Advanced Song Chooser extension

GP Extensions
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As was announced in this week’s Gig Performer Newsletter, I have now launched my Advanced Song Chooser extension.

Overview

The Advanced Song Chooser extension is intended to offer the performer a focused touchscreen-friendly user interface for selecting and queuing songs within Gig Performer.

The layout and design are specifically created to make the information as legible as possible in a gig situation whether that be on a dimly lit stage or a bright daylight open-air stage in festival situations. The ad-hoc queuing and song selection by widget (and by extension, mapped hardware) are designed to make song selection on-the-fly as easy and accessible as possible.

This extension is aimed quite heavily at those players who regularly play fast-paced gigs with no set order for the songs where the band-leader will call the next song on-the-fly. The features have been crafted specifically to allow songs to be easily found and queued up while you are still playing the current song and then allows you to switch to the next queued song via the touchscreen or a mapped footswitch if you have neither hand free.

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The ASC window is implemented with two horizontal toolbars at the top and the main song list panel filling the rest of the window below them.

The top toolbar contains the clock, the search input field, the options menu open button (cog icon) and finally an icon to close the window (X icon).

The second toolbar. Is the current song and queued song toolbar. The song listed in red on a white background is the currently active song. The songs listed to the right of that are the currently queued songs. Each song is prefixed with its order position. Touching the number buttons allows you to select any of the queued songs, in whichever order you prefer. The system can be configured to allow you to step through the queued songs using the Next song button, which is mapped to a widget which can, in turn, be mapped to a hardware control such as a foot switch.

The rest of the window is the main song list area. This is populated from the currently selected Set List in Gig Performer. Each song in the list has a select button (:arrow_forward: icon) to the left-hand side and is then followed by the song name, the artist and any chord into text you have set. Each of these text items. Can be hidden via the configuration menu. To the right are the “enqueue” buttons (+ icon), allowing you to queue up songs to the status bar in an ad-hoc manner.

Queuing songs

Quick bookmark

There are two ways to queue songs for easy selection. The first is by “bookmarking”. Simply tap on any song name and the background will change colour to indicate it has been bookmarked.

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Queued songs

This feature is to enable you to queue up a handful of songs in an ad-hoc manner. The scenario is that you or your band leader decide what the next three songs you pay will be, you then use this feature to queue them up so that you can easily step through them using the Next Song widget or mapped hardware controller.

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The songs can be selected in order by clicking the “Next Song” widget or can be selected in a different order by tapping the number button before each song name. Any song can be removed from the queued list by double tapping/clicking the song name.

These two procedures give you a flexible way to queue one or several songs as they are called whilst you are still playing the current song.

Finding songs

In the top toolbar is a Search box. If you tap into it, your OS should pop-up an onscreen QWERTY keyboard if you do not have a hardware keyboard attached and you are using a touchscreen.

As you type into the box, the song list is filtered dynamically in real time to show just the items where the song name or artist name match the entered text.

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You can now select, bookmark or queue one of the filtered songs and then tap the “Clear” button to return to the standard list of songs. If you selected a song, then when returning to the standard list, the song you selected will be scrolled into view.

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Settings

The extension has a settings menu that allow you to customise what is displayed, the colours and choose priority in which Queued, Bookmarked and standard Set List songs are selected via the “NextSong” widget (and, by extension, any attached mapped hardware control).

How to purchase

The extension can be purchased via my website here:

Video Demo

Here’s a quick video demo of what the extension does

9 Likes
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While your extension looks interesting, I think the price point of 25% of the price of GP with all the functionality GP has seems out of touch. Do you believe it adds 25% more functionality to GP?

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Gig Performer costs $199, the extension is around $40.

I don’t believe it is about comparing the respective amounts of functionality, but rather what this very specific functionality gives you. You could argue that many plugins that do one thing cost the same or more than Gig Performer, but they aren’t performing the same function, and neither is this extension.

The pricing of this extension has been set at amount I believe is fair for the work that has gone into producing it and offering ongoing support and updates for a single purchase price. I think comparing it with Gig Performer is comparing two different things.

The question should be, is it worth the asking price to you personally if the extension provides features you need and will make your performing life easier.

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It is not my intention to argue the point but I was actually very interested in your extension until I say the price. Plugins are not a valid comparison as they are universal in the Host, DAW, etc. context a GP extension is very specific to GP! I understand your desire to recoup your investment in time and labor and I wish you well.

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Gig performer already provides robust features, and the suggested extension’s cost seems high given the comprehensive capabilities already inherent in the base software. While initially intrigued by the extension, the high cost has made me reconsider. Wishing you success nonetheless.

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I think I should point out that the extension is heavily aimed at those players who typically play their gigs without set lists where the songs are called on-the-fly and you have only moments to change sounds between songs. In my own band we have no gaps whatsoever between songs and I am typically holding the final chord of the previous song whilst switching to the next song that was called in an ad-hoc manner.

I can see that it may not suit those in different situations where they do run to a set list or their gigs are a much more relaxed situation.

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Is there a video somewhere so we can see how it looks and works in real life?

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There isn’t at the moment, but as soon as I get a chance I’ll create one and pop it on here and on the website.

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I don’t think one can argue pricing relatively like that. First of all, in terms of pricing, we’ve been told many times that we’re selling GP far too cheaply.

But consider — how much is the OSC feature in GP worth? How much is GP Script worth? What would GP cost if we didn’t have those features? Or without the streaming file player/timeline/actions?

If you don’t need OSC, then the fact that it’s in GP doesn’t matter and it’s worth nothing. If you depend on it, then it’s very valuable.

So it seems to me that an extension like Dave’s adds significant value to anybody who needs that particular feature and I don’t think one can rationally argue that it should only cost "X because Gig Performer costs “Y”

My two cents

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I think the price is about right -for the amount of work that went into it, and its functionality for someone like me.
I’ll probably get it. But would like to see a thorough YouTube Tutorial/demo.

One question for DB: Is it possible for the Song Scroll Bar to be controlled by a (Global) widget? Thanks!

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I hope to have the video done within the next few days.

Currently it isn’t, but it is something I would consider adding if there is enough interest in having that feature.

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OK, one more quick question for DB.
Can the Song Chooser Extension window be detached, to possibly be on a second monitor? Sort-of, like an Ipad app.
Thanks!

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It is detached and can be placed on another screen (Tried it! :slight_smile: )

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Just to confirm, yes, it is already a detached window that can be freely placed on any monitor.

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Love it, thanks Dave!

I have it wirelessly running on an iPad screen via a Mac.

Matt

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I would second that request down the road. I currently use Bome Midi Translator Pro to mimic the mouse pointer an scroll wheel to be able to use widgets to scroll the Setlist/Rackspace view, so that could be an option in the meantime.

Just bought the extension and look forward to checking it out and making sure it’s set up for my live rig.

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@DaveBoulden

I purchased the extension but I can’t unzip the file without a password…?? Also, during checkout, I wasn’t asked to set up an account. So, I can’t log on to re-download the file again (if that would even help).

What do I need to do?

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Hi @jpt,

I have responded to you via message.

Cheers,
Dave.

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Looks great :wave: For the right player, with a certain set of specific challenges, this would be a life saver! I don’t think the price is unreasonable as a one-off and it looked like you do have a “basic” version for free which I guess acts as a type of “trial”. My band always follow a planned set list but I’m still thinking about this option just as a way to improve transitions.

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I’ve now added a demo video to the original post at the top of this thread.

1 Like