Anyone using Live in theatre productions?

[LeifonMars]

I also do the design process almost entirely within Live, but the cue stack programming is another game for me.
I don't use any 3rd party plugins during show and Live runs along Qlab on a dedicated machine and still, a couple of times I ran into serious problems.
Once I lost sound output through the Master channel on loading a project and another time I lost output channels on the sound card as well as few other minor problems, so since then I'm just too scared to leave too much audio processing in Live's hands.
Some of the production companies I work for would be reluctant to accept "I had to reboot" as an explanation.
In any case, I'm quite liking my setup and so far it has proven rock solid, (touching wood) so i'mma stick with it, but I'm always curious to hear what other people prefer. There's always something to learn.

Once I had to reboot QLab because videos froze all of the sudden. The cause turned out to be Logic, that I had running in the background when I launched QLab prior the show. According to QLab support this is a no no. Anyhow, QLab support is excellent; they reply within hours.

Edit: about using the spacebar to launch ques: I've had a couple of double clicks, a dedicated controller might have prevented those. More often the problem is me loosing focus (especially during mid season, when I've learned the play too well).

[zaloo]

i've used Ableton extensively on hundreds of live theater productions in small and large houses for the past seven years, all over Los Angeles, Portland OR, New York and London.

Ableton Live has served me and the productions very well.

as Live was first engineered as a rock-solid playback platform and a close second as a musical instrument, my sound design has become more and more effortlessly musical. the panorama of sonic possibilities within Live as i sit at the tech table as a play is painstakingly layered together during technical rehearsal is exhilarating. no rendering in a DAW then shuttling over the frozen sound to see if it sounds any good in place, then trying to match the attack and decay with fades in a separate playback application. theatrical sound design and music composition in Ableton Live as it also serves as the playback platform invites as much perfectionist nuance as you would like to stand and the Stage Manager can call. i find my shows having as much nuance as a lighting design. in fact most cues are "lights and sound.. GO."

there are quirks, as in the roundabout way you have to fade continuous audio material, through dummy clips, although this slightly convoluted method opens up a world of parameter automation with it.

i wish i could print Scene (Cue) lists, it would make paperwork, if i'm forced to provide cue sheet, a lot easier.

i wish the color coding palette had more nuance, like Logic, i use color coding a lot with the huge Sets generated for theater. tints and shades of colors..

Ableton has ceded the theater market to QLab, especially in the video playback arena. recently QLab has acquired the ability to use live processing through AU and apparently pitch and time manipulation,
which is something Live had over QLab, hand over fist. no more..

because QLab has basically installed itself as the de-facto standard in live theater and performance applications, i've often been forced to defend my choice to use Live at major venues because the staff is not trained in Ableton. they regard Ableton Live as a DAW like Logic and i have an uphill battle sometimes. it's a shame that Ableton has ceded that market.. the makers of QLab are wonderful folk, i'm told, but i wish they were not perceived as the only game in theatrical audio.

-john zalewski