Am I really the only one who is having difficulty with this?
I've paid more money for this one app than I've ever paid for any other, and it is 100% unusable. I've spent hours watching video tutorials, playing in the app, using built in layouts, attempting to create custom ones. Nothing works... and far too much time, effort, and money have been sunk into it already.
I'm very frustrated with this situation. I am a full time musician. I've invested, (for 2 years now), in this tool which is presumably meant to make things easier. I've not been able to use it for even one gig because the setup and control of the app is so convoluted and over complicated to use even basic features. My bandmate simply refuses to use it after 3 or 4 attempts, regular app crashes, after only trying to create a custom view in order to just see a simple list of songs and lyrics which he still can't do.
I am coming from Setlist Helper, which is admittedly an app with far less functionality. However, within minutes of downloading that app I had imported chopro charts and was viewing a song list, selecting songs, and scrolling lyric/chord sheets. I am now on multiple attempts over a 2 year period with BandHelper, and I've only just gotten a song to scroll properly, provided I intend on playing it at one tempo, and only if I am viewing it through the device the layout was created on. And if I need a faster or slower scroll in a live environment, I need to exit the view screen, determine how much longer or shorter I expect the duration of the song will be based on the tempo I've settled on, compare and adjust the duration already listed. These are not realistic expectations for a performer in a live environment.
Why do I have to create multiple views in order change the horizontal/vertical view of tablet? No other app that I use requires this. They give a flawless representation in either position, even with custom layouts (e.g. have a look at Mixing Station). In BandHelper I created a layout, saved it, went to use it, and it told me that there were no layouts available to view this SmartList.....why? 10 minutes later I realized I had inadvertently changed orientation. What the app meant was, I had not created a view for that orientation....... Seriously? How is that intuitive? Why is this better than every other app which uses relative positioning to very effectively display layouts, custom or otherwise?
Why does this layout not carry over to any other device? If my device battery dies, tablet breaks, I have to use my phone, any number of other reasons, I now have to recreate a view? What if this happens on the fly? One of the prime advantages of having the information on a device is that it is immediately transferrable to another one. You've managed to complicate and thereby remove even that inherent feature by requiring each device to have its own layouts. Sometimes I go into layout and there are 3 or 4 layouts. Other times there are 15 or more. Depends on the device. depends on the orientation.... This is crazy.
I have used many apps of this type over the years. Some better than others. This is the only one I have been this critical of. Why? Because all of those other apps gave me 90% of what was needed, very simply, for either no money, or a few dollars. I expected that since the $50/year subscription cost was so high I would be getting something exceptional. I haven't been able to use it once. Not even for the most basic feature of viewing a lyric sheet. Nor has my bandmate. Nor has the other musicians who I have enlisted to take a look at it and tell me I'm crazy, and that its straight forward. We all end up asking the same questions. Why can't you just scroll? Why can't I just have a simple layout? Why can I create a macro that allows me to record the scrolling of a song, set midi to cue a light scene, but If I turn the orientation to horizontal everything disappears? I don't have extra money to spend on things that don't work. This was an investment in a tool for my work. It can't NOT work.
You seem to address all the far reaching issues at the expense of keeping the basic functionality usable.
I'd love to hear from others using the app. Are you using the built in layouts only? Do other band mates share your layouts, or do they need to create custom ones? How many songs do you have? Did you already know the duration of the song, or did you have to take the time to calculate it? How much time have you/do you spend setting a device up to get the desired functionality/layout for each band member? Do your performances ever vary in a way that you need to adjust the scrolling speed? f so, how do you do that in a live environment? How do you import songs into the app? How often does that occur? I would really like to hear from others who are using the app.
I'm sorry for the long rant, but I needed to vent after another unsuccessful several hours of attempting to make this app work in any way that is useful.