Engineering a Musical – Why I’m Putting the Whole Show on One Timeline
Every single track for Stardust has been rebuilt and pulled into a single, master Cubase project file. Whew.
That is 1 hour and 7 minutes of continuous music locked down. No underscores, no sound effects, just the raw, structural backbone of the show sitting on one global grid.
And now that it’s all in there? It’s time to rewrite and redo them all over again.
The Philosophy: Stripping Back the Fluff Every time I take a pass at these tracks, the goal is the same: simplify, refine, and take out the fluff. I’m focusing purely on the core infrastructure, getting the exact notes right, solidifying the grid alignment, and programming steady MIDI velocities to lock in the foundational touch and groove.
I’m deliberately banning complex automation curves (like CC7 volume or CC11 expression) and fine-print notation detail (staccatos, slurs, and micro-dynamics) for this phase. Leaving that out keeps the project visually clean and highly editable. It also leaves artistic breathing room for the Musical Director and the live pit band to bring their own expression and acoustic balance to the room during rehearsals.
The Strategy Behind the Single Timeline Building an entire 118-page show inside one massive file might seem a bit crazy to some software purists, but it is the exact approach that makes
for my workflow. Operating from one master timeline gives us three massive technical advantages:
Iron-Clad Backing Tracks: System-wide consistency. By locking down virtual instruments and mixing chains globally, the patches will sound identical from the opening curtain to the finale.
Fluid Instrument Score Books: When it comes time to print the final charts, the music for every instrument will just flow continuously, matching the automated timeline note-for-note.
Perfect Structural Transitions: This is where the magic happens. I can map out the precise tempo track changes from start to finish. Using a hard-quantized transitional bar rule, the gaps between scenes will be mathematically snapped to the grid.
The only real con? We are going to end up with bar numbers running well into the thousands, and the file size is going to be massive. But as long as the infrastructure is logical, stable, and easy to understand, that’s a trade-off I’m completely fine making.
Next Steps: The Engine Room With the core songs boxed off, the next step is diving back into the timeline to build the connective tissue:
Developing Underscores: I’ll be weaving subtle synth and piano motifs from the main numbers under the dialogue sections to keep the audience hooked between songs.
Sound Effect Integration: Programming specific, hard-quantized MIDI trigger notes on an Auxiliary Piano channel to fire off localized sound cues (like the jukebox shuddering, clicking, or mechanically waning during “Happy”) directly from the pit.
Project Managing Creativity I have a meeting coming up with the production team soon to present where the project stands. It means I am effectively bringing together my two worlds and project managing my creativity.
It feels weird to apply that level of structural engineering to an artistic piece, and it is probably going to look a little odd to the other creatives when they see the work laid out like a technical blueprint. But it is the way that works for me.
It’s a massive engineering puzzle, but the pieces are finally starting to slot into place. Time to get back to the grid.
#stardustthemusical #Cubase #composition
