18. Playing together

Following and shared playback

Playing together is about time as much as edits: the drummer presses Play and the whole band hears the song start on the same beat, the teacher points at a bar and everyone looks there. Each device plays the song itself, from its own copy, started on one shared moment.

Following and shared playback

Available on every platform.

Shared Playback

With Shared Playback on, your Play, Stop, and jumps in the song start and stop everyone in the session at once, with the loop, the speed, the metronome and the count-in you play with. Starting together, everyone counts in together. It’s on when a session starts.

Off, your own Play, Stop and jumps stay on your device, and others’ don’t start or stop yours: you can rehearse a passage alone while the others work. Everyone else still plays together, the host passing their playback on.

A guest whose role doesn’t include Play and Stop for Everyone (a Reader, for one) plays on their own device alone, whatever the switch says. See Roles and copies.

A Stab Cloud song edited live by its members starts with Shared Playback off: each person plays on their own until they turn it on.

Following someone

Each person in the session has Follow beside their name in the Session pane’s People (it reads Following while it’s on)in their submenu of the Together menuin the Session menu (“Follow Alex”), and in the Session pane the session chip opens. Following someone keeps their caret in sight: your panes turn the page when it leaves the view, and scroll their track into view; a Score pane keeps their moment in view. Choose it again to stop. When they leave, following stops by itself.

You follow one person at a time. Your own caret and selection stay yours: following moves only what you see.

Look Here

Look Here (⌥⌘L)Look Here (Ctrl+Alt+L)Look Here (Ctrl+Alt+L (⌥⌘L on a Mac)) shows everyone where your caret is: a ring flashes there on their screens, and on yours, so you see it went out. Use it when a place is easier to show than to name. It’s at the foot of the Session pane too.