Question 1

What is Rehearsal Live Share? How does it work?

Accepted Answer

Rehearsal Live Share (RLS) is a remote music rehearsal and performance technology developed by Realtime Music Solutions.  It allows a "director" to hear a live, synchronized music performance by one or more participants over the internet. See our guided tour video for more details.

Question 2

What is heard in an RLS session?  Is it like rehearsing in the same room?

Accepted Answer

While nothing beats making music with others in person, we believe RLS offers an incredible solution to the challenges of music performance over the net.  An RLS session involves a “director” and “participants”.  During performance, the RLS participants will not hear each other as they play along with a backing track.  On the other hand, the RLS director does hear all participants in perfect sync.  Recording capabilities in RLS further enhance the experience by allowing participants to record takes and distribute them from within the program.  Once shared, each participant can then hear and perform alongside those recordings of the other participants.

Question 3

How does RLS handle latency?

Accepted Answer

Since latency is an inevitable limitation of the current state of internet networking technology, RLS's unique design circumvents the problem by making the exact simultaneous performance of ensemble musicians unnecessary.  By design, each participant is disabled from hearing each other's live microphone feed, thus allowing headroom for a milliseconds apart, out-of-sync performance.  The non-synchronous performances are then re-assembled for the director, who will hear all the musicians playing together in perfect sync.  Recording capabilities in RLS further enhance the experience by allowing participants to record takes and distribute them from within the program.  Once shared, each participant can then hear and perform alongside those recordings of the other participants.

Question 4

How much does RLS cost?

Accepted Answer

While installing and setting up our software is free, using RLS to direct a live share session only requires a subscription.  Please see our pricing and ordering page for the cost of our subscription plans.

Question 5

Can I use RLS with any music I choose?

Accepted Answer

Yes, anyone can create a program of pieces or songs with their own audio files.  Doing this does not require a subscription, and can be done right after installation.  However, to get the full RLS experience, directors should sign up for a 2-week free trial subscription, which allows the sharing of your content, as well as the ability to conduct a live RLS session with your fellow musicians.

Question 6

How many people can rehearse together with RLS?

Accepted Answer

We have placed an arbitrary maximum at 30 total users for sessions involving a single director.  However, a session with many more participants (up to 871 to be precise) is acheivable using RLS's serialization feature. 
 
The speed of the computer used to direct a session is the determining factor for how the program handles a high capaictiy RLS session.  If you have access to an exceptionally powerful system, and you wish to attempt a higher RLS capicity than 30 with a single director, reach out to us.  We can then help setup your system for higher participant caps.

Question 7

Can I utilize RLS for instruments other than voice?

Accepted Answer

Yes.  Any instrument will work with RLS, provided you have a working microphone to capture its sound.  Here's a demonstration of a string ensemble using RLS:

Question 8

Do participants need to pay for a subscription to use RLS?

Accepted Answer

No, those who use RLS as a particpant do not require a subscription. The subscription is only required for RLS directors (including sub-directors on a large, serialized rehearsal). This means anyone can participate, and those with subscriptions may share their show and initiate a live share session.

Question 9

How do I order RLS?

Accepted Answer

RMS Creator subscriptions are purchased though the RMS accounts page. Just sign in or create an account and then hit Upgrade now! in the upper right-hand corner.  A video tutorial on our Pricing and Ordering page shows you how.

Question 10

What do I need to use RLS?  Do you have any recommendations?

Accepted Answer

RLS requires a computer for directors, while participants may run RLS on a computer or iOS devices.  All must use compatible headphones and microphones. Visit our equipment recommendations page for more details.

Question 11

Does RLS use, share, or sell my personal information?"

Accepted Answer

You may encounter a notification such as this when using the RLS app on iOS.  This is a standard privacy notification on iOS that informs users that the app is connecting with outside servers, and could potentially share data from your device.   Be aware that we only keep information related to the functionality of the program (e.g. using email as a means to identify someone for log-in or payment processing). No information is sold or used for purposes outside of the Rehearsal Live Share experience.

Question 12

What are some of the longer term plans for RLS?

Accepted Answer

We are fully dedicated to adding new and exciting features, as well as refining the existing ones.  While we have no major new features on the horizon, we welcome customer feedback for ideas and changes that will improve the RLS experience.

Question 13

What changed in the various software releases?

Accepted Answer

Here's a page containing a detailed Changelog.
 
Here's our product announcements:
NATS 6/29/20 Webinar - RLS Exploration
Original Product Announcement
Beta Launch
Version 1.0
Version 1.01
Version 1.02
Version 1.03
Version 1.04
Version 1.05

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