What is Rehearsal Live Share? How does it work?

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.

Can I use RLS with any music I choose?

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.

How much does RLS cost?

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.

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

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.

How many people can rehearse together with RLS?

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.

How does RLS handle latency?

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-synchroneous 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.

Can I utilize RLS for instruments other than voice?

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:

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

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.

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

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.

What are some of the longer term plans for RLS?

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.

What changed in the various software releases?

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

How do I order RLS?

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.

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

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.

What are the minimum tech specs, or technical requirements?

• MacOS 10.13 or later | Windows 8.1 (64 bit) or later

How do you handle security? What about Zoom Bombing?

When you as director initiate an RLS session, you invite specific people to join. It is not possible to enter a session without the director's explicit authorization, and so the RLS equivalent of "Zoom bombing" is not possible.

Do you have any tips on how to get the best RLS experience possible?

Yes, please visit our best practices page here.

Where are Rehearsal Live Share (RLS) recordings saved?

When recordings are made, a recording assignemnt icon appears below each channel strip in the RLS window. Clicking on that icon will reveal the recording assignment dialog box. This dialog box contains a button labeled "reveal" which takes the user to the directory where recordings are saved.

I'm having an issue attempting to use RLS.  Is there a troubleshooting page?

See here for some common issues and fixes.

Why is my RLS Performance is sounding distorted, clipped, or choppy?

You may also need to adjust your mic's input gain. Participants should open their sound preferences window, look at their input level, sing or perform their loudest musical event (for sopranos we also recommend singing your highest note), and see if the meter exceeds the limitations of the scale. Continue to adjust the gain down until the meter is not approaching the red line. This is often the case since default settings are based around speaking, not playing. Most singers will agree that they sing louder than they speak. Setting an appropriate input gain is critical to sending high quality sound to the director. For those with external audio interfaces, make sure that the signal is not clipping on the input meter. Usually there is a red light that flashes or other way of indicating this warning. Microphone placement is also critical. The location and distance will depend on the type of microphone and the type of instrument or voice. Now you're setup to have a clean vocal performance. Windows Users: It has been brought to our attention that most Windows laptops have settings in place for their internal microphone that make it impossible to get a smooth musical performance. Here is a video going over the following steps. Close out any currently running RMS software In the right-bottom toolbar, right-click on the volume icon Click Open Sound Settings Under Input, click Device Properties Click Additional device properties Click the Enhancements tab Click the box for Disable all sound effects Click Apply (if Apply isn't available, simply click OK) Exit the settings menu Launch the RMS program you're using

The first time I try to use RLS (Rehearsal Live Share) on Windows, I get a firewall prompt?

This is to be expected when trying to create a peer to peer connection between you and your cast mate/instructor's computers. It is recommended to hit "accept" at this point.

I'm having issues connecting to RLS when I'm at school?

It is possible when behind a heavy firewall like those found in schools, that you may have issues connecting to RLS. If this is the case for you, talk to your IT department about our domains and the ports associated with Realtime Music Solutions.

• https://rms.biz/
• https://accounts.rms.biz/
• rls.rms.biz, port 8888

I've created a show for RLS. How do I share this content with my cast or ensemble?

You can learn how to share your show in step 5 of the getting started page.

Are there any known issues with RLS?

We are constantly working to improve RLS. That said, here are some issues we are aware of and working to resolve.

Can I share my RLS session with an audience over Zoom?

Yes, here are the steps, as well as a video guide to acheiving this:

1. The director of the RLS session initiates a Zoom call with audience members (non-participants).
2. Director shares screen in Zoom with audience members.
3. When sharing screen, select Share Computer Sound and Optimize Screen Share for Video Clip at bottom left.
4. Select Desktop as view and hit Share on bottom right.
5. Launch Rehearsal Live Share.
6. Go to the RLS Preferences select the Audio tab. Set output to ZoomAudioDevice.
7. Go to menu Tools → Rehearsal Live Share and begin your RLS call.

The performance of your participants in RLS will be then be witnessed by those in your Zoom call.

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What do the colored dots mean in my contacts list?

The dot system is in place to quickly figure out who you can connect with. All below info included in our new video.

Is there a quick way to toggle recording assignments?

Yes. You can quickly unassign recordings in one or all channel strips using the following shortcuts:

• On Mac, holding command while clicking on the recording assignment icon will unassign that channel strip. Holding command + shift together while clicking on the recording assignment icon will unassign all channel strips.

Is it possible to change my previously built show by adding or deleting songs?

Yes, just select "Modify Original Show" from the file menu. This will reveal plus and minus buttons in the songs section of the main window, which permit the adding and deleting of songs.

Is there a way to add or replace a conductor track to an existing song in a show?

This feature is currently not available. However, one could build a new show, adding the midi conductor track during that process.

Can I replace an audio file for an existing song?

It's not possible to replace an existing song's audio file, but you can delete the original song, and then re-add the song with the new audio file.

Why can't participants see each other?  After sharing recordings, participants could see each other's channel strips, but not their video feeds.

Participants will not be able to see each other's live video feed apart from the pop up in the director's video channel during conversation mode. This is because peer-to-peer connections do not exist between participants. Technically speaking, live share sessions do not create “peer connections” between every single user in a session, but rather, only between the director and each participant. It’s for this reason that conversation mode works a little differently than programs such as Zoom. Instead of each user communicating and speaking to one another through a direct connection, each participant’s speech and video is channeled through the director’s channel, then re-broadcasted to all participants. This design choice allowed for much higher efficiency and reliability in RLS’s main function of music making.

Can directors peform/record along with participants?

Yes, directors are now able to perform and record along with participants using the "director can participate" option in preferences. Note that when this option is checked, the participants will not be able to hear the director's live microphone feed during playback and recording. Here is a demonstration of this feature.

Is RLS supported on Linux/WINE?

While some users have been able to install RLS on those platforms, we cannot promise successful operation, and do not have plans to support them in the future. We currently support Windows, Mac, and iOS, and are working on adding support for Android/Chromebook.

Windows detected a threat when I tried to download/install RLS; why is this?

As RLS is fairly new, Windows has yet to whitelist it. Rest assured, we have reached out to them and we're in the queue for review. For now, if you're getting threat notices via Microsoft Edge browser about RLS you'll need to click through the warnings to allow the download to finish - see the attached screenshot below. If you're just getting threat notices via Windows Defender SmartScreen after download and during install, here's how to get past it.

Can I delete a show I have already created?

Yes, in the show managment window, right-click the folder representing the show you want to delete. If you on are on a mac, you can control-click the folder to bring up the delete option.

When I have "director can participate" checked, the participants can no longer hear me.  Why is that happening?

If the "director can participate" preference is checked, participants will not hear the director's live microphone feed during playback or recording. This is due to how RLS works: all users are hearing and performing asynchroneously in their respective locations due to latency, so disabling live microphone feeds is required.

How many participants can my computer handle?  Why does RLS freeze up after (x) number of participants on my 4-core machine?

In an RLS session, the computer being used for the director role is the one that is most computationally burdened. This burden increases with each participant added. If you find that a machine you are using becomes slow or unresponsive once you cross the theshold of a particular number of participants, it indicates the speed of the computer cannot handle a live share session of that size. In that case, here are some things you can try:

1. Some computers may improve performance after optimizing or changing settings. Windows optimization may be found here. Mac users may find advice here.
2. You can also have participants toggle-off their video feeds to improve efficiency if your computer is struggling.
3. We also have hardware recommendations for directors who seek to maximize their live share session size.
4. You can spread the computational burden by setting using our serialization feature.

How do I change the reverb settings applied to participants during playback and recording?

The reverb effect that is applied to participants during playback and recordings may be changed or disabled in the "mixer" window, under the "output" tab. The reverb send appears as a radial knob beneath the output channel strip. For more information on this window, see our user guide.