Will [00:00:00]:
What's happening, everybody? Welcome back to behind the Spacebar. This is the podcast for folks that want to become world class playback engineers. And the way we help you do that is by answering your questions. And your host for the show and the person that asked me those beautiful questions you've submitted is Mr. Rhys Bagwell. What's happening, Reese? How are you, man?

Reese [00:00:18]:
I'm doing good, man. Ready to ask some more questions and hopefully get people started on the right path.

Will [00:00:23]:
Yeah, I love it, man. This is, I think, our third episode we've recorded in the new format and, uh, it's just been really, really fun. I love answering questions. I love trying to solve problems for people and simplify stuff. Uh, before you hit me with that first question, if you guys don't know the format of this, Reese asked me two, maybe three questions that how long it takes me. We need to keep it to two, sometimes maybe even one question. Um, and I have no clue what they are. Uh, you guys have submitted those beforehand and so it catches me off guard, which I like. But Reece, before we get to that first wonderful question, let everyone know how they can submit their questions to be answered live on the show.

Reese [00:00:59]:
Right here from studio to stage. Ig, this is our Instagram handle. This is where you're going to send us some DMS so we can get your questions answered right here on the show. And by the way, if you're not following us already, what are you doing? I mean, come on. I'm questioning your life choices, really, when it comes down to it, this. I mean, unfollow everybody else and just follow us, basically. That's what I'm saying.

Will [00:01:25]:
Yeah, that's a good message right there. And yeah, shout out to everybody new that's followed recently. I think I mentioned this on the last episode. We have gained like over a thousand followers in a week as we started sharing some behind the scenes content, which is really cool. So thank you guys for that. Submit those questions though. We'd love to hear from you. All good stuff. So. All right, Reese, hit me with the first one. What you got for me this week?

Reese [00:01:48]:
All right, let's get going. So this one is going to cover a few, few different topics, but I think it's good stuff. It's from Nico. He sends the message on Instagram. Hey, is there any way you can run a redundant light key rig with a USB DMX converter with the Play Audio 12 or any Play Audio equipment? I've tried connecting my DMX converter to my Play Audio 112 to the host port on my Mio XL and XM and had no luck. My thought was if one computer goes down, I still have an audio, but I'd lose my lights. I've searched online for a solution. I haven't found anything yet about a simple redundant light key setup. Okay, so bit of a long question also, if you guys aren't familiar with light key lights, I connectivity gear, it sounded like Nico just rattled off a bunch of technobabble and we need somebody to break it down for us. So Will, what do you got? Make the complex simple for us yet again?

Will [00:02:53]:
Yeah, I'll do my best. I'll try. First off, Niku, great question, man. It's funny, the longer I do this, the more I can plot the path that people will take. And all of us have gotten to the point where we start controlling lights and we say we want redundant control of our lights and therefore we will plug our USB to DMX converter into the host port of the Play Audio 12 or the Play Audio 1U and we'll promptly discover it does not work and probably face depression for multiple weeks. And we'll slip away and we'll wonder what life choices have we made that led us to this dark hole? And then hopefully one day we see the light and come up for fresh air. I don't know why I said all that. Maybe it's something I'm watching or listening to. Got to change the podcast. But Nico, fantastic question, man. What I'm trying to say is we've all have hit that point where we're trying to solve the problem you're running into and trying to come up with a solution you're looking for. Whenever we face complex things and we try to make them simple, I try to break them down into their component parts. I was actually making some notes as you were talking. Rhys. Let me see if I could break down a couple things I want to answer. First thing is connecting stuff to your host port, connecting your USB to DMX controller to your host port I actually have in front of me. I don't know how easy I can grab this. In case you're wondering what Gary's talking about. Reece, let's throw a link to the Play Audio one U Mio XN MEO XL in the show notes so people know these are affiliate links. So if you hate me and don't want my kids to eat, please do not click this. But if you look at this device, this is a MI O xl. And again, if you are listening on Apple podcasts or Spotify you can actually watch us on YouTube and you could see what we're showing as we talk about it. But on that device is a USB host port. People are, you know, your first thing you think is, oh, my USB to DMX is usb, let me plug that into my host port. But it comes from a lack of understanding of what the USB host port is and what it does that is for USB class compliant MIDI devices. And what that means is you have a MIDI controller, you have another MIDI interface, you have a MIDI keyboard. If it's USB class compliant, MIDI class compliant, which means it requires no drivers, you plug that into your host port and you can send MIDI to and from that through that host port. Okay, so is a USB to DMX converter class compliant? Is it class compliant? Maybe it doesn't require drivers in that sense. So yes. But you're not sending MIDI from something through there, you're sending DMX through there, right? Or you're sending data through that USB connection to then spit out dmx. Okay, so our first problem is, no, you cannot plug your USB to DMX box into your USB host port. Okay. Second question is, this is a good clarifying question. And the longer I train students and work with clients and attempt to solve problems, I learned, I learned to ask the question why. And there's this concept of the five whys where you ask why, why, why, why? To drill down. So, Nico, my question, you, and I think I know the answer to this based on what you said is are you looking for a redundant, like key setup or are you looking for a redundant playback setup? And I know that's what you're looking for based on what you said at the end, but are you looking for a redundant light key setup? Which means I have light key on this computer and if light key on this computer goes down, it keeps going on this other computer. Or you looking for a redundant playback solution, which is if playback A goes down and it's controlling light key, the playback B keeps going. So worth clarifying that, right? The third piece of this is you got to have a little bit of knowledge of light key to understand. The way most of us control light key with Ableton is using something called Live Triggers. Live triggers. When you install light key in Ableton on the same machine, it automatically adds this and builds this file out in your live library, which is great. It's awesome. It's a great feature. But basically what this does is it allows you to build your show out in light key and then open up in Lives browser your live triggers and get access to all those. Reese, let's make a note. We got a tutorial. We got tutorials on almost everything. We certainly have a light key course you could purchase, but we have some tutorials for free on YouTube showing how to do this, which is great. Okay, so, Nico one, if you've got a redundant playback setup, which means playback A and playback B, and you are running light key on the same computer, that means one, you need two copies of LightKey. And I believe the last time I looked, based on Lightkey's licensing, that means you have to buy two copies of LightKey. So LightKey on both of your playback machines, then you're going to need two USB to DMX converters out of both of your computers. Why? Because the Play Audio one U has nothing to do with dmx. It's just midi. MIDI and audio. Right. It's just midi. So then we need those two USB to DMX converters, and then we need a DMX AB switch. And I believe it's Doug Fleener Designs. Reese will have to dig up that link. But it's a DMX AB switch. And what would happen is if your A computer goes down, you could toggle on the front to go to the B DMX input and it would kick over to your B computer and continue to send DM from that B computer to that. Okay. I am pretty positive though, Nico, that's not what you're looking to do. And again, I may be way off there, but that's scenario one, which, again, just as a reminder, is redundant playback. We have light key installed on both of our playback computers. We're communicating to light key through live triggers on those computers. Two computers in total. We need two USB to DMX converters, a DMX AB switch to then go out to our lights. Okay? Does that make sense? Rhys? Am I making sense when I say that as option one?

Reese [00:08:46]:
Yeah, yeah, I think we're on the same page. Let's keep going.

Will [00:08:50]:
Option two, though, and this is where I would point you, is you have a redundant playback setup. A computer, B computer, and then you have a light key computer. Okay. And one light key computer that has your USB to dmx that has everything you need to do light key on it. Right. We can still use live triggers. That just means we have to program on the same computer and then move our Ableton session over. Light key is on a separate computer to playback machines. In that case, we're not creating a redundant light key setup. We are simply creating a redundant playback control of light key. And what I mean is, if A goes down B, keep sending MIDI to light key. How do we do that? Number one, buy a Play Audio 1U route your MIDI from your Ableton computers to your PlayAudio 1U and then connect your PlayAudio 1U to your Light key computer. Okay, that could be using a MIU XM at the light key computer, a MEO XL like I showed earlier. On the light key computer, you could also connect your Playaudio 1U using the built in RTP MIDI stuff on Macs. But the Playaudio 1U doesn't just do redundant audio. It also does redundant MIDI. So, Nico, what that means is on your light key computer, you have it set up to receive MIDI through that network MIDI session. You have it set up to receive MIDI through your MIU XM through your MIU xl. And when your A computer goes down, it automatically switches over to your B computer and it automatically keeps sending MIDI to your light key computer even when playback goes down. Okay, so that is how two options there. If you are using light key on the same machine as your playback machine, the only way to make it redundant is redundant playback light key here, light key there. And if you want to have redundant playback control of light key, then that needs to be done to computers playaude1u connection to your light key computer, and light key handles that. The third option, which I'm not going to talk about other than this, is redundant playback and redundant light key on separate computers. And for that you got to join bootcamp. That's where we talk about that. Otherwise you could figure that on your own potentially. Good question. Good question, Reece. Okay, I know you have one more question for me, right? Is that correct?

Reese [00:11:13]:
Yes. Yeah, I do.

Will [00:11:14]:
Sweet. Before we get into that though, for those of you that are listening and you have a question kind of like Nico or you're going, hey, I want to become a world class playback engineer. I want to understand that the things I need to learn, I want to have access to tools to become a world class playback engineer. I got a free resource for you. Head to fromstudiotostage.com template. When you get over there, you can sign up to download my free basic tracks template. You can also get access to the program and the prepare stage of the playback method, which are two full courses, I think in an hour and a half, maybe two hours worth of content completely for free, free, previously only available to my all access or bootcamp students. And you could get access to that plus my backline database of all the gear I Use and personally recommend to all my students. All you gotta do to get that is to head to from studiotostage.com template so head over there, submit your info, we'll send it to you completely for free. What else you got for me today, Reece?

Reese [00:12:11]:
Okay, now this one's gonna be a little bit different. It's not something that we normally talk about at from studio to stage, but I wanted to throw you the question, see what you think. And this one is coming from Axel. He emailed us in a question.

Will [00:12:27]:
Yeah, what's up, Axel?

Reese [00:12:29]:
I wanted to ask you something about Pyro automation, which DMX hardware between Ableton and Pyro machines.

Will [00:12:37]:
Interesting. That's a good question, Axel. So first thing I'll say is I know nothing about this. I'm the wrong guy to ask, but I can start to point you in the right direction. So in the context here is the artists I'm working with now, for example, we have confetti cannons, we have CO2, I guess it's dry, not dry ice, but it's like CO2 canisters that shoot off smoke towards the end of the show. I have nothing to do with that. As a playback engineer, my assumption, and this is actually, this is a great question, so I'm going to ask them next time we're out, how are they doing it? But my assumption is those machines are controlled either via DMX or. Or controlled via timecode. I'm assuming dmx. I am sending timecode out to a lighting console which is accepting timecode, which then is likely sending DMX out to those devices. So Axel, what you want to look for? And again, I know nothing about Pyro or any of those types of machines, but what you want to do is you would want to search for a machine like dmx, controllable confetti cannon, something like that. And what typically happens on pro level shows is Ableton is not controlling that, but Ableton is sending timecode to the thing that is controlling that. And most likely what's controlling that is a grandma lighting console. Chroma Cube Vista by Chromaq, some sort of lighting, something that's then sending DMX to those individual devices. Why do they do it that way? What's our key phrase, Rhys, we talked about a couple of episodes ago? Division of labor, right? Instead of Ableton just doing it. Actually, I should have mentioned this with Nico's question. Instead of having light kilo on the same Ableton machine, I'd rather be separate for division for the sake of division of labor. But yeah, Axel, that's a great question. I wish I could give you more details than that, but what I would Google is confetti cannon stage special effects. Like, the people that do that on the road are, I think, called FSS FX stage special effects people. So search for devices like that that are likely controlled via dmx. Those will be control from your lighting stuff, which will be synced up and controlled via timecode. And I know some of those have some sort of safety mechanism where, like the operator has to hold down a button, which they're basically confirming, like someone's face isn't or eye isn't, like directly in front of the confetti cannon when it goes off, so. Which reminds me of a funny story from this past tour, which I don't think we have time for today again, cliffhanger for the next episode. But confetti cannons don't mix well when you're very close to them. Not from my personal experience, but I could share that story later. But anyway, Reese does. Do you think that makes sense? I know I can't give him exact specifics, but kind of get the mindset I'm talking about there.

Reese [00:15:25]:
Yeah, I think so. I mean, it. Again, it just goes back to. We're probably going to sound like a broken record the more episodes that we do with this, but like, you know, for one, when pyro and all that stuff, like, God bless those people. I want nothing to do with it, but, you know. Yeah, I'm. I'm sure the theme that you're going to hear regardless of these topics is division of labor. And then secondarily after that redundancy. Not secondarily, but in addition to.

Will [00:15:56]:
That's right.

Reese [00:15:56]:
Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, good luck, man. Axel, you know, please don't. Please don't send all your hair off or anything like that. That's what I'm always thinking with this pyro stuff. Like, it makes for an awesome show. Yeah, Godspeed.

Will [00:16:13]:
Yeah, it could be possible. I don't want control over it, but yeah, hopefully that paints a picture, Axel, of what kind of happens on pro level shows like that. And those of you that do that professionally, you can correct me and say I'm wrong in the comments, but it's some sort of device that's controlled probably via DMX or timecode. And yeah, I know a lot of stage movement things where it's. What do they call it? Like automation. There's some word. I forgot what it is. Kinesis maybe is a system that does that and maybe way off but those typically have someone that has like a kill switch, which is if someone's on it or in the way and they don't have that button, it doesn't happen. If they hold it, they do. So anyway, Axel, let us know. I know Axel's in bootcamp. So, Axel, we're glad you're in bootcamp. Maybe post in the community and let us know what you come up with. We'd love to hear from you. So, Reese, man, good questions today.

Reese [00:17:01]:
Yeah, a little bit different, but I liked it.

Will [00:17:03]:
A little different. Yeah, it's good. Good stuff. As we sign off, get ready to sign off. Why don't you remind everyone how they can submit a question for a future episode for us to answer.

Reese [00:17:13]:
Head back over to From Studio to Sage. Ig, send us a dm. We will get it answered for you. And because this episode's a little bit different, we actually are kind of ahead of schedule. So will I gotta hear the cliffhanger from last week? Why is it from Studio to Stage? Ig?

Will [00:17:29]:
Yeah, yeah, this is good. So as I'm recording this about six years ago is when I launched From Studio to Stage. And six and a half to seven years ago, I was at a job, wasn't happy, didn't like it, and knew I was going to leave. And so I was kind of planning that entire year and I came up with this really good name from the Studio to the Stage. Great name, right? You know, a lot of, lot of words. And so I remember talking to my brother in law and he's like, dude, why is it from the Studio to the Stage? It should be studio to stage. And so I went and looked on Instagram. I think there maybe is someone who has Studio to Stage. But what I did do in that moment is I reserve From Studio to Stage, right? Because I thought that's a great Instagram handle. Six months or so pass by and we get to the point where I'm leaving my job and we start the process of building the website and this is a fun story. Maybe this would be a cool like origin story at some point to tell. But within two weeks of leaving my job, I completely built a website, set up subscription recurring subscription stuff on my own, recorded 15 tutorial videos and launched a couple courses all within the span of two weeks. It was so good that I heard stories of after I left that company and I launched my company that that company was telling everyone. For years I was working on building that website and I thought, no, I built it in two weeks, which is unbelievable as a Non developer, which God bless the Internet and the tools that are available to us to be able to do that, which is really great, but neither here nor there. But when I went to launch the company, I said, oh, it's time for me to grab that great Instagram handle that I had, which was of course from studio to stage. So I went to login. Huh, Wrong password. Okay, let's try this. Huh. Wrong email. That's interesting. And I tried every combination of email, every combination of password, and to this day, I for the life of me cannot figure out what the heck I use to sign up on Instagram as from studio to stage with. So unfortunately we were left with from studio to stage ig. And so that's why when you find us on Instagram, it's not simply from studio to stage, it is from studio to stage ig. But as aptly as Reece mentioned, that's where you can head to submit your questions for future episodes, which we would love to hear from you and love to answer your questions. Reece. This has been super fun, man. Great questions today again, a little different one I have a lot of knowledge of. The other one, not so much. But great questions, man. Thank you so much for joining me, Reece. Really appreciate it. Thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you for listening. Can't wait to hear your questions. Make sure to get those in. And we'd love to answer those on future episodes. But yeah, here's to you becoming a world class playback engineer and we'll see you on the next one. Take care, everybody. Bye.

Reese [00:20:19]:
See you.