!)”
TL;DR: Calculate how long a list of songs is in Qlab. The Story: In my early days of sound design, I would play my house music in iTunes. What could be easier? It was a drag and drop interface I knew well, and people who weren’t me could also control/change it. Of course, as I …
Years ago I did a tour with Sweden’s Pain of Salvation, as their tour manager and sound engineer. It was brutal on all of us, and filled with stories that can be told elsewhere. But they are great guys, and we became good friends as a result. But after that tour, I was burned out …
Continue reading “Pain of Salvation, North American Tour 2017, and progressive spreadsheets”
Today we close on the 5th and final drama production of our academic year at NVCC – Neil Simon’s “Rumors.” I was the sound designer. Because of all of the other shows in this crazy month and a half, I had this one pretty much designed and programmed right out of the gate back in …
Continue reading ““Rumors” & “Into the Woods” – Shows #4 & #5 of 6!”
This semester at NVCC, we are doing three theatre shows, when we normally only do one. One of these shows, the musical, was initially dreamed up to be more of a revue, overseen by the music department. It has since changed shows and treatments, substantially. But this is exciting for me. We have ended up …
