Newbie in Bandhelper testing phase, questions about functionality

[uro-frank]

Hello Bandhelper professionals... Today I looked into the powerful Bandhelper app for the first time to see whether this program might have any advantages over my previous software, Songbook by Linkesoft.
Therefore, a few questions in advance to clarify for me whether it is "worth" switching:

- For example, can you only display in the lyrics inserted jpg documents (for example one line of of notes) for yourself, but not for the other band members sharing this song? So make a user assignment of special parts/notices/documents of a song?

- Can you also store comments that are only shown to one user in a song, in Songbook by Linkesoft {c-Frank:...} instead of {c:...} like "change from piano to organ", which ist only interesting for the keyboarder.

- Can you set waiting pauses at certain points in the autoscroll function, for example when a solo part is being played? {pause:20}?

- Can you add short notes at any point during band rehearsals (e.g. handwritten comments or typed comments)?

- When importing Songbook *.pro files, some things from the Songbook version are NOT converted correctly, e.g. {c:...}, {metronome:...}, {time:...}. Can I "tune" Bandhelper's import function ANYWHERE?

- What happens if, as a bandleader, I work out a song and make it available to the band and then someone else in the band makes their own notes/changes/annotations/transpositions FOR THEMSELVES (I often transpose for the keyboard and the guitarist or brass player plays a different key). Will MY version also be overwritten, or can everyone make changes individually and still participate in shared changes (e.g. changing the song sequence)?

I know these are a lot of very specific questions... but I just want to clarify whether the switch and the costs for the Bandhelper subscription are worth it for me, especially since I would have to convert/import around 120 pieces form Songbook by Linkesoft, which is a lot of effort, for example, the song duration is imported incorrectly as a time signature, the metronome speed is not importet at all, neither are all the "comments", nor are all the embedded note snippets as a JPG or Solo-Akkord-Pads like
{sog}
| A . . . | A . D E |
| A . . . | A . D E |
{eog}
 etc.
I give an example of a notation in Songbook by Linkesoft in the way I use it. How do I have to change in thinking/working, if I want to do the same with Bandhelper?

{title: Venus - Shocking Blue}
{subtitle:Margit}
{time:03:00}
{metronome:129}

{c-Frank:Preset D03:2, Wurlitzer, (evtl. UHL 1-2-3)}

{image-Frank: src="Venus Piano 1.jpg"}

{c:Intro}
{pause:15}
{sog}
| B7sus4 . . . | B7sus4 . . . |
| Em . A . | Em . A . |
| B7sus4 . . . | B7sus4 . . . |

| Em . A . | Em . A . |
| Em . A . | Em . A . |
{eog}

{c:Verse 1}
A [Em]goddess on a [A]mountain t[Em]op,[A]
[Em]burning like a [A]silver fl[Em]ame.[A]
The [Em]summit of [A]beauty and l[Em]ove,[A]
and [Em]Venus was her [A]name.

{soc}
{c:Refrain}
She's [Am]got it,[D]   [Am]  yeah ba[D]by, she's [Em]got it.[A][Em][A]
Well,[C] I'm your Venus,[B7] I'm your fire at yo[Em]ur desire.[A][Em][A]
Well,[C] I'm your Venus,[B7] I'm your fire at yo[Em]ur desire.[A][Em][A]
{eoc}

Thank you for your effort in "enlightening" me! Greetings, Frank 

[arlo]

First, BandHelper isn't a ChordPro viewer like Songbook by Linkesoft. It does use the square bracket convention for embedding chords into lyrics, and it does support a few ChordPro directives (curved bracketed fields like artist, key and tempo) when importing a ChordPro file. But once the data is in BandHelper, it is stored in a database with separate fields for lyrics, artist, key and tempo. So you won't see those fields embedded into the lyrics with curved brackets anymore.

can you only display in the lyrics inserted jpg documents (for example one line of of notes) for yourself, but not for the other band members sharing this song

Currently documents embedded into lyrics will display to all users. I think it should hide them from users they're not assigned to, so I'll put that on my to do list.

Can you also store comments that are only shown to one user in a song

You cannot embed personal notes into the lyrics. You can add a personal custom field or use the Personal Notes field and display that separately from the lyrics. Or if you want to display personal content within the lyrics, you can copy the lyrics into the Personal Lyrics field and then add your personal content within that.

Can you set waiting pauses at certain points in the autoscroll function

You can record an automation track that starts and stops auto-scrolling or jumps to specific places in the lyrics at specific times.

Can you add short notes at any point during band rehearsals

While viewing songs, you can click the Edit Song button in the top toolbar and add text to any of the fields, like the Notes field. If you're using attached documents instead of the Lyrics field, you can draw directly onto the documents. You cannot draw onto the Lyrics field but that's on my road map for the coming months.

Can I "tune" Bandhelper's import function ANYWHERE

You cannot customize the import function. When importing a ChordPro file, BandHelper will import the following fields: title, t, artist, meta: artist, subtitle, st, su, key, k, tempo, time, pitch, duration, keyword, topic, comment.

Looking at your example file, it incorrectly uses a time field to store the duration instead of the time signature, and it uses a metronome field instead of a tempo field as per the ChordPro specification.

What happens if, as a bandleader, I work out a song and make it available to the band and then someone else in the band makes their own notes/changes/annotations/transpositions FOR THEMSELVES

If someone edits a shared field, everyone will see that change. If someone edits a personal field, only they will see that change. For example, if I make a correction to the shared Lyrics field or add something to the shared Notes field, everyone will see that. If I set a Personal Transpose value because I'm playing a Bb trumpet or add something to the Personal Notes field, only I will see that change.

[uro-frank]

Very interesting! Thank you very much!
But where do I find the personal lyrics field? I only see the "normal" lyrics field...
And is it possible to convert a chordpro-based song in the app's lyrics-field to a PDF document for the same song or can I print it?

[arlo]

You can turn on Settings > Account Sync > Personal Sync > Lyrics to activate the personal lyrics field. The personal fields are off by default because they can be confusing if you aren't aware that you're using them.

When you say "ChordPro-based song" I guess you mean a song that has chords embedded into the lyrics with square brackets. That is the only element of ChordPro that BandHelper songs use after they're imported. Anyway, yes, you can print songs or export them as PDFs using the Share button on the song edit page.

[uro-frank]

Thanks for the explanation! Now I will experiment with all this...

[uro-frank]

Is it possibel to place transponable chords in this style

| A . . . | A . D E |
| A . . . | A . D E |

between lyric lines, for example for a riff or break or short solo?

[arlo]

Yes, you can do that. The spacing won't align consistently unless you set Settings > Appearance > Lyrics Font to a monospace font. If you put these into the Chords field, that always uses a monospace font.

[uro-frank]

Thanks for the explanation, I did the change to monospace font, but within the lyrics-field I cannot find a way, that this
| A . . . | A . D E |
| A . . . | A . D E |
Notation is transposable. If I put the chords in [A] it says
|  . . . |  .  |
|  . . . | . |
under the chords, like a lyric text.
The method of writing it into the chords field doesn't work either, since the chord progression is then always displayed separately and not in the text flow at the point where the solo should take place, for example, between two lyric lines. Is there a way to do this?

[arlo]

You should not put the chords in square brackets unless you're embedding them within lines of lyrics. The chords will be transposable if they are on a line consisting only of chords and punctuation marks. If you think the chords should be transposing, please post a screen shot.

[uro-frank]

Hi, now I have testet different things. You can see in some Jpegs, which show this...

Picture 1 is the correct transposing possibility, you can see this in picture 2
Picture 3 with everything same but extra lyric line shows the difference in picture 4... no transposition in the first line anymore. That's confusing for me 
Do I make a mistake?

[arlo]

In your second example, you're using square brackets to embed chords in lyrics. If you do that, then all the chords need square brackets. You can't mix bracketed chords and unbracketed chords in the same field. You could write the Intro chords in the same style as the Verse chords, like:

Intro
[A] [A] [A] [A] [A] [A] [D] [E]

Or you could write the Verse chords in the same style as the Intro chords.

Personally I prefer to write all the chords like your | A . . . | A . D E | example, because that shows the timing of the chords, and put them all into the Chords field because most band members need only the chords or lyrics, not both together.

[uro-frank]

Okay, that's a pitty... I am keyboarder AND background-singer, so I need both, lyrics and chords, and I use the lyrics to follow the song... So I think I unfortunally have to stay with Songbook, because there are implemented a lot of my preferred functions. But some other nice things in your app are not, so I have to decide, which is more important for me 
Would it be possible to get this as a future wish to allow both writings in the same field? In Songbook this is possible by using a special command for this
{sog}
| A . . . | D . . . |
{eog}
means start of grid and end of grid. [A] is the normal way of writing.
Perfect for me in your basic version of the app is the mp3-player, the sync, the personell lyric field and the implementation of jpg in lyrics. So it is very difficult to decide, which app would be the most suitable app for me 😬😅

[arlo]

Just to be clear for anyone else reading this, you can show lyrics and chords, you just can't show lyrics in the chords field using a mixture of two different chord styles. I can put that on my wish list.