Hello. I purchased the stagetrax app and I would like to say great job. I love the fact that I can have the backing track and lyrics sync and play in one app. Thank you for that. I have a question and I’ve been trying to figure out if it’s possible ,but haven’t been able to do it yet, so that’s why I am hoping someone can help me with that. I’ve been a long time ableton user for my backing tracks and I have it all setup on my laptop but that means I have to run my laptop and my iPad for lyrics so I purchased stagetrax. One of the most important things that I can do with ableton and I have not been able to do with stagetrax is to start the next song without a silence in between the songs, I know it can be very short but is there a way that the 1 second pause can be eliminated and next song starts on the beat? I do not make a song list because every time I play deferent songs for deferent crowd so I change the song set accordingly but the pause in between songs is not working for me. Can you please help? Thank you
Eliminate pause between songs
In the songs edit menu, there is an option to trim both the start and end of the file
This isn’t a destructive edit, merely just a start and end point that’s saved and remembered
The “auto trim” works pretty well
If you need more precise you can manual type in in seconds.ms
I have trimmed the start and the end of the songs and it has minimize it a little bit but still there is a pause in between. And I am trying to use auto trim but by clicking on it it doesn’t do anything, I guess it is supposed to open an other page to trim but nothing is happening. Please advise, thank you
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FC-77 I have trimmed the start and the end of the songs and it has minimize it a little bit but still there is a pause in between. And I am trying to use auto trim but by clicking on it it doesn’t do anything
Have you tried using Xfade set to zero and edit all your songs to instant start to where you need them to start , this might give you what you are looking for.
With the ability to choose the instant X over after the now playing end of the song.
I edit all my songs for instant start and all my endings end on the beat , basically I try to make all my songs to be a good workable audio loop so when the natural reverb ends it’s normally on the beat . To do this you you listen to the end and keep counting after the last number one beat then create a fade to the next number one beat to preserve as much of the natural ambiance as possible so if you decide to go to any other song instantly you can either go on that last number one beat or the next one which will give you the reverb but will start the next song on the first beat, giving you a more professional transition from song to song , you can also crash out anywhere in a song on the beat and will continue instantly on the next song without gaps.
You can achieve this only if you edit all your songs start and end points.
I normally leave 1 bar of natural reverb at end of all my songs in case I do want the song to finish and stop, as it still sounds natural, but it gives me the option for a fast Xfade on the last note as well.
I don’t use trim on ST3 as it’s quicker to create a perfect audio loop of a song in the editing process knowing after that it’s easy to manoeuvre around songs later.
Hope this helps
Cheers Damir
Autotrim tries to identify silence at the start and end of a song and remove it. If you absolutely seamless playback in autoplay you need to adjust the start and end times manually or even better do that in a daw and make sure the rendered file has no silence at the start and end.
Thank you for trying to help.
Xfader you mean the fade in and out on the app? If that’s what you mean they are on 0. I have edited all my songs previously on my daw and trim them to start where they need to be so there is no gap in between but somehow even by trimming the start or the end to maximum still getting a pause in between songs. Not sure if I am doing something wrong or what I am trying to do is not possible to do with this app.
FC-77 Xfader you mean the fade in and out on the app? If that’s what you mean they are on 0. I have edited all my songs previously on my daw and trim them to start where they need to be so there is no gap in between but somehow even by trimming the start or the end to maximum still getting a pause in between songs.
Yes thats what i meant with the Xfade, i actually have the fade out set at .5 of a second and 0 for fade in, this sort of covers the little gap a bit better.
Just a thought check your delay start in playback settings is also set to zero this could create a gap if its slightly enabled.
Apart from that i am out of ideas.
It would be nice though to be able to seamlessly xfade from an end of a loop instead of an immediate xfade to the next song without delay this would give us a very smooth transition,
Peter heres a thought,
Imagine if you want an end of loop Xfade to next song you enable auto loop button top right , then you hit Xfade , this will wait till end of the now playing audio segment then immediately play next song.
If you don't enable this auto loop button and hit Xfade you get an instant Xfade as is now.
The difference is practical as you would not have to guess a Xfade point to keep going with the show and you would get no gaps at all as the Audio segments are edited very accurately.
My ending loops are always edited so i can jump to intro on the beat so i can loop the whole song , this means i might not get the reverb decay included of the full ending this is ok if you are jumping to an immediate next audio segment with audio, but it still needs to be there if i run the song to its full length, why it would be good to have the Xfade be able to jump to next song at end of a loop tightens up the dead gap between the two audio segments , now if you choose auto play it plays to the end including the reverb which is not ideal if you want no gap, so thats why i propose when you enable auto play you also enable audio segment XFade so when we hit XFade it happens at the end of that audio segment , this way we get a nice smooth on the beat XFade and no gap.
Perhaps someone has a better way to achieve this without introducing extra buttons , its a minor thing but it all adds up to a professional result on stage.
Hope i haven't confused you all,
Cheers Damir
Autoplay between songs is seamless. You don't need to use crossfade or check delay settings. There is no delay when autoplaying between songs. I have tested seamless Autoplay with Drumloops and there is no delay between 2 songs if your audio files are cut to be seamless and not contain any silence at the start and end.
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peter that’s great but the issue I have is if you allow natural reverb to end on songs so you let the song finish and stop naturally this takes time , now if you try to go from this song to the next without this reverb gap , you can’t do it unless you Xfade instantly instead , this is unpredictable timing wise, the only nice way to do this is using audio loops as well , my ending loops don’t include this natural reverb , my endings have a time end that is on the beat so I can get from an ending to any other loop again on time, this works great as if I leave the loop to play through to end of song I get a nice finish but if I choose to get back to the song it will leave my endings have a on the beat and nicely continue to any other loop , this also works a treat, the issue I have is if I want to go from this ending to the next song seamlessly without using the natural reverb ending I can’t , the reverb is always.used till I get to the end of the actual song, this creates a gap.
My solution to this would be that the loop you are on jumps directly to the next song IF THE AUTO PLAY IS ENGAGED, this then allows us an option to easily XFade to the next song without any ending reverb at the end of last loop , this also applies to all loops, when the end of loop is reached hitting XFade plays through this playing loop then Xfades at the end to next song.
If you don’t use XFade and have auto play engaged the song just plays as normal to the end and continues with next song as usual , if you don’t engage auto loop XFade also acts normal as is, But if you engage auto play the XFade function now will XFade on the ending of loops.
This gives us the power to get to the next song on the beat without any delay , perhaps this could be an individual song preference set in audio segment editor, and then again it might be confusing to remember all the song settings for XFade , that’s why I suggest this on the AUTO PLAY BUTTON as this button is highlighted when it’s on meaning XFade logic has changed , this setting has no different operation to anything but the XFADE FUNCTION if it’s enabled it just works the same unless you hit XFade in which case you are leaving this song at the end of loop anyway and it makes no difference to you as you play any song this button is normally disengaged anyway and plays no part if you engage it it means you either want it to smoothly XFade at end of loop or you just want an actual AUTO PLAY , it becomes a two function button for easy and nice transitions from song to song.
What do you think Peter?
I don't want to make the playback logic any more complicated than it needs to be. What you describe might feel natural for you, but I find it very confusing when one button does many different things depending on whether you selected something else or not. I don't like that.
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peter What you describe might feel natural for you, but I find it very confusing when one button does many different things depending on whether you selected something else or not
No it’s not natural to me either, it was a thought , possibly a solution to a problem, and I agree with you regarding the button confusion , I wonder if there is a better way to make it work?
What about a simple preference option to change the XFade operation so people that want to use it as a drum machine get a better experience when transitioning beat styles ie song to song Xfades.
I definitely would use XFade at end of loops because I don’t use XFade a lot I would be less nervous using it more if I knew I would get a much better result with it, with the existing system it’s a bit of a hit and miss situation. I normally XFade towards the end of songs cause sometimes a song has a boring long end I have audio loops to take care of jumping over those bits and it’s fine but I really just want to get on with the next song to keep the vibe , having a reliable Xover point chosen for me as I hit the foot switch would make me feel a lot more warm and fuzzy on stage knowing it’s going to leave on the beat and start on the beat .
So think about it and see if you can make it happen it’s one of those little polishes I was talking about completing ST3 or perhaps ST4.
Have a great day !
Just had a thought!
What if you make it so it’s automatic , if you use audio loops and you are within an audio loop the XFade happens at the end of the loop and if you are not using loops then the XFade is instant , this way everyone gets a benefit, this to be the default setting but if you don’t want end of loop XFades you disable it in playback settings and now you have what you have now no difference , except you have given loop users a nice way to XFade to a new song.
What do you think?
Thank you Damir and Peter for the explanation and trying to help. I think I have found a way to do this but it’s not a perfect or very logical way but it may work for now until there maybe a better way hopefully. Only because I don’t want to carry my laptop plus stand and separate stand for microphone and iPad…….etc… I am hoping to be able to use my iPad with ST3 and have it all in my iPad. So what I’ve done and tried it in 2 of my songs, I’ve trimmed the last beat of the first song and trimmed the second song to start on the first beat without any gap so when play in auto play and the second song is the next song to be played the first beat of the second song kind of replaces the last beat of the first song. It’s not exactly very practical or musically correct but it’s the best I can do so far. I will try it while playing live and see how it sounds. It is a lots of work and I am hoping it will work. If anybody has a better idea and easier way to do it please let me know. Thank you again.
FC-77 I've been doing this since the beginning and it works to a degree if you don't use count ins and other things before the start , i believe using loops is the answer , as you should be able to jump from the last loops end in a song to the first loop of next song with the Xfade function if it was setup to do that .
Perhaps it might be a good thing to look in to this in detail in the near future to make ST even more powerful on stage.