In the previous post we discussed programming for OS X. In this post we cover the Flagship product of Figure 53: QLab.

How did QLab come to be made? What is its origin story?

After my year at Actors Theatre of Louisville I went back to graduate school to get some more edumacation about dem computers. Some of my buddies from the apprentice program went off to start a small theater company. They dropped me a line one day asking for a playback application that ran on a Mac. I thought I could just do a Google search and find them something, but it didn’t turn out to be that easy. I wasn’t really enjoying my research at the time, and I thought, hell, how hard could this be? So I took it on as a side project with a friend (Jesse Kriss). We churned that thing out in a matter of weeks. You’d never want to use that version now, but hey, it did the job at the time.

QLab 1 was incredibly successful very quickly what do you attribute that to?

Three reasons:

- It filled a massively unsatisfied need in the market.

- Much of the functionality was free.

- The quality of the product was pretty good.

What do you consider your biggest accomplishment is with QLab?

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Last time Chris and I talked business based on theatrical design. This time we will discuss developing for the Mac and OS X.

Why do you use a Mac and what got you started in programming?

I started using a Mac because that’s what my dad bought. I didn’t want him to buy it; I desperately wanted a computer that would play video games. I was really disappointed when he went with the Mac. In my old room back home I’ve got his old Tandy, an Apple II, a Mac Plus, and down in the basement is an LC 475, a Performa…you get the idea.

My first programming experience was in BASIC on the either the Tandy or the Apple–I forget which one. It was basically a pastiche program where I started mindlessly writing lines of code, adding anything I could at whatever point I happened to think of it. So, you know, start with a PRINT statement, and then a little choose-your-own-adventure style action, and oh, hey, now let’s play a little synthesized tune because I got to that part in the manual. I left that computer plugged in for a few days because I didn’t want the program to die and we didn’t have a disk drive.

What is your favorite piece of software?

The software that runs my digital watch. I don’t wear a watch anymore except when I run, but even when I wore it daily it had *exactly* the features I wanted, and zero bugs. It’s as close to perfect as any piece of software I’ve ever used.

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Chris Ashworth, developer of the game changing software QLab and OSX Audio Forum member, appeared on the theatrical sound design software scene seemingly out of the blue. In this interview we discuss the business aspect of working for yourself, OS X development and his flagship product QLab.

Give us a little bit of a bio for the man behind QLab.

I’m a Louisville Kentucky kid. In college I intended to be a computer science major but found I was spending more time doing theater, so I made it official and got a double major. Then I went back to Louisville as an apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville for a year. After that I decided I wanted health insurance so I went back to grad school to get a masters in CS.

Do you come from an artistic family or are they more the analytical type?

Very artistic. My dad is an amazing musician, musicologist, and teacher. We have pictures of me and my sister in pajama-onesies (that kind with the feet built in, where you had to zip up the side), and we’re dancing while he plays the harpsichord after dinner. That was a pretty typical after-dinner activity for us. My sister got his talent, and she is also an amazing musician. My mom might be the most analytical–she’s always investigating the world around her, collecting information, picking it apart, analyzing it. She’s a scientist at heart.

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