How much should a playback engineer charge?

Tour starts today, I've got about two hours until rehearsal, and I just shipped six apps. So why did I still tell my wife I don't feel prepared enough? A quick episode from the road: two big updates, the mindset shift that got me out of my head, and the rapid-fire plan for walking into a rehearsal when you're short on time. One-day event, Dec 1 in Franklin, TN (20 seats, $899 through Nov 8): https://fromstudiotostage.com/liveEarly access beta for paid Pliris members: https://fromstudiotostage.com/beta-appsStart a 14-day trial: https://fromstudiotostage.com/pliris/friend 00:00 Quick episode from the road00:43 One-day event, Dec 1 in Franklin, TN02:12 Early access beta: what's out today03:22 What Maestro does05:20 What "early access" really means06:11 Tour starts today: I never feel prepared enough07:39 The Gap and the Gain08:26 What I wish I had for this rehearsal09:43 My alarm went off: rehearsal priorities, rapid fire10:56 The 90-minute bug12:18 Before you use the beta live ★ Support this podcast ★

How much should you charge to program a set, build a rig, or run tracks on the road? It's the question I get asked most, and the honest answer is "it depends." This episode is about what it depends on: the three different jobs hiding inside "playback engineer," the flat fee that had me working 14-hour days for a number I'd quoted up front, and the rates I actually charge. Then: how to discount a gig without lowering your rate, how to price your first gigs, and how to raise your prices without losing clients. Become a Certified Playback Engineer: fromstudiotostage.com/bootcamp Try Pliris free for 14 days (listener exclusive): fromstudiotostage.com/pliris/friend My earlier episode on rates: share.transistor.fm/s/a3fed329 Seth (rig design and builds): sethbuildsrigs.com Chapters 00:00 How much should you charge? 1:58 The three roles of a playback engineer 3:26 What are you being asked to do? 4:39 Why one flat fee backfired 5:54 Charging per song and per day 8:44 "Is that the guy here to fix our lights?" 11:42 Where are you in your journey? 12:41 The magic words for discounting your rate 15:11 Just getting started? 17:38 Raise your prices 20:03 Charge for 10x the value 22:22 Over-deliver 22:53 What do you charge? ★ Support this podcast ★

Do you have to become a Dante engineer to put your tracks on a Dante network? After my PlayAUDIO2D walkthrough, the pushback came from both directions. Some of you said MIDI redundancy was never that hard. Others said that if you can't patch Dante Controller, you shouldn't be running playback. I take on both. Then I cover whether an iPad belongs on a Dante rig, what sample rate I run, and where vocal processing fits. And the question I get asked most: has my A computer ever really failed mid-show? It has, on almost every song of a twelve-song set. I'll tell you what still broke, and the step I skipped that caused it. The full PlayAUDIO2D walkthrough: PlayAUDIO2D Walkthrough: 30+ Shows and Counting Get the PlayAUDIO2D: Sweetwater (affiliate link) Try Pliris free for 14 days (listener exclusive): fromstudiotostage.com/pliris/friend Chapters 00:00 Your questions, and the pushback 01:03 What the PlayAUDIO2D actually does 04:35 "MIDI redundancy was never that hard" 08:02 Where it fits in a Dante rig 09:50 Do playback engineers have to learn Dante Controller? 13:13 RTP-MIDI and the second network port 14:53 Tracks from an iPad, straight to Dante? 15:26 What sample rate should you run? 17:06 Vocal processing and latency 21:30 Has my A computer ever actually failed? 26:08 Why run redundant at all 28:00 What's next ★ Support this podcast ★

I took a folder of raw stems and turned it into a show-ready Ableton Live set — routed, clicked, cued, timecoded, with lyrics — without programming any of it by hand. This episode is the full Pliris workflow, start to finish: upload raw stems, let it analyze key, tempo, and sections, add songs from existing Ableton files, build the setlist, and export a complete Ableton set with samples. Then I play it live with AbleSet to prove it works. Everything I show (other than the Pro template) works on the free account. The listener-only 14-day trial lives at https://fromstudiotostage.com/pliris/friend — it's not linked anywhere on the site. ★ Support this podcast ★

Eight years ago today I left a good job, built a membership platform from scratch in two weeks, and hit publish on a one-minute launch video.This one is a look back — the first digital products and the moment on a roller coaster that rewired how I thought about work. It's also the parts that don't make the highlight reel including wondering if it's still worth all this.Then I get into where the company actually is now. What it means to run all of this as one person, why every support ticket is becoming an agent instead of a reply, and a walk through the Pliris features I haven't shown publicly anywhere — including the one that took a month to build and is still the hardest thing I've shipped.Our first-ever Certified Playback Engineer bootcamp starts next week. Five spots, and one is already gone.Certification bootcamp — fromstudiotostage.com/bootcamp Listener-only 14-day Pliris trial — fromstudiotostage.com/pliris/friendEight years of thanks to the partners who backed this from day one: Oyen Digital, Alclair, Digital Audio Labs, iConnectivity and Ableton. ★ Support this podcast ★

Last week I revisited the most controversial video I've ever made and said what I should have said the first time: it isn't can you run everything on one computer — it's should you. This week pays that off. This is the most practical episode we've ever done. Two listeners asked the same question from opposite ends of it. Jonny said the idea left him feeling "sort of doomed, stuck with my setup." Logan's maxed-out MacBook Pro currently runs the entire show — tracks, vocal tuning, keys, guitar patch changes — and he wants to know whether a powerful computer makes division of labor unnecessary. It doesn't, because the question was never if that computer crashes. So we walk the diagrams: what actually stops working when one machine does everything and goes down, where to start when the budget is real, which splits cost nothing, and the one question that decides what deserves a backup at all. Last week's episode: The in-ears video I got wrong — and the one I should have made Listener-exclusive: a 14-day free trial of a full paid Pliris account — fromstudiotostage.com/pliris/friend. It isn't linked or advertised anywhere on the site; it's for people who listen. Chapters 0:00 Where we left off last week 1:34 "I run everything on one computer" 2:44 So what happens when it goes down? 3:17 Division of labor, in one diagram 4:10 Redundancy — and what it buys you 5:17 "I feel sort of doomed and stuck" 5:52 Logan's email 7:03 How do you apply this without endless budget? 11:39 "Just play your damn instruments, kids" 12:35 What if you lose autotune? 14:22 Be honest about what your show needs 16:35 What you can split for free 17:26 Split as far as budget allows 18:37 Step one — division of labor 20:46 Step two — redundancy for playback 21:49 It used to be expensive. It isn't now. 24:10 Step three — redundancy for what's crucial 27:24 "What must stay on for the show to go on" 28:25 Zero budget? Start anyway 30:16 Free trial + the annual commitment 31:07 Only you are in charge of your destiny ★ Support this podcast ★

Three years ago I made one of the most controversial videos I've ever put out: What's Wrong With Using Ableton to Run In-Ear Monitors? Looking back at the comments, I think I made the wrong video. So this week I read the pushback out loud — the people running everything from one machine, the keyboardist who's done ten years and multiple European tours from one Logic session and whose only two failures were a photographer stepping on a power cable, and the guy whose bassist and drummer felt latency he couldn't — and I say what I should have said the first time. It comes down to two things. It isn't can you, it's should you. And what happens when that computer crashes — which isn't a matter of if. Next week: how we practically apply redundancy and division of labor when we don't have unlimited budget, aren't traveling, and aren't playing arenas with giant teams. The video this episode is about: What's Wrong With Using Ableton to Run In-Ear Monitors? Listener-exclusive: a 14-day free trial of a full paid Pliris account — fromstudiotostage.com/pliris/friend. It isn't linked or advertised anywhere on the site; it's for people who listen. Chapters 0:00 The video I got wrong 0:53 Why I made it — and why it was off-subject 1:44 The eight reasons, and what they missed 3:15 "I run IEMs through my interface without problems" 4:02 Ten years, one Logic session, European festivals 5:19 It's not can you — it's should you 6:40 The line I should have opened with 7:35 What a stepped-on power cable actually costs you 10:08 When your drummer feels latency and you don't 11:05 What it really takes, part one: 32 inputs 14:20 Ten outputs — and the problem front-of-house can't fix 16:35 The split snake 18:22 Scaling it to a full band 20:10 Why would you manage all of this? 21:32 Where this video ended up: the bootcamps 23:20 It comes down to two things 23:46 A listener-only offer 26:01 Jonny's comment — and what's next week ★ Support this podcast ★

Nate Day and Mat Landry got hired on the same artist in 2021. Neither was a playback engineer. One of them had to become one — and that accident became Eights Creative, a Toronto company now doing music direction and playback systems for artists around the world. We talk about the path a lot of you are already on: you play an instrument, somebody asks if you can "do playback," and suddenly you're the one who keeps getting called. Nate and Mat break down what music direction actually is — taking an artist's album and deciding what it becomes on a stage — and why playback engineers so often make good MDs. Then it goes somewhere I didn't plan. I asked how highly skilled, hardworking people avoid getting bitter when the thank-yous go to everyone but the tech. Their answer reframed the job for me: you're not there to serve the artist so much as the person who bought the ticket, paid for parking, and found a babysitter. And the real deliverable isn't a working rig — it's a client who feels confident. We finish practical: how they run arrangements and approvals, why they'll tell an artist to rent instead of buy, and how one sub drummer and an afternoon of stem exports led them to Bands. Eights Creative: eightscreative.com · @eightscreative Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:56 Meet Nate and Mat from Eights Creative 06:09 The ELIO gig and the birth of Eights Creative 11:28 Playback is the skill that gets you the gig 16:17 What music direction actually is 22:13 The playback + MD combo role 25:47 How involved is the artist, really? 28:26 Staying un-jaded when nobody thanks the tech 31:50 "We're not curing cancer" — serving the audience 35:04 Campfires, RTP ports, and why live performance matters 43:43 Inside Eights: creative clients vs. systems clients 48:36 Why we tell artists to rent instead of buy 51:47 How we prep a band before rehearsal 53:54 The Isaiah story — hours of exports, solved 1:00:57 Thanks and wrap Listeners get a 14-day free trial of Pliris, which we don't offer anywhere else: https://fromstudiotostage.com/pliris/friend Join as an annual All Access member and I'll personally help you migrate your entire catalog — first 50 only. More about Pliris: fromstudiotostage.com/pliris Docs: fromstudiotostage.com/docs The Bands app: bands.fromstudiotostage.com Questions? [email protected] or @fromstudiotostageig on Instagram. Mentioned: ELIO · The Beaches · Metric · Toronto Metropolitan University · Ableton Live · iConnectivity PlayAUDIO · DirectOut PRODIGY · Roland SPD · RTP-MIDI ★ Support this podcast ★

After 327 days away, I'm back with a lot to share.In January 2025 I took a full-time road gig as TobyMac's playback engineer. In the same stretch I got rid of my office and the three people who helped me run this business, all left.Meanwhile, AI was changing how everyone learns, I was struggling with what being a creator on social media means, and re-focusing on my mission to make complex things simple.So I started building a vibe-coded app to keep my own band organized became Pliris: upload your stems, get back song sections, key and tempo, LTC, lyrics, chords, and a downloadable Ableton set. Overnight, it compressed five weeks of Playback Method curriculum into a single upload.Here's my path forward, and what I'm working towards till the end of the year.Chapters 00:00 Back after 327 days 02:21 How the TobyMac gig found me 04:09 "Prepare to be amazed" 07:27 What a road gig did to a solo business 11:15 The ChatGPT answer that was half wrong 13:46 The mission: making complex things simple 16:12 The Ableton app I never shipped 17:44 Vibe coding the Bands app 20:11 Becoming Pliris 23:07 The top secret master plan 26:08 Five weeks of curriculum in one upload 36:34 Why I went quiet: the influencer problem 42:44 1,000 members by the end of 2026 48:27 Sneak peek: the Files appListeners get a 14-day free trial of Pliris, which we don't offer anywhere else: https://fromstudiotostage.com/pliris/friendJoin as an annual All Access member and I'll personally help you migrate your entire catalog — first 50 only.Grab the free tracks template: fromstudiotostage.com/template Read the master plan: fromstudiotostage.com/blog/the-from-studio-to-stage-secret-master-plan More about Pliris: fromstudiotostage.com/pliris Docs: fromstudiotostage.com/docs The Bands app: bands.fromstudiotostage.comQuestions? [email protected] or @fromstudiotostageig on Instagram.Next week: Nate Day and Mat Landry of Eights Creative. ★ Support this podcast ★

This week we're talking Apple products. Specifically, the differences between Apple silicon and intel processors, and which one you should consider for playback.Take your first step towards becoming a world-class Playback Engineer, download our free Playback Template!Download for Freehttps://fromstudiotostage.com/templateSend us a question on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/fromstudiotostageig/Links & Resources Mentioned in this Videohttps://pages.fromstudiotostage.com/backline ★ Support this podcast ★