Searching for songs

Damir

MasterAnt yes but we are talking about finding a next song that will either maintain the tempo or perhaps you need a change to up or down tempo the mood on the dance floor having BPM search quickly gives you options to be creative with song selection.
If you have 500 songs its not always easy to get that perfect next song to achieve a goal you are trying to achieve on stage, knowing the tempo of existing song then having a method of filtering to choose the next apropriate song really helps, theres nothing worse the choosing the wrong song and seeing the dance floor get empty because you chose a great song but you forgot that this song is actually half tempo of the previous one and will put people to sleep.
A good DJ relies heavily on BPM or else he wont be good for long.

MasterAnt

Damir I have four songs:
Take it Easy @ 141BPM
Boy of Summer @ 176BPM
The Look (Roxette) @ 92BPM
Lemon Tree @ 140BPM

The right song in my style of playing to keep people on the dancefloor is to play The Look after Take it Easy. If I play Boys of Summer then everyone leaves the dancefloor, and not because it's too fast... Lemon Tree is also too slow. For me it isn't always about the BPM number.

But using BPM as a DJ is a different thing altogether...

Damir

MasterAnt of course it’s the choice of popularity of song that matters first the BPM is just a quick way to get presented with a choice of songs that are similar tempo once you get all the others out of the way it’s then your choice to picking which next song is appropriate you might end up with 20 songs of choice that’s a lot easier to make a decision then 200, you might want to play slow listening songs next to change the atmosphere , BPM is handy to filter out inappropriate songs leaving you with only appropriate songs then you still need to read the crowd to which slow songs but at least it’s easier. I have 360 backing tracks and around 10,000 DJ songs of mixed countries I need all the help I can get.
On average my gigs range from needing 20 to 50 songs that’s a lot of filtering so any extra helpful method is always welcome 🙏

peter

BPM Calculations

I'm not sure yet how exactly the looping feature will be implemented and BPM might be useful but not as much as having a beatgrid. The beatgrid is way more important for looping than BPM because you always want to make cuts and loops on a beat. What's the difference you ask? A song has a single BPM value whereas a beatgrid will adapt to tempo changes within a song. So my current idea is to detect the beatgrid for a song and then use this to make it ease to define looping regions.

Artist formatting in song lists

Of course I could make the artist field bigger but that would make each song take up more space and therefore you will see less songs on your screen. It is a tradeoff. Maybe a configurable size might work but I doubt there is a single setting that would fit every use case.

Personally I work a lot with colors. I use colors for different song attributes that allow me to scan through large song lists just with the glimpse of an eye to find certain types of songs.

Damir

peter love all your responses and hope to see looping soon, I’m not too fussed about BPM as I organise my gigs very carefully before hand but looping is my BIG NEED, as I have had this on my keyboards using midi and it’s great , now that midi is the thing of the past I really miss the looping in audio files, I had 4 loop points in midi and was happy 6 loop points in audio I would be like pig in shit 🐖🤩

Damir

MattH Ha Ha, i just realised what i did, i actually created 3 catagory filters called SLOW TEMPO SONGS, MEDIUM TEMPO SONGS, FAST TEMPO SONGS, this gives me enough filtering to have a smaller list of songs to be able to more quickly choose a next song, but i still only use this in the prep stage of my setlists, as i said before filter option is not ideal live on stage as it is hidden on another page and if left on by mistake can cause more problems that its worth.

MattH

Thank you for all the replies in this threat, I am loving this app.
It’s a good price, does what’s needed for me, support network is excellent, I’m very happy to have found it.
Bye bye iTunes…

MattH

I’d also like to say, I’ve added in the ‘Artist Field’.
Artist
BPM
Year
All these currently work great for my searches and my needs.
I might be categorising into Slow/Med/Upbeat/Dance.
Maybe genres too? Swing/Rock n Roll/Jive/tango/Latin?
So many options, I hope I won’t run out of space for all my options? 🤷🏻‍♂️
It is time consuming to enter all data, but work and now all my 250+ songs are ready for the stage.
Unfortunately, during every gig someone asks for a song I don’t have.
So the work never stops. Lol
As I am a vocalist, I can’t just download it. I need to learn it. 🙄
But… got to keep them happy for the next gig. 👍

Damir

MattH it doasnt matter if you have 10,000 songs in your song list , someone is going to ask for something you dont have, so i just look at it this way, i am in charge to entertain the majority so i choose what i perform as long as you are entertaining the majority the minority that usually are not happy no matter what you present to them even if you performed naked up side down would not get their attention perhaps a laugh, so just use songs you know people love and if someone requests a song you dont have , perhaps check it out later and if it appears to be a not most popular song dont waste your time learning it as it probably wont be requested again, the other trick is only use most popular songs that really suit you as a performer and try and choose great songs that most other singers dont do you will then make you stand out to potential clients.
Thats what i have found has kept me bussy as a performer in the last 45 years and i am still performing, mind you my audience is quickly dissapearing but i am adapting to the younger generation , i always use the who, what, where, why rule.
Good luck with ST3

MattH

Damir
Hi Damir, I completely agree, you can’t please all the people all the time, as long as catering for the majority is all we can do.
Trouble is, I’ve been asked back to the venue repeatedly, and want to keep all the punters happy. 🥴
I sing all mainly old stuff, Sinatra, Dean Martin, Matt Monro, Nat King Cole, Elvis, M Buble, a few more modern songs that fit my style and are fun.
When I get asked for Zepplin, I just laugh and say no! I mean, we’re they actually listening to my style!?
I’ve been performing for around 30 years, previously in the West End, but now in hotels/care homes/weddings and funerals…
I’m still learning the who,what,where,why as I haven’t been doing this solo stuff for long. it’ll take time to learn that, for now though trying to make the process as smoothly as possible when performing.
ST3 is helping with that so much…
Thanks for the feedback. 👍

Damir

MattH it sounds like we a in a very similar time of life, I just wish I had ST3 in my prime , the things I could have done with it , the new generation have it all but don’t know what to do with it. They have so much computer power in the palm of their hand yet they don’t raven know how to answer the phone when and if it rings.

MasterAnt

MattH haha, we probably all experience this and never quite know how to disappoint the person who thinks you're brilliant but then doesn't stop with the crazy requests. I get asked to sing ABBA all the time, and I sound more like Hootie & The Blowfish! I heard that on some cruise ships you are required to learn any song that is requested for returning patrons. I agree that just because I'm good at what I do, it doesn't mean I'd be any good at what my audience wants me to do. My latest idea is to tell the person I think you're getting Ant Music mixed up with Apple Music. Well that's not really something I've said yet, but finding the right way to say NO is an ongoing struggle. (I've been performing live for 26-years, and 14 of those as a one-man band.) What were we talking about: oh, searching for songs 😆

JonathanS

MasterAnt Try “I’m afraid that one’s not in my collection but I’ll check it out when I get home”. It’s my stock answer and seems to work.
Also when asked for Abba: “Sorry, I’m not blonde, female or Swedish” usually gets a smile.
On the other hand I’ve recently realised that I can easily sing Simply The Best in the original key but an octave lower.

Damir

JonathanS Ha ha ha, I do Tina simply the best the same as you an octave lower and I reckon it sounds just as good if not better , damn I wish I had her moves or body 🤪😂 perhaps if I get a wig and loose a few dozen kilos.
With Abba requests I suggest they come up on stage and help me out sometimes it backfires and they do in which case I pull my pants up and falsetto in background with the guest making a total comedy act, it seems to work well to create a good atmosphere.

MattH

JonathanS
I actually say that a lot, as if I had the song I’d sing it… 🤣
If I think I could sing the requested songs, suit my style etc, I’d probably add it to my list of songs to learn.
There are still lots I’ve written down, but all my time is taken up lately with adding lyrics and timestamping to ST3. Lol
I haven’t been asked for abba yet, might use that saying!? 👍
Might have think of simply the best too, just to see what you guys mean. 🤪
I mostly have songs dropped by 1 or 2 semitones anyway, I do have some songs that are dropped by 7 semitones, they sound good when I sing them with the backing, but hearing the original with vocals sounds so weird…
Happy Easter to all! 😁

Damir

MattH Time Stamping is something that could be improved to speed up the process, i have mentioned that to Peter, but it looks as though its way down the list.
Things like, when you make a mistake on a timecode it would be very handy to touch the timecode area it gets selected and a quick delete option so you dont have to back space all the time, then when you go too far and it accidentally deletes the last information on the line above, this is so frustrating and it unnecessarily vastes time.
All these minor improvements create a faster workflow when added together.
I also find that entering timecode button is too small and too close to other buttons so you end up entering stuff you dont want and miss some timecodes, it should be a lot more dominant and obvious.
I was the one that suggested all the volume faders are made as large as possible to increase travel accuracy, after using big sliders everywhere now in ST3 i cant stand other software that has not maximised their faders it drives me nuts.
So the same priciple is here, the entering of time stamp reliably and accurately is most important, why do we have such a small non obvious place to hit , its as important as having a stop start button, when in text edit process why not enlarge it, colour it and make it smack you in the face that thats what you need to hit to enter timecode.
In general i dont mind the process but it really has some rough edges that need smoothing.

JonathanS

While we’re on the subject I’ve just discovered Frankie Valli songs an octave lower… I’ve always strived for authenticity and not done them because I can’t sing as high as him, only now can I accept that it’s OK to do it the way it works for me and it instantly adds two or three songs to the list. Sherry Baby is a powerful song and absolutely works for audiences especially if sandwiched between some upbeat Motown such as Come On Over To My Place and Saturday Night At The Movies.
Requests are sometimes a good way to get ideas if I can remember them by the time I get home! I usually have to go down a semitone or tone too. I’ve also added three or four songs that I found myself humming in the supermarket and realised I know all the way through - always easier if the song is in your head already, Beatles for example.

Damir

JonathanS what i do nowdays if i get a good tip, i have a folder on my iphone notepad called songs to try and just quickly create a new note in that folder, this gives me a list i can always look at at a later time when i am inspired to do some new songs, i never rely on the key to determine my song choices thats something that can leave out a lot of good songs, i actually like hearing other musos do a song their way especially when they have aranged them to suit themselves, it so refreshing and a lot of the times i preffer their key as the original has the singer with their nuts crushed.

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