Open Beta Version 3.5.0

peter

Just as the winter holidays are ending I managed to finish work on version 3.5.0. In my opinion this version is feature complete. I might make some modification based on your feedback for the new functionality but I will not add any new features to this version. Please keep that in mind when posting feedback.

How to take part in testing

Anyone can participate in the beta. The beta version is installed as a separate app so that you can use the stable version in parallel. If you already participated in previous beta tests, you will get a notification about the new version in Testflight. New testers can use this link to participate:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/pq4xbzSq

In app purchases will not bill your account. They are only test purchases, so don't be shy activating the full version.

The user manual is not adapted to the new version yet, so please feel free to ask here if you have any questions regarding the new features. Many of the new features need to be enabled in the settings. So please start testing by browsing through the settings menu.

macOS: Testflight is now also available for macOS. The above link does also work on the macOS Testflight version.

Most important new features

Displaying PDF documents

To attach a PDF file to a song, open song details and look for a new table entry "PDF Document" directly below "Edit Lyrics".

Once you have attached a PDF, tapping on this entry will open a simple PDF editor where you can add ink annotations with different pencils and colors to the pdf. To delete annotations select the eraser tool and draw over the annotations you want to delete or tap an "Clear" to erase all annotations. These annotations are stored directly in the PDF file.

To remove a PDF file swipe the table entry to the left and select "Delete" or right click on macOS. Stage Traxx will always display an attached PDF document. If you want to view text lyrics you need to delete the PDF document.

Lyrics can still be edited. This is necessary to define MIDI commands and control autoscrolling. To enable autoscrolling in PDFs there is a new tag available: [pdf@00:10.20: page1]

With this tag you tell Stage Traxx which part of the pdf should be displayed at which time. The above example will show the top of page 1 at 10.2 seconds into the song. Each page is divided into 10 slices where 1 is the top of the page and 10 is the bottom of the page. So if you want to show the middle of page 2 at the time 01:20 you can write: [pdf@01:20: page2.5]

You can also just write p instead of page to keep it short.

This syntax allows autoscrolling to scroll down and up to make it possible to automatically read scores with repeat signs.

During playback you can quickly scroll up or down by a single tap on the left or right 30% of the pdf.

Autoscrolling in lyrics only songs

To enable autoscrolling in lyrics only songs, open song details and set a duration. Now the play button is enabled and autoscrolling will work similar to the other song types.

Complete Changelog

Added

PDF documents can be displayed instead of lyrics. PDF files are also displayed on external screens and can be sent to network clients.
PDF editor allows the addition of annotations to the PDF documents.
Lyrics only song can now use the autoscrolling feature
What's New dialog will inform you about changes in the current version
Silence at start and end of songs is automatically detected during song import and start and stop times set accordingly
Color for play, next and done markers can be selected in settings
Audio outputs can be switched to mono where left and right channels or summed
Similar edit mode for multiple songs in playlists as in the song list
(macOS only) Pedal commands can also be assigned to key presses on the computer keyboard
Device font size modifier setting to resize lyrics in all songs
Master tuning setting to fine tune audio output by +/- 100 cents
Option to show remaining or elapsed song time in left clock display in main player
Option to prefer flat or sharp modifiers when using the transpose feature
New global midi command that is sent whenever a new song is loaded into the player
Master effect plugin can be bypassed to compare processed and unprocessed signal

Changed

Volume up / down buttons in main player view can now trigger other commands
Multitrack songs with missing tracks are now also marked in red as missing
Selecting the current song in another playlist will now switch to that playlist
Multiple songs can now be added to an existing playlist
If an audio file has been modified and new "Refresh Data" button is displayed in song details to reload metadata and rebuild the waveform

Fixed

Chord placement of inline chords is incorrect when the line is too long to diplay without a line break
Wrong song count in song list
Rendering issues with certain AUv3 master effect plugins
Playback stopping when changing master effect plugin
Many stability improvements

Damir

peter Hi Peter, well done with LYRICS ONLY, heres my report on things i think could work better, using the MIX button is very handy specially if wanting to leave a backing track to a Lyrics only song the problem is it starts the Lyrics only song immediately it would be better if it mixed out from the backing track and stop in Lyrics only song and wait for a start command giving the user a nice mix out yet full control of start of lyrics only as the user might want total manual control using foot control page turning, perhaps the logic should be if the now playing backing track auto play button enabled the next Lyrics only song starts automatically but if the Auto select is desabled in the now playing backing song the next Lyrics only song will be cued but not played giving the user options of behaviour which is consistant with other types of songs.He can either hit start and go auto or just use foot control to go fully manual.

Now the mix button is the answer to another little problem,if you are runing totaly manual and have chosen your next song how do you now start the next song, YOU CANT, this could be easily fixed if you enabled the MIX button in Lyrics Only songs to work as a MIX in to NEXT backing track song, this allows the performer to continue the show all on foot control or just a hit of a button.The way it is now you would have to chose the next song but you would loose the lyrics you are still using, so the NEXT function makes sense.
Just enable it to be usable anytime in Lyrics only mode, unless you can think of a better solution.

Lastly a small issue in Lyrics only wave indicator is too thin why isnt it a lot more thicker so it can be seen at a distance, and i would also have some time stamps along it so you can see easily to where you are and what time you have left in the graphics area perhaps 30 second intervals.

So far the Song Only feature is definitely useable for so many people doing things differently on stage i congratulate you i already have great ideas how to improve my show by varying the way i perform thanks to ST3.

DickyDutch

Have just sent you a crash report. Cannot get app to display pdf file for some reason although I have put a command to do so in the lyrics editor.

DickyDutch

Ok just worked out why pdf wasn’t being displayed- no problem!

peter

DickyDutch What was the problem? I can see your report but no crashlog.

DickyDutch

Sorry I can’t remember exactly- but I’ve sent you two crash reports now.

peter

I see 3 reports but no crashes. Deleting PDFs and playing songs works fine for me. So I would need a way to reproduce the issues you have.

DickyDutch

When in a Playlist or Songlist mode it is not possible to change or select a different song to be played

peter

Seems like you have enabled "Advanced Queue Mode" in the queue settings.

DickyDutch

Yes I have - silly me!!

DickyDutch

Peter would it be possible to provide access to the PDF editor directly from the PDF lyrics view especially when using iPad in the portrait position. At the moment to access the PDF editor with iPad in portrait it is necessary to close the lyrics, open the song editor then tap on the PDF file - requiring three taps. It would be nice if the editor could be accessed with just one tap from the lyrics screen to make those quick mark ups.

peter

DickyDutch At the moment to access the PDF editor with iPad in portrait it is necessary to close the lyrics, open the song editor then tap on the PDF file - requiring three taps.

Actually you don't need to close lyrics. Just enable the option User Interface -> Allow Song Editing. Then it is just 2 taps.

Damir The mix button always crossfades into another song. That means that playback keeps running. So if you mix into a lyrics only song, the effect is that the current song is just faded out as there is nothing to fade in but playback keeps running. It makes not sense to change that for lyrics only songs.

The waveform indicator shows the waveform. As a lyrics only song has no waveform, it shows up as a thin line (there is no waveform).

And regarding chord transpose: Stage Traxx will only transpose chords it identifies as chords. So if you are placing chords into a line above your lyrics, these chords will only be transposed if this line is detected as a chord line and marked in the chord color in the lyrics view. So if any of your chords are not transposed, you most likely use an unrecognized format for chords.

DickyDutch

I have a ‘lyrics only’ song to which I have attached a PDF file and set a duration of 3.45 mins. I have added PDF scrolling commands to the lyrics editor e.g [pdf@00:00.00: page1]
[pdf@00:30.00: page1.2][pdf@01:00.00: p1.5] etc. In addition the stop button is set to rewind. If I hit play, the lyrics PDF file is correctly positioned as expected but if I then hit stop and then immediately hit play again, the PDF lyrics are not in their correct position - paged too high. If however I remove the PDF commands from the lyrics editor the problem goes away.

peter

The macOS version is now available!

DickyDutch I tried your settings. I let it play until 01:10 and then hit stop. Now play position is at 00:00 and the pdf is back on top of page 1. Hitting play changes nothing. It is still at top of page 1 where it should be. No matter how fast I stop and restart playback. What do you mean by "paged too high"?

DickyDutch

peter have sent you photos of the problem by email

peter

@Damir I saw your crash report. The crash happens when Stage Traxx is trying to initialize your master effect plugin. Somehow the failsafe which should disable the plugin in case of problems does not trigger and the whole app crashes.

Can you give me details on the plugin you used? Which one is it exactly? Did you run it in demo mode or did you purchase it? And have you set any specific settings in the plugin?

EDIT: I think I can reproduce the crash by loading a master plugin, then quitting Stage Traxx and deleting the plugin. Now I get the same crash when trying to open Stage Traxx. Did you delete the plugin?

Damir

peter it was Audio Master as Demo

peter

DickyDutch I did not receive an email.

Hshevitz I rather not change this to exactly 100 cent because this is intended as a fine tune setting. It should not lead to a change that requires transposing the chords. Originally I planned to limit it to +-50 cents but found this too limited for certain badly tuned situations. So I will add a coarse tune slider that would also transpose chords.

Damir I disagree. The crossfade button manually triggers a crossfade. A crossfade always keeps playback running. That's how it works for all song types. I will not make an exception for (playable) lyrics only songs.

I see your point with the waveform indicator. I will change it for playable lyrics only songs to thick lines.

OK, it was AudioMaster, but did you uninstall it while it was inserted as a master effect?

I can't reproduce your problem with the chords. Following example transposes just fine:

`
C G Am F

C G Am F

Note the empty lines below the chords. So please post a lyrics snippet to reproduce this issue.

Hshevitz

Hey Peter, here's what I'm looking at in particular. I'm in a situation where I have a set of backing tracks that are used in a dual purpose where in some instances I'm using them in standard pitch, but in another situation I'm having to set them all down a semitone (-1). In the current version I have to go into each song and set the pitch down (-1) and that's fine, but when you have a lot of tracks that can be pretty cumbersome when you have to switch. I saw you now have added a global means for setting the master tuning +/- 100 cents! So far so good in checking it out, but I did notice that it actually only goes to 99 cents each way. Not that 1 cent is going to make a big deal in the pitch, but 100 would be what I would expect to see. Otherwise, cool!

Damir

I have disabled the mix button in lyrics only songs as it would try to crossfade into the next song which means just a fade in. And most likely you don't want a fade in in this situation but just a normal start. So just configure your stop button to advance to the next song and there you go.
You didn’t understand my view,
And I think I found a simple answer, if you use the same logic as you have for normal operation just let the next song cue up and pause at the beginning it should not matter if it is a Lyrics only song let us then choose if we hit play it auto times out, if we use foot control and manually page turn or if we hit MIX it mixes to the new song, this simply maintains consistency in operation and more instant freedom to chose which way we can perform.
This should be determined by the previous songs settings if Auto play is enabled then Lyrics only songs should auto play at beginning if auto play is disabled then the next song being Lyrics only song should cue up and wait for start command, this is standard behaviour in ST3 and something that makes this software great for on stage performing.
I can’t change my stop/ start behaviour as I use this for pause because there is no looping function yet so it’s the next best thing to use when you involve a crowd it’s sometimes a rough way to do things but it work if your timing is good.
My mix setting is very quick so using this to start a new song is unnoticeable I have found a time sweet spot where all x fades work well.
I never use long mix outs as they don’t work with live audience on a dance floor they just want professional continuity.
So what I’m simply asking just treat Lyrics only the same as another backing track and it will be most useful for all.

Damir

The waveform indicator shows the waveform. As a lyrics only song has no waveform, it shows up as a thin line (there is no waveform).

Again you are thinking like a programmer first musician second.
Here’s a suggestion from a musicians point of view only.
Why not have a very thick orange line (I mean a solid line not a waveform full height of waveform space) moving across the screen that can be seen from a distance indicating 2 important things that you are using Lyrics only file as its orange and you can roughly see where you are in your live performance at a large distance. Using a very thin line that indicates it’s not an audio file makes no on stage sense you can’t see it anyway so what’s the point.
It is ok if you are at home editing and your face is glued to the screen.