Stage Traxx beta version 3.0.0
Hi Peter,
Did you find the bug that’s causing the wrong seek position?
One more thing I noticed:
I had a gig yesterday where I used ST2. I would have used ST3, but didn’t find an easy way to achieve what I needed.
Here’s the use scenario:
- I have a playlist with songs that I use in my show
- say I want to skip song 3, but keep the rest of the list as it is. In ST2 I just tap song 4 and playback continues from there. If later I need Song 3 anyway, I just tap it and it will be next in line and the list continues from there instead aso. It’s all seamless and on-the-fly
Now, in ST3, I can either move a song to the top of the queue, remove it or drag-and-drop it to where I want, which is great, but tapping it doesn’t do anything, except marking it with a gray background (only in the queue window, but not in the landscape lyrics window) . So, if I need to use the app in a scenario like above, I have to drag and drop all the songs I want to skip to the end of the queue. If you have a show with a fixed song order, you can make a mess out of it before you notice it 
In ST2 it’s easy: load up the playlist, tap any song you like and playback continues from there, but you actually keep the original song order.
Here are also some things I encountered while trying to achieve what I needed:
1. Queue bug:
- add a playlist to queue
- add a song from the database to queue
- drag and drop the new song to or towards the end of the queue
- tap “Clear” - the queue breaks and you have to force close and restart the app to have it work again
After adding songs to the queue, there is a “new songs in queue” notification bubble, which disappears as soon as you open the queue or the lyrics window. It might make more sense to have a “total songs in queue” notification bubble instead, so you can see how many songs you have there from every other window.
Songs are being automatically added to the top of the queue when tapping them. Not sure about others, but when I’m playing a normal gig and not a fixed show, I actually think ahead, so I might decide which are the next 2-3 songs that I will be playing, while there are still songs in my queue. So, to me it makes more sense if the new songs are added to the BOTTOM of the queue instead.
Played songs are being automatically removed from the queue. Say you play a 3x45 minutes gig. How do you know which songs you already played and avoid repeating them?
So here are some things that I would find really helpful for the way I use the app:
- an option to keep songs in queue after playing them, but have them marked as already played
- the “tap and continue from there” functionality, just like ST2
- an option to show or hide the queue in portrait mode (same arrangement as in ST2)
- option for the volume buttons to act as song volume or general volume
Sorry to keep comparing ST3 with ST2, but I think that you coded ST3 with the gigging musician in mind, whose playlist is constantly changing and from that point of view, it’s a huge improvement over ST2.
However, if you look at things from the perspective of a musicians who plays a fixed show which rarely changes, ST3 is actually a step back from ST2.
In my opinion, adding these functions, which are there in ST2, will make ST3 the best choice for both worlds.
Thank you and have a nice day!
musicadi Yes, I have fixed the seek problem. The audio engine now has full support for different sample rates.
Regarding the queue handling. I understand. You want to skip a song but keep it on top of the queue. But the problem is that then it is no longer a queue. Only way to change the order in a queue is to actually move the entries in the queue. So what I could add is a gesture to move a song to the bottom of the queue if that would help.
Btw, the new version will support double tap in the queue to move a song to the top of the queue. Maybe a double tap of the next song in queue could move it to the bottom.
Regardings the other points:
- I don't see a crash but the queue gets broken somehow. I will investigate this
- Good idea
- I thought about that. What is the most common use case, when you select a song? Do you want to play it immediately or do you want to add it to the end? I thought if I have my queue setup and am performing and I decide I need a new song next, I would like to just tap the song in the songlist and it would be armed to play next. The swipe gesture works the other way around (will always add to the end). If the consensus is that the other way around (tap to add to end, swipe to play immediately) would be more useful, I can change that.
- That's already on my todo list: a way to view played songs
I do NOT like playing fixed set lists. I read the crowd and adjust on the fly. With over 400 tracks we can play a lot of different styles. I am always thinking 2 or 3 songs ahead while current song is playing, so for me new songs should go in the queue on the bottom. Also, I have my playlists set up by genre. On ST2 would only let me toggle the playlists with my irig BlueBoard pedal. It would be very nice if I could use the 4 button pedal to...display all playlists , move up, move down, select a playlist from which I could finger swipe up or down to select a song to add to queue.
Hey, so far I’m really liking ST3 and overall prefer the UI
Firstly in ST2 there was an option to prevent duplicates in a playlist, is this possible with ST3?
I prefer to create my set in advance and then tweak it, usually by reordering songs.
The new queue makes this really easy.
But I find creating the 2 playlists a bit of a pain, one reason is avoiding duplicates between 2 or more playlists (same song in set 1 and 2)
On the song list I can create a placeholder song, would it be possible to add a special type of placeholder called Break?
This would stop continuos playback when reached in the queue
So my workflow would be create a single playlist for whole evening with breaks in place
Eg
Song 1
Song 2
Break - Intros
Song 3
Etc
Break - End of Set 1
Song 20
Song 21
Etc
Break - End of Set 2
Extra song 1 that I may or may not play but can pull forward in queue
Extra song 2
If the breaks could show their time position in playlist / queue that would be even better
ie show total time of all songs before it in playlist
And a Next Break in X minutes shown in queue
JDSMUSIC I am always thinking 2 or 3 songs ahead while current song is playing, so for me new songs should go in the queue on the bottom.
Convinced, I will change the behavior in the next beta version (which will hopefully be finished today).
JDSMUSIC It would be very nice if I could use the 4 button pedal to...display all playlists , move up, move down, select a playlist from which I could finger swipe up or down to select a song to add to queue.
I will need to think about some solution here. I would like to have something that can be used with as few different buttons as possible. But I am currently a bit clueless. A button to cycle playlists is certainly possible. But movin up/down and selecting something would add another 3 buttons. So you would need to use 4 buttons just to select songs. So no buttons left to start/stop playback. I need to find a way to use fewer buttons.
danielrodgers85 On the song list I can create a placeholder song, would it be possible to add a special type of placeholder called Break?
This would stop continuos playback when reached in the queue
Playback does already stop on a placeholder song. Even with autoplay engaged.
danielrodgers85 ie show total time of all songs before it in playlist
Actually that's what playlists are for in my opinion. I guess what would work for you is to have an option to disable duplicate songs in a playlist, then create a big playlists with multiple sets and then copy this playlist multiple times and remove songs which are not part of the specific set. Right?
danielrodgers85 And a Next Break in X minutes shown in queue
The next beta version will have the session timer again with a new mode which displays the approximate end time of the current queue
I always touch the iPad screen to start and stop. Maybe have All Footswitch options but limit assignment to 4 operations?
I’ve been using ST3 now at all my gigs and I really like it. Occasionally I get a bug where the play button disappears and won’t come back. I have to restart the app to get it to come back. I think it would be much better if the play button was always there instead of disappearing and reappearing.
peter Actually that's what playlists are for in my opinion. I guess what would work for you is to have an option to disable duplicate songs in a playlist, then create a big playlists with multiple sets and then copy this playlist multiple times and remove songs which are not part of the specific set. Right?
Yes, that would work.
I also noticed the playlist screen doesn’t show the total duration, you have to back out to the playlist screen to see that
- Edited
New beta build 2691
Another big update with lots of changes. Now I will start working on the visuals in the mini player and lyrics view.
Changes
- Added session timer with 3 operating modes: clock, session timer, end time of current queue
- Queue summary is displayed above the queue also in lyrics view mode
- Refreshing the song list will now also refresh song metadata if the audio file has changed
- Queue display in lyrics view can now slide in and out
- Double tapping a song in the queue will move it to the top of the queue
- Queue badge will always display total number of songs in queue
- Added setting to change audio buffer size (not applicable when running in Audiobus session)
- Tap on a song will now add it to the end of the queue
- Song titles of songs with missing audio files are displayed in red color
- Changed section header color in song view
- Fixed crash when importing songs from iTunes library that are not downloaded to the device
- Fixed inaccurate positioning of 48kHz tracks
- Fixed tapping in song view edit mode does add songs to queue instead of selecting them
- Fixed swiping lyrics in portrait view does not work after opening lyrics view
- Fixed crash when deleting last song from queue in lyrics view
- Fixed restoring backups does not check for iTunes access rights
- Fixed importing lyrics with other encoding than utf-8 fails
- Fixed crash when an audio file has been deleted and the song list is refreshed
- Fixed crash when clearing queue after moving first song down the queue
Bugs in this version
queue badge not updated when adding multiple songs or restarting the appsongs which contain a / character in title or artist can not be imported from iTunes library
Next changes planned
- improve visuals
- network session functionality
- find a way to select next song via pedal commands
- add ability to view played songs
- show tutorial on first start of app
- add payment options
- Edited
Hi,
Cool, thank you!
Is it possible to put the queue list at the bottom in portrait mode, with full width and height that’s about 25-30% of the lyrics window? I think that would look visually better. The number of songs/playtime and song duration info don’t fit the current width.
A few bugs:
- tap to add song to bottom not working (you already use tap to add to queue in song mode, that might be conflicting?). Actually, swipe right already moves the song to top, double tap could be used to move it to bottom instead.
- in portrait mode, double tap to move song to top, then turn the device to landscape: there are graphical glitches in the queue list, which persist if you turn it back to portrait mode and go away once text is offscreen or you use any gesture
- in song mode, select songs and add them to the queue: queue badge is not updated for those songs
- force close the app and open it again: queue badge “forgets” the number of songs in queue
- in settings, when swiping the audio volume back and forth a few times, it goes crazy
Feature requests:
- could we have dark mode in Song Details window also?
- in Song Details, double tapping song volume resets it to 0. Might be useful to add this functionality to the other sliders too
- a way to control main volume from the player screen. Maybe an option for the +/- volume buttons to control either song volume, playlist volume or device volume
- color option for the lyrics that are not highlighted (could be grayscale only)
Thanks again and have a nice day!
musicadi Is it possible to put the queue list at the bottom in portrait mode, with full width and height that’s about 25-30% of the lyrics window? I think that would look visually better. The number of songs/playtime and song duration info don’t fit the current width.
I tried that but it is not very usable only 3 songs can be displayed in that position. That is not enough especially as I got a couple of requests for version 2 to increase the song list height in portrait view. What I can do though is to display the total queue summary above the autoplay control in portrait view.
musicadi - tap to add song to bottom not working (you already use tap to add to queue in song mode, that might be conflicting?). Actually, swipe right already moves the song to top, double tap could be used to move it to bottom instead.
I forgot to add this one in the last beta.
musicadi - in portrait mode, double tap to move song to top, then turn the device to landscape: there are graphical glitches in the queue list, which persist if you turn it back to portrait mode and go away once text is offscreen or you use any gesture
Seems to work fine for me. What kind of glitches do you get?
musicadi - in song mode, select songs and add them to the queue: queue badge is not updated for those songs
- force close the app and open it again: queue badge “forgets” the number of songs in queue
Confirm, will be fixed.
musicadi - in settings, when swiping the audio volume back and forth a few times, it goes crazy
It doesn't go crazy but lags behind your movements. I can't change that as the device volume slider is an iOS component. Anyway, no one will quickly swipe the volume back and forth a couple of times in real world use.
musicadi - could we have dark mode in Song Details window also?
I had that in the beginning but did find it a bit tiering on the eyes when editing songs. The light background makes it easier to edit song details and lyrics.
musicadi - in Song Details, double tapping song volume resets it to 0. Might be useful to add this functionality to the other sliders too
Good idea but maybe something for version 3.1. 3.0 is long overdue.
musicadi - a way to control main volume from the player screen. Maybe an option for the +/- volume buttons to control either song volume, playlist volume or device volume
You have always the physical volume buttons available for main volume. Playlist volume is no longer available and I think that the fastest way to change overall volume is to grab the faders on your mixing console.
musicadi - color option for the lyrics that are not highlighted (could be grayscale only)
On my todo list for version 3.1.
Hi Peter thank you for the new update - great stuff, keep up the good work.
Can you confirm that an ST3 backup contains the audio files as well as I notice that the file is now quite large compared with a ST2 backup - ’ve just created a one and it’s over 2gb. Regards Richard
DickyDutch Yes, backups in ST3 contain also your songs. So moving from one device to another can be done by restoring just the backup file.
Hi Peter ref the ‘Queue display in lyrics view can now slide in and out’ would it be possible to include this as a remote action so it could be switched via Bluetooth pedal please? regards Richard
DickyDutch I can add a pedal command for this feature.
- Edited
Hi,
Songlist on bottom in portrait mode: You could use two colums for the songlist then you can display 6 songs and both title and track time would also fit each column
About the graphical glitch: the track time was covering the title.. however, I can’t reproduce it now
About playlist volume: I play the piano while using the app, so using the physical volume buttons or the mixing console is way more difficult if I quickly want to adjust the main volume
I also just noticed something with the timer: while swiping the screen, the timer is not updating. It “freezes” until you stop swiping
Thank you!
Cheers,
- Edited
musicadi Songlist on bottom in portrait mode: You could use two colums for the songlist
This is way too complicated to implement. Scrolling in a two column list where one column flows over into the next is not doable in a reasonable amount of time. I will stick to the left hand side column.
musicadi About playlist volume: I play the piano while using the app, so using the physical volume buttons or the mixing console is way more difficult if I quickly want to adjust the main volume
I will think about something when working on the UI improvements.
musicadi I also just noticed something with the timer: while swiping the screen, the timer is not updating. It “freezes” until you stop swiping
I will take a look at this.
Hi Peter - I agree with the post by musicadi regarding the ability to change the master volume from the screen. Although I use a small Bose mixer I sometimes use the built in mixer of a Bose s1 pro speaker which is sits on the floor (or speaker stand) and not in easy reach during a performance if I need to change the volume. Richard
- Edited
OK, so we have two separate volume settings: song volume and master volume. Would switching the volume slider between these two modes like in ST2 work? Remote control via pedal would always control the current selected mode. Or should both settings be available at the same time?