Author Topic: It's that time of year again. Our Annual Halloween Gig at work.  (Read 2506 times)

Offline Th3R00st3r

We always play the Halloween costume contest at work to liven things up. We have done KISS Rock and Roll All Night, Mark Ronson\Bruno Mars Uptown Funk, and this year it had to be Prince.

Here's our Let's Go Crazy cover from this morning.
https://youtu.be/FPN08HoJM8o
th3r00st3r-Alesis DM10 Studio w/mesh head conversion (billy blast 2ply) and snare stand.

Offline Dobly

Re: It's that time of year again. Our Annual Halloween Gig at work.
« Reply #1 on: November 14, 2016, 04:17:09 AM »
Now that's rockin Th3R00st3r.. Nice one.

Do tell, the laptop next to you has the backing track right?

How are you getting a click? My setup has the backing on the right and the click on the left. So I just send the right channel as a mono signal to the desk.

I can't work out a way to get the backings in stereo and still get a click.


Offline Th3R00st3r

Re: It's that time of year again. Our Annual Halloween Gig at work.
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2016, 07:00:53 PM »
Sorry for the delayed response.

I used to have the same problem as you when I had control of the backing track, click track and drum track. I was only able to send a mono signal. In that video, we have a new mixer and the guitarist has the backing track and click track on his laptop(he's using guitar rig vst in Reaper). Because this new mixer has a built in WIFI access point, I can grab the app, connect to it, and have control over my own in ear mix, as well as still being able to send stereo drums to him.
th3r00st3r-Alesis DM10 Studio w/mesh head conversion (billy blast 2ply) and snare stand.

Offline Dobly

Re: It's that time of year again. Our Annual Halloween Gig at work.
« Reply #3 on: December 11, 2016, 08:57:01 PM »
Right. So you guitarist is playing the backings from Reaper.

Is that then click on one track that you get, and any number of other tracks for your backing?

Offline Th3R00st3r

Re: It's that time of year again. Our Annual Halloween Gig at work.
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2016, 12:15:12 PM »
The mixer has separate channels for each instrument(stereo for drums, so I am taking up 2 inputs), each vocal mic, a Backing Track(if needed), and a click(if needed). I can mix them however I wish using my smart phone or a tablet for my individual IEM's. Each of us has control over our own individual mix. Then the mains have their own mix of the house so they can mute the clicks, include the backing track, and mix everything for the house.
th3r00st3r-Alesis DM10 Studio w/mesh head conversion (billy blast 2ply) and snare stand.

Offline Dobly

Re: It's that time of year again. Our Annual Halloween Gig at work.
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2016, 09:01:00 PM »
Every song in our show has  backing  Some backings have many tracks some have none. 

In all cases the backing is rendered out to a single stereo track. Backing on one side, click on the other.

I am reluctant to rely on Reaper to play a multitrack project else I could just route the click out of one output on my Focusrite 2i4 and have the backing in stereo out of the other output. But there is more.

Once I have output each backings to stereo, I created a new project for each set. Then imported the wav files for that set into a single track one after another, in set order and thanks to the SWS extension in Reaper I now have simple project that  automatically pauses playback at the end of each song where i only need to tap the space bar to continue playback. With the added bonus of being a simple wav file to playback, not a multi tracked reaper project with VSTs and effects to generate on the fly.

Pausing playback with SWS in Reaper: Simply make a new marker where you want the playback to stop and in the text of that marker, enter

!1008



You need the SWS extension installed for this to work.

http://www.sws-extension.org/

The advantage of this many fold.

First, it is trival  for Reaper to play back wav files and my laptop sits around 1% CPU usage during playback.

Secondly is that on track 2 of that project I will have a simple midi track. No VST instruments, no effects. Just simple notes.   Those midi notes will be 'routed' to DMX software called Freestyler which will in turn control our light show. That is with the wav files above, I'll be able to have the lights come on 'him when he is singing' or 'flash like crazy during the guitar solo' etc etc. This is system I'll be putting together over my upcoming holidays. I'll be following this video..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMv4qtCXhhY

In a nutshell as we play our backings, the light show will play what we have programmed in.  Therefore every track we play, must have a backing track even if there is not parts on it.

So our backings are stereo with the music on one side and the click on the other. I wonder if Reaper can retrofit a click according to a loaded wav file. That would be cool.



« Last Edit: December 12, 2016, 09:03:10 PM by Dobly »

Offline Th3R00st3r

Re: It's that time of year again. Our Annual Halloween Gig at work.
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2017, 06:17:07 PM »
This is the same way we had it setup when I had the backing tracks. 1 track with all the bt's rendered to stereo. It would auto pause at the end of the song with the markers and the !1008. Funny. It was a great setup.
th3r00st3r-Alesis DM10 Studio w/mesh head conversion (billy blast 2ply) and snare stand.