#qlab

[bekoe]

Onto a new art vibe! 💓 I made these illustrations that were used as projection art for my school’s “10-Min Musical Festival”! This group of drawings were used for the short show “Franklin Pierce Dragon Slayer”.

[cue-to-cue]

Been working on some background scene sounds for my tech class and getting more familiar with QLab

[emersonseyeball]

if anyone has advice for self-teaching qlab 4 please let me know. i’m sound op for a show next month and i don’t know how to use it (it’s the only program my school uses). thanks y’all

[thankyoufive]

In a continued effort to keep up with actual literal SM/techblr on the platform from whence we came... behold: paperwork!

This is a document I’ve had rattling around in my brain for a while but (to be completely honest) most of the musicals I work on move a bit too quickly for me to bother to get this detailed. Working on a Jr. script was the perfect way to actually put this together for the first time. 

I’d say about 98% of the shows (I’m not a mathematician) I work on use tracks in both show and rehearsal. And even if we’re working with a live pit for the show, I don’t always have a rehearsal pianist. That’s where a document like this comes in handy. Yes things are notated in my script but, like with all good paperwork, this is meant to be handed off to someone for a quick reference if me or my script aren’t available. Dance captain needs to work on a number in the other room? Here ya go don’t waste time scrubbing through tracks. 

Where this can get tricky is when major edits are done to tracks within Qlab (say we build a vamp into a song... or add several repeats that play straight through instead of playing out of a vamp... or splice a song into several pieces)... obviously that is not something I have run into with this particular document quite yet but I know it’s comin’.  

I miss tumblr a lot, but full disclosure: I am becoming more and more active on Instagram... including with the stage management/theatre/production management-type work I’ve shifted into over the last few months so feel free to follow me there! @thankyoufive​ . Obv. 

[imoga-pride]

NLQ/ABLQ/GQLQ Flags

NBLQ Flag

NBLQ (queerenboric or nonbinary-loving queer): Queeries attracted to enbies; An unifying term for queer folk whose love of nonbinaries is stigmatized and discouraged. Interchangeable with NLQ, XLQ, QLNB, QLN & QLX.

ABLQ Flag

ABLQ (abinary-loving queer): Queer individuals attracted to abinary folks; An unifying term for queer folk whose love of abinaries is stigmatized and discouraged. Interchangeable with ALQ, QLA & QLAB.

GQLQ Flag

GQLQ (genderqueer-loving queer): Queer pals attracted to genderqueer people; An unifying term for queer folk whose love of genderqueeries is stigmatized and discouraged. Interchangeable with QLGQ.

Based on my GLQ flags (terms by @wedontcareaboutyourbinary) but using enboric green (more unlighted) by @goodpositivitylgbt.

[techtheatre]

Fun Qlab story of the day

So if you’ve ever run sound, you probably have had experience with the software Qlab. Overall, it’s really great - a lot of flexibility for no money, and I’ve used it for a while. So anyway, I’m running this show and I walk in an hour early to tech - I wanted to set up in the quiet and the director brought donuts for everyone showing up early. It was all good. I sit down, check the patching on the soundboard, plug in my computer, and run through my cues. Mind you, I’ve run through the cue list 7 times already: The day before and even at 2am before tech. Because that’s the kind of sound tech I am - everything has to work perfectly and my labelling is VERY specific. Anyway, I hit go and the track doesn’t play. And I do it over and over again to every track and NONE of them are playing. This is a 40+ cue show with crossfading and timed cues and DAMMIT NONE OF THEM WILL PLAY. Lighting designer, director, SM, Assist. LD - EVERYONE tries to fix it but... no avail. So I redesign the entire show simply because when dragging the sound files into Qlab I forgot to download them into my iTunes. So long story short, guys... DON’T USE SHORTCUTS IN QLAB. It may seem like you’re saving time, but I learned the hard way that a cue list that’s perfect at 2am may not work at all 6 hours later. (Also side note: The show ended up being fine, but tech was hell because I was an actor in the show so I couldn’t just hide up in the booth and fix everything.) Ah, Qlab! I love you so, but sometimes...ahhhhhhhh.

[signorponza]

"Io c'ero quella sera al @qlabmilano, ti ho visto e tu non eri così". @centochilidicaos la tocca piano per dire che questa foto è venuta particolarmente bene. 🌚 #Truffa #me #qlab #graziefotoritocco #graziepenombra #q21 #nightlife #milanobynight #fotoprofilo #profilepic #rosso #red (presso q|LAB)

[thankyoufive]

Hi, I hope you don't mind me asking a question! I'm a stage manager just about to graduate college and I'm wondering if you think a macbook is necessary (or very strongly encouraged) for theatre. I currently have a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and I love it to death, but I have to replace it soon and I know that QLab and other things are Mac-specific. I guess what I'm saying is I've never had a Mac and I'm not sure I would enjoy it, but should I get one instead of another Surface?

I never mind questions!! It may take a minute to get to them, but I absolutely never mind them. 

If you’re providing your own equipment, get what’s going to work for you. If you don’t think you’ll like a Mac/don’t want to shell out the money for one (I don’t blame you) then stick with the Surface! No learning curve, you know you like it… why make an already stressful job more stressful with trying to learn new programs and software and stuff, ya know?

As an SM, there isn’t really anything that I have truly *needed* my mac for. WIth the exception of running Qlab (a personal preference – the theater I primarily work at has a computer in the rehearsal hall that SMs can access for Qlab use, I’ve just got a workflow going and haven’t switched over to using the rehearsal hall compuer), I could do all of the document-building, emailing, etc. I need on any machine. Hell, you don’t even need word or excel as far as I’m concerned – Google docs/sheets are great FREE tools. There are workarounds for anything and everything, they just take a little brain power the first time around. 

Also, any company that expects you to run Qlab *should* have a machine that runs Qlab there for you. Even if you don’t have access to it for rehearsals, it’ll be there for tech and show. Also, all of the sound cues in your Qlab show file have to come from somewhere. It’s tedious, but if there is something you *really* need that your director can’t live without in rehearsal and there is *no way* to get a Qlab-running-machine in the room until tech, you can always put the source file on your Surface and play it like you would any other sound file.

Go forth! Graduate! Buy tech that you enjoy and makes your life easier without breaking the bank!

Feel free to contact stage management with any questions or concerns.