Live Sharing - Follow Actions iPhone master, Mac slave

[joebear]

OK, next layer of the onion... I have been setting up the app on Mac for my live shows. I want to deprecate my mic stand mounted iPad, use the Mac for bulk display, and use an iPhone to tell the Mac what to do. To this end, I have established a connection by broadcasting actions from the iPhone, and having the Mac establish a connection to the iPhone to Follow.

Some things are working - such as selecting a song once both master and slave already in the same setlist.

Selecting a setlist seems a little funny - it seems to work if I select a setlist from the dropdown in the header of the layout (on the iPhone master), but that presents a rather limited list of setlists from which to choose. It does not seem to work if I try from Repertoire>Setlists>* on the iPhone master. But I can work around that - that's a once a gig selection.

What I can't seem to get working is kicking off (e.g.) Automation on the Mac slave, by hitting the Automation button on the iPhone master. Other things I would like to invoke on the iPhone master, and have the Mac slave follow include Select MIDI Preset, Start/Stop Tempo, and Play Recording. I was hopeful this might have been included in 'Follow Layout Gestures' - but maybe not? Is this available? Am I doing something wrong?

Perhaps the attached photos will help describe my intended use case.

[joebear]

Sorry for the failed picture format above. Reattached here.

[arlo]

Selecting a setlist seems a little funny - it seems to work if I select a setlist from the dropdown in the header of the layout (on the iPhone master), but that presents a rather limited list of setlists from which to choose. It does not seem to work if I try from Repertoire>Setlists>* on the iPhone master.

That's how it is meant to work. It will follow set list changes if you stay in the set list view and use the title shortcuts. It will not follow set list changes if you leave the set list view. You can control which set lists appear in the title shortcuts:

https://www.bandhelper.com/tutorials/app_shortcuts.html

What I can't seem to get working is kicking off (e.g.) Automation on the Mac slave, by hitting the Automation button on the iPhone master. Other things I would like to invoke on the iPhone master, and have the Mac slave follow include Select MIDI Preset, Start/Stop Tempo, and Play Recording. I was hopeful this might have been included in 'Follow Layout Gestures' - but maybe not? Is this available? Am I doing something wrong?

Yes, if you start those functions with a gesture on the lead device, then they will be triggered on the following device. Clicking the automation or MIDI buttons is not the same as using a gesture to trigger those functions. A layout gesture is something like Song Selection, Two-Fingered Tap, etc., which you would set up on the Settings > App Control page.

[joebear]

I think I understand. Perhaps I might make a feature request then for a future version. My envisioned use case is the following:

Build a wedge cabinet that looks like a stage monitor - containing the Mac and its associated video monitor.

Remove the large obtrusive iPad from my mic stand, and replace it with an iPhone.

The iPhone would be used as a 'remote' to drive the Mac app in the wedge monitor downstage.

This would lead to a cleaner stage sightline, and reduce the impression of 'oh gawd - that stupid musician is just reading the lyrics off that big ol' iPad - plus, with the iPad there, obscuring his guitar, I can't even tell if he's really playing, or that's just the backing track he's air guitaring to'.

So with that scenario as preface, here is the feature request: provide an option to Enable the buttons on the Set List Only layout to send events via Live Sharing to a slave app.

[arlo]

I don't think you need any new features to do what you're describing. You would just need to trigger the functions you want on the lead device using an app control action (rather than clicking the buttons directly) and configure the following device to respond to the same app control actions.

This approach is more flexible than what you're envisioning because you can trigger multiple functions with one action, or trigger different functions on the lead and following device with the same action. For example, you might want to start auto-scrolling on both devices but only start a recording on one device.

[joebear]

Sometimes, flexibility is not such a benefit, if it comes at the cost of complexity. From a user interface perspective, there is nothing simpler than clicking a button.