Sound for a drag or cabaret night

The mix is a single object and it must not be touched

A drag number is usually one file: a custom edit with dialogue drops, a key change, a false ending and a reveal, cut to the second against choreography the performer has drilled. It is not a song and it is not a playlist — it is one continuous four-minute thing, and every hazard is something that could interrupt it. So: nothing auto-advances into the next track, nothing fades unless you fade it, the machine makes no network calls so nothing can notify over the top, and the countdown on the row tells the person on the desk exactly how long is left before the lights need to change.

Eight performers, and the files arrive at eight o’clock

The organizational problem is not playback, it is that a night is eight people’s music turning up separately, in different formats, named things like final FINAL v3. Rename every row into whatever the desk needs to read — the performer’s name and the number — and the filename stops mattering. Give each performer their own bank of pads if they use stings, so the same physical key means their sound during their set and somebody else’s during the next. Save the night as one file; next month’s lineup is a different file, and last month’s is still there.

Quick changes are the gap you have to cover

Between numbers there is a costume change that takes as long as it takes. Load the interval bed as its own item with a long fade, or park a holding track on a pad and hold the room while the stage clears. Because nothing advances on its own, a gap that runs long costs you nothing — the machine simply waits, silent or on the bed, until somebody presses a key. The failure mode of an auto-advancing player, where the next performer’s intro fires into an empty stage, cannot happen.

It is nobody’s laptop

The machine belongs to the venue or the host, and the person on it may be a different performer each week. There is no account and no login, so nothing has to be handed over. One license covers a Mac and a Windows machine, so the host’s laptop and the venue’s spare are the same purchase; a Venue license covers three if the night moves between rooms.

Will it start the next number on its own if I am not watching?

No. Nothing plays until somebody presses play. An empty stage with music running is the specific failure this design prevents.

Can each performer have their own set of sound effects?

Yes — that is what banks are for. The same key fires a different pad depending on which bank is up, and the wall is switched between numbers.

What file types do the mixes need to be?

MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, OGG, OPUS and FLAC all play. Nothing needs converting first.