Collaborative playback
When you’re reviewing an arrangement together, everyone hitting play on their own gets you a wall of slightly-out-of-sync audio. Collaborative playback fixes that: one person leads, and everyone else’s transport follows in lockstep, so the whole band hears the same downbeat at the same instant.
Leading
Section titled “Leading”Press Lead in the toolbar transport. You become the conductor: your play, pause, stop, and playhead position now drive everyone in the song who is following. The button changes to show you’re leading; press it again to stop.
When you start playback as the leader, Tabula runs a brief shared count-in so every follower can get their playhead into position, and then everyone resumes together on the same beat — the first notes land in time across the band, not staggered by whoever’s connection is fastest.
Following
Section titled “Following”When someone else leads, everyone else’s transport switches to Following name automatically. Your local play/stop controls step aside while you follow — playback tracks the leader’s position, including if you joined late (you’ll be caught up to where they are).
You’re not stuck following, though:
- Detach — click Following name to drop out and regain your own local controls, without taking leadership away from the conductor. The button becomes Follow name so you can re-join with one click.
- Take over — pressing Lead yourself makes you the new conductor; the most recent person to claim the lead wins, and everyone converges on them.
Good to know
Section titled “Good to know”- Collaborative playback keeps everyone in rehearsal-grade sync — tight enough to follow a part together, not a substitute for everyone playing from the same room.
- If the leader goes quiet (closes the tab, loses connection), followers automatically stop rather than drifting on headless.
- It builds on ordinary playback — the sound font, tempo map, repeats, and your personal mix all still apply on each person’s machine.