NEW YEARS GIG FEEDBACK

Damir

Hi Peter, i had a great new year gig where i performed 72 songs from 7pm to 2am and i can say ST3 didnt miss a beat, but as usual little things go wrong, so i am mentioning them again in hope we can improve them in future.
As i was setting up my airturn stomp 6 fired up immediately but my Digit 3 would not be recognized by the ipad no matter what i tried so i gave up and used my fingers to control ipad when i was near the microphone and my stomp 6 to stop start and choose next songs, so i am giving feedback from that perspective.
I had a very engaging audience so song requests were flying in frequently, so i had to use search to help, and this is where i struggled the most, the thing i dont like about search is when i am in a new years playlist i can not just hit a search request type in my search select the song to be next and exit and be back on my playlist, I HATE LEAVING MY PLAYLIST TO SEARCH IN SONG MODE, WHEN PERFORMING I WANT TO DO EVERYTHING I NEED ON STAGE ON THAT ONE PAGE, what is most frustrating is having to hit multiple things to achieve a search, firstly you have to choose SONG mode as there is no search in playlists, then you hit the search box which then doas nothing but place the cursor there without a keyboard, then i have to hit my STOMP 6 red button on off switch to bring up the keyboard so i can then type in my search, then once i have got results i need to scroll by finger on the screen to find a song as its the quickest way to do it with the keyboard covering most of the screen , once i have found my next song i choose it as next, BUT NOW I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING IN REVERSE TO GET BACK TO MY PLAYLIST, i have to press the foot switch red button to make the keyboard drop down and then i have to select playlists to get back to my performance, NOW THIS IS DRAINING WHEN YOU HAVE TO DO IT NUMEROUS TIMES IN A NIGHT.

MY IDEAL OPERATION WOULD BE WHEN USING A PLAYLIST IS TO HAVE WITHIN A THE PLAYLIST A SEARCH BUTTON WHEN PRESSED A KEYBOARD IS PRESENTED TO YOU TO TYPE IN YOUR SEARCH CHOOSE A SONG THAN PRESS THAT SAME BUTTON TO CLOSE THE SEARCH AND YOU ARE DONE,
That would be the operation i would be happy with, at the moment search is way to clumsy and awkward not to mention the IPHONE operation of search is virtually useless as to get to the search bar as it is burried way too deep in to the back of ST3 that it becomes a handy feature only if you are not performing even then its awkward.

Why not just have a search button in all windows that opens up the search funtion allows you to find a song and hit that same button to exit search, in all orientations and playback mode windows.
Why make it so awkward and different on all devices surely a search button that opens up the same way in all devices in all orientations is the way to go.

That was my biggest hurdle on a very demanding night with my stupid STOMP 6 that cant seem to operate in direct mode and my crappy Digit 3 that let me down at the moment i needed it most.
As you can imagine i am not impressed with the airturn reliability and comlexity of their slightly older versions of foot pedals.
Perhaps i need to do more research and upgrade my remotes to something more reliable and logical to use.
If anyone has devices they are totally happy with can you pass on the brands and models please, thanks in advance.

Heres another little thing, in HISTORY can we have the file number count as well next to date so we can easily see how many songs we performed on the night without having to count them manually.
I use my iphone ST3 to play the background music list so this makes my history play count accurate on the ipad plus it keeps my ipad on the performace playlist so i dont have to change to another playlist, and also acts as my backup device incase the ipad shits itself i can quicly take over with the iphone, i believe having an instant backup is always wise that way the show just goes on without the audience having to know there was ever an issue.

So to sum it up i believe the search method needs improvement to suit all devices , and i strongly believe more effort needs to be put in to design the system so once you are in a PLAYLIST you dont ever need to leave this window once you are performing, this would make me feel a lot more at ease when on stage.

Happy new year to all!

peter

Thanks for the feedback.

A popup windows for search is actually a good idea. I like that. Did you already propose this and I missed it? I will make a not and see if I can add it in version 3.7.

Song numbering in the history tab is most likely no big deal. There is already an option to enable song numbering in playlists, so I will reuse that option to enable also numbering in the History tab. This is scheduled for version 3.7.

I also use a separate device for background music. I have a trusty iPod touch loaded up with different themed background playlists (like jazz, lounge, soul, ...). I use an app called Serato Pyro which has absolutely stunning transitions between songs. Unfortunately it is no longer available for purchase. I guess it took away too much sales from their full blown dj app.

Damir

peter yes I use song numbering already as it’s a good way to know where you are in a playlist, as I have all my performing songs in all my playlist initially in alphabetical order then I rearrange the first 50 or 60 songs in the order of what suits the gig so that way if there are requests I can find songs a bit easier on the night but because my song list is 360 songs it still is a big ask to be searching by foot while performing so a quick search feature would be a lot faster as long as it is simple and quick and possibly can be used while still performing and using lyrics screen.this would be ideal.
I Love ST3 for all my musical needs as it is a good librarian having its own folder, it can be just a lyrics app for guys going to parties and just dragging out lyrics and using a acoustic or accordion, it can be an auto cue for all sorts of reasons , so basically I am not interested in any other apps , but there are simple little things to fine tune to make all those other useful features shine.

NachoChez

Damir
I agree that having search functionality with a playlist would be a nice and usable feature.

I do think you will continue to have the keyboard issues because you are using the Stomp6. Peter may be able to chime in and tell me if I am wrong. (Please do Peter) My understanding is the Airturn products are not the same as a MIDI control. They pair with the OS and are seen as keyboards. They are actually sending keyboard commands and the app is mapping that to a shortcut. So, when a Bluetooth keyboard is paired and connected, the OS library hides the keyboard when a text field is selected because it thinks you have a keyboard connected and intend to use it. If you were to use a MIDI controller sending MIDI commends for your current Stomp6 functions, selecting a text field would bring the keyboard up for use. That is how my setup works today using only MIDI controllers.

peter

That's right regarding Airturn. But one thing to know is that all current Airturn devices support the Airdirect connection mode which does not emulate a keyboard and therefore does not interfere with text input.