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Looking for a method to remote-rehearse with my church band

Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2016 12:07 pm
by greg328
Here's a new one...
I'm from Houston, been here forever it seems but moving soon to Austin. I plan on retaining my church music/keyboardist position even though I'll be living 2 hours away. My plan is to return early on Sunday mornings and play the services. Yes, this will involve weekly trips back and forth from Austin to Houston and back. Here's the part I'm trying to figure out: a way to remote-rehearse with my band on Wednesday nights without having to drive in. Some sort of Skype connection where I can send a mixed audio signal (piano/click tracks possibly/voice) from my Austin studio to their mixing board in Houston. The less latency the better!
I'm reading that Cubase 8.5 has a feature called VST Transit that may allow this but I need to research it further. I think Cubase also offers another plug-in (I forget the name) that offers live remote sessions.
Can the brain-trust here offer any solutions? Seems like both sides of the signal would need the same software package, unless I could just send a network audio signal. Or I could just put my cell phone up to my speaker and send a cell phone call for rehearsal! That would sound sucky for sure.

This all needs to start in late August so I have time but I need to be able to offer my sound team a feasible plan soon.
I'm open to all good ideas. Let 'em fly!
Greg

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Re: Looking for a method to remote-rehearse with my church b

Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2016 2:09 pm
by stubbsonic
There's no way around the latency and the latency is a deal-breaker for two-way monitoring.

This means that the band can rehearse with you (them hearing you), and you can rehearse with your band (you hearing them), but you can't listen to each other in the same pass.

There are some software items that can allow you to be in a higher-end "skype-like" setting. But with any of them, there still isn't a way around the "wait-n-see". The band can play, you can listen and play along, but they can't (and shouldn't) hear you. Likewise, you could play to a reference track, the band could listen to you and the click and play along, but you can't (and shouldn't) hear them.

It is a logistical problem that you'll all have to agree will be kind of a pain.

Re: Looking for a method to remote-rehearse with my church b

Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2016 2:53 pm
by stubbsonic
Are you kind of the leader?

If you sent them your parts with a click on one track and your keyboards on one or two tracks, they could rehearse to that on Wednesdays, and you could skype in and listen. If there are tempo things you would be controlling/conducting, you could make sure your reference tracks incorporate those tempo changes.

There are ways to get decent audio quality from skype, but you both would need nice fast internet speed.

Re: Looking for a method to remote-rehearse with my church b

Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2016 3:05 pm
by greg328
Yes I thought about simply sending them my piano parts as mp3s, they could play with them no problem. I would still need to listen in to verify everything. I'm the assistant so I need to be present during rehearsal, if only via Skype.

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Re: Looking for a method to remote-rehearse with my church b

Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2016 8:32 pm
by stubbsonic
Yea, I think that's your best bet. You can listen and work out details together, at least.