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Behind the Space BarLearn how to become a World-Class Playback Engineer. Author: From Studio to Stage
Learn how to become a World-Class Playback Engineer. Hosted by Ableton Live Certified Trainer Will Doggett. New Episodes every Monday @ 10AM ET. Language: en Genres: Education, How To, Music Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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How One Gig Became a Music Direction Company | Nate Day & Mat Landry
Episode 2
Monday, 27 July, 2026
Nate Day and Mat Landry got hired on the same artist in 2021. Neither was a playback engineer. One of them had to become one — and that accident became Eights Creative, a Toronto company now doing music direction and playback systems for artists around the world. We talk about the path a lot of you are already on: you play an instrument, somebody asks if you can "do playback," and suddenly you're the one who keeps getting called. Nate and Mat break down what music direction actually is — taking an artist's album and deciding what it becomes on a stage — and why playback engineers so often make good MDs. Then it goes somewhere I didn't plan. I asked how highly skilled, hardworking people avoid getting bitter when the thank-yous go to everyone but the tech. Their answer reframed the job for me: you're not there to serve the artist so much as the person who bought the ticket, paid for parking, and found a babysitter. And the real deliverable isn't a working rig — it's a client who feels confident. We finish practical: how they run arrangements and approvals, why they'll tell an artist to rent instead of buy, and how one sub drummer and an afternoon of stem exports led them to Bands. Eights Creative: eightscreative.com · @eightscreative Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:56 Meet Nate and Mat from Eights Creative 06:09 The ELIO gig and the birth of Eights Creative 11:28 Playback is the skill that gets you the gig 16:17 What music direction actually is 22:13 The playback + MD combo role 25:47 How involved is the artist, really? 28:26 Staying un-jaded when nobody thanks the tech 31:50 "We're not curing cancer" — serving the audience 35:04 Campfires, RTP ports, and why live performance matters 43:43 Inside Eights: creative clients vs. systems clients 48:36 Why we tell artists to rent instead of buy 51:47 How we prep a band before rehearsal 53:54 The Isaiah story — hours of exports, solved 1:00:57 Thanks and wrap Listeners get a 14-day free trial of Pliris, which we don't offer anywhere else: https://fromstudiotostage.com/pliris/friend Join as an annual All Access member and I'll personally help you migrate your entire catalog — first 50 only. More about Pliris: fromstudiotostage.com/pliris Docs: fromstudiotostage.com/docs The Bands app: bands.fromstudiotostage.com Questions? support@fromstudiotostage.com or @fromstudiotostageig on Instagram. Mentioned: ELIO · The Beaches · Metric · Toronto Metropolitan University · Ableton Live · iConnectivity PlayAUDIO · DirectOut PRODIGY · Roland SPD · RTP-MIDI ★ Support this podcast ★
