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Why did you choose Set List Maker?

Started by arlo, December 16, 2013, 09:37:13 AM

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Why did you choose Set List Maker over a competing app?

You may only select up to 6 options.

arlo

There are several apps available on iOS with overlapping features. If Set List Maker is your preferred app, why?

Moon Dog

The more I use SLM the more I love it and it has become indispensable to my solo act.
I work in the software industry and I can tell you Arlo is a genius...I'm not just blowing smoke....He is the real deal.

I recently discovered the Recording Volume page.....OMG. In the past when I brought the backing tracks out of my studio I don't want them all to be the same volume I want dynamics. With this functionality I can fine tune the volume of each backing track...instead of going back and remixing....do you know how much time this saves you!
My only suggestion here is everything else is so precise in SLM.....I would love it and highly recommended Arlo if you could replace the slider for the volume adjustment with some way to set it so I know exactly what the volume is set to....you could use a method like you do to change the timing of the automation with a - | + Value or the number wheels to increment or decrement the volume by some %.

This would be really really excellent.
Thanks for any consideration of this.

Jeff Milkey (Moon Dog) 

arlo


dr_rollo

I tried OnSong and Songbook Lite, and found SLM quite more easier to use. I like the option to create an import file to provide to my band mates, what's very easy to us for getting started.
In my band I was the first one who changed from paper sheets to iPad, and after a few weeks the others bought an iPad and we are so happy with it, because of so many benefits.

Danny

Hi guys

Hi Arlo


Having midi control was the main reason I bought Slm,, the promise of the cheap behringer digital mixer with ipad, that we are all waiting on, means I haven't used the midi option yet. I just want to mute the reverb at the end of songs and turn it on just before I sing from within the app, no external units etc, apart from IOS to midi of course.


I think this is a brilliant app, but  I think the amount of detail available could hinder the less tech savvy and deter them from getting in to it. I bought the app months ago, right at the start of a six month season which has nearly ended, I fiddled and quickly gave up on Slm, I was dead busy had no adsl to watch the video tutorials etc, in the early days  I found that there was so many options I often forgot how i got somewhere and how I changed something and I only bought it in case my on stage pc controlled by roadie off stage with real vnc let me down so I let it gather dust untill now.



Any way, the last few days, I only realized after nearly  3 or 4 6 hour sessions going through every  setting, what an absolutely amazing job you have done, ok so I had a few crashes and a lot of head scratching, I was expecting some settings to do stuff, that actually don't, you know time between songs, lengths of pauses etc, I didn't realize these had no physical impact on the show. I thought the option to name pauses would allow me to insert a ten second pause or longer etc, and then the next song would begin. I imagine this is all done with the automation track?

What I found to be the most useful feature for me, solo vocal on big stage away from the desk and pad, I have awful eye sight,  the option to change the color of songs, so the songs I sing all the time are white, Rock and roll red, soul yellow etc, absolutely brilliant, but I only discovered this by accident

Why use the term label ? Why not use terms that are more generic, song text colour? Your sample set was all one color I think?

I have not figured out what the relevance of songs and recording is yet either. I love the option to change the level of each track too, this should be another thing to shout about,

I am not having a go, maybe all this is clear on the you tube vids but I think it's a feature that you should be shouting from the roof tops from within the app?

Another thing I didn't realise, you create an initial  data base and import songs and set up settings, make set lists etc, great, I did not know you could create another data base import the same songs and change all the colors and stop and play options, brilliant for when you have an interval and want non stop playback, all this stuff I only discovered by accident.

So I have a suggestion, I am dead short sighted, in layouts view where you just have a big screen with the song title, could we have the song titles displayed in the label color please? Seeing the color change is the only way I can keep up from a distance,

Also another request, jump to colors ( labels) I have 250 songs in my solo show, the last 50 are yellow, stuff I hardly sing, the 50 before that ballads and country, green, I think it would be marvelous if there were little colored buttons that you could press that took you straight to the first song in your list that was associated with that colour, rather than scrolling through hundreds of song yes?

Many thanks Arlo. These are not critsisms, well done. Brilliant app

Danny

arlo

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Why use the term label ? Why not use terms that are more generic, song text colour? Your sample set was all one color I think?

This feature has been available in the Mac OS for at least 20 years and that's what the Mac OS calls it. I might rename it to "color" in a future version, which might avoid confusion when translated to other languages and ported to other platforms.

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Another thing I didn't realise, you create an initial  data base and import songs and set up settings, make set lists etc, great, I did not know you could create another data base import the same songs and change all the colors and stop and play options, brilliant for when you have an interval and want non stop playback, all this stuff I only discovered by accident.

I generally wouldn't recommend setting up two databases containing the same songs, because then any time you want to change a song, you'll have to change it in both databases. I don't know why you'd want to use different color labels in the two databases, but maybe that is worth the extra editing work. As for the continuous play option, that does require a several-step setup now, but I'm looking into ways to make that easier to change.

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So I have a suggestion, I am dead short sighted, in layouts view where you just have a big screen with the song title, could we have the song titles displayed in the label color please? Seeing the color change is the only way I can keep up from a distance,

I'm not sure that would be desirable to others, but I'll put it on my wish list.

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Also another request, jump to colors ( labels) I have 250 songs in my solo show, the last 50 are yellow, stuff I hardly sing, the 50 before that ballads and country, green, I think it would be marvelous if there were little colored buttons that you could press that took you straight to the first song in your list that was associated with that colour, rather than scrolling through hundreds of song yes?

Instead of making a show with all your songs and manually sorting it by color, you can use Smart Lists > Songs By Label and then all your active songs will appear and be sorted automatically, and you will have a column of shortcut buttons for each color.

Danny

#6
Hi Arlo

Many  thanks

I think if I am honest I need to get some glasses.

I only suggested the liitle colur icons because I don't want to exit a show and start scrolling through the menu in front of my guests, obviously that would not look nice, whereas if a  fast song was in the middle of playing  and someone shouted play a ballad, I would hope that if i labelled all my ballads in green, pressing the little green icon would select the next green song in the list but would not interrupt the current song, if at the end of the fast song, I just had to click play on the airturn, this would come over really slick,

I am just thinking out loud, and can't imagine for a minute how time consuming  implementing all these requests would be.

Many thanks

Danny

Danny

#7
Hi Arlo

With respect to what you said about navigating to the smart lists, even with " continue audio when changing songs" engaged on my pad, moving out of the current show kills the music,

However doing what you suggest on the iPhone works perfect,

Regarding having the same songs in the 2 data bases, yes I see your point now, a couple of songs have appeared to have gone astray,

It's hard to explain my requirements, but I am 30 feet away from my pad and my gear,  200 songs to choose from, 300 people watching me, I can't keep walking over and messing about, so I am trying to account for every eventuality in the same list, I have wired concealed  airturn stop and play switches in to my jacket, one for play and one for next track, so I have to compose my sets with a view of only going forward at the moment.

So the first half an hour is white, I sing the same songs regardless for twenty minutes, then I decide if I am going to skip to a different genre and the colour change when this happens makes that task so much easier, as I can off course remember what the title of the first yellow song would be for example without actually being able to read it from that far away.


Cheers

Danny

Joe_K

It was entirely a feature based decision.  I went looking for an app with Set Lists, MIDI control and Tempo indicators.  SLM was the only app I found that would do what I had in mind and then some.  I'm very glad it exists.

Gkup

I bought this app strictly based on the reviews I read in the App Store. Am I ever happy that I did. This is hands down the best money I've ever spent on a music related app. I am a developer myself and I can appreciate the level of detail and time that you have invested in to this application. I'm just getting started with this app but already I've found all the things that I need are in SLM. MIDI, automation, metronome that automatically stops after a couple of measures. TelePrompter style lyrics page, starting pitch, background music player, documents, etc... Kudos to you Arlo.

Keith

Specifically because SLM can send timed MIDI program changes to Jamup while playing backing tracks. Everything else is a bonus for me. That means that my whole guitar setup is contained in 1 iPad. There are no footswitches.

arlo


Jetutt

Even though it doesn't reflect in poll votes, the strongest universal motivator is recommendation. I am a new user, but have been a professional musician/performer for decades. When I switched to keyboards, the only available synths were monophonic, with no velocity sensitivity. SLM wouldn't even be on my radar, if a fellow performer hadn't recommended it to me; and that was only because I asked him what he used.

With so many "free" apps (with ads) out there SLM didn't even appear when I did an App Store search for this solution. I previously had five notebooks to organize my lyric sheets, song lists and music notation for the various groups I perform with. I don't recall all of the search keywords I used, but would strongly suggest a larger keyword vocabulary link within the app store if possible.

Secondly, get more "fans" of SLM to write favorable reviews in the App Store. Your major competition are the free apps. The majority of people are going to choose free over a purchase every time. Even If you disagree with this statement, at least consider the validity. I typically won't even spend $.99 on an app, if there is a free alternative, yet I'll spend $6 in a restaurant for a beer that a friend recommends to me.....just being honest.

I took the time to reply because, in a very short time I have become a big fan of SLM. Every day I discover more AMAZING nuance features packed in this app, and Arlo's accessibility to the end user is unbelievable. This is the real deal, and I want the development and support to continue. Set List Maker is a would be a bargain at twice the price.

arlo

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I don't recall all of the search keywords I used, but would strongly suggest a larger keyword vocabulary link within the app store if possible.

Here are my current keywords: set list, setlist, gig, band, song database, lead sheet, chart, lyrics, backing tracks, MIDI

I have a 100 character limit, but words in the app description should also show up in a search.

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Secondly, get more "fans" of SLM to write favorable reviews in the App Store.

Ha ha, yes, but how? My email signature asks for it, so I'm basically asking dozens of people a day for it, but I only get a couple reviews a month. My main concern with reviews are getting enough good ones to outweigh the negative, vague or uninformed ones.

arlo

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So I have a suggestion, I am dead short sighted, in layouts view where you just have a big screen with the song title, could we have the song titles displayed in the label color please? Seeing the color change is the only way I can keep up from a distance,

In the new version 4.2 that was released today, song titles added to a layout will display with the song's color:

http://www.arlomedia.com/apps/setlistmaker/support/release_notes.html#ios_4_2