As a new Gig Performer user, I’m really enjoying everything about it. Except for having to use ChordPro for lyrics. I mean really … a command line based text editor that has to be installed in Terminal to get full use? ChordPro seems like dark ages stuff.
I’ve spent too long trying to figure out how to embed a simple PDF file into a lyric page. Jeepers!!
I just want to display a simple page of lyrics using large white fonts on a black background (so its not too bright on a dark stage). Nothing fancy. I can now design a complex Rackspace with parallel busses in minutes, but I can’t display a simple lyric sheet in the Playlist. Is there some other way???
PDFs are a different matter. Our next update (hopefully coming quite soon) will include a tool to convert PDFs so that the ChordPro system can display them properly.
Perhaps I led myself down a bad path. I wasn’t sure if ChordPro was an application or a markup language. When I did some searches on it online I reached the official ChordPro website, which provided installation instructions here: https://www.chordpro.org/chordpro/chordpro-installation/
That started me down the path of a Perl programming installation in Terminal, instructions on how to use the “Pango Markup Language” for changing fonts, etc, and from there it was a short downhill trip to Hades. I’m still shaking from the experience.
Yes, I know how to use the text window in Gig Performer, as you have been so kind to illustrate. I will continue to do just that. I just thought there was something deeper with ChordPro, something that I needed a doctorate to understand. I think I’ll leave Perl and Terminal alone, and stick with the simple text editor things in life. Thanks for your time, your help, and your pity, and I DO look forward to a future PDF tool! Cheers!
@dhj — ha ha! I thought I smelled smoke back then! @aharry – thanks for that. I downloaded and installed ChordSmith because I wanted to see if its “Dark Background” mode would provide white text on black background in Gig Performer, but it wouldn’t.
So … is there any simple way to do white lyrics text on a black background In Gig Performer?
Out of curiosity I looked at what Open Stage Control could do.
I have simple html files with the lyrics. When the song changes in GP, O.S.C. will use the /CurrentSongName message/argument to open the file with that name within a html widget.
Thanks all. I tried the Melda and OSC alternatives, but using setlist/songs and lyric area works best for my needs. The current “native” solution is limited, however. It would be nice to be able to at least change fonts, and choose a dark background (with light/white text). Or perhaps there is a simple way to do this?
Also, I can’t get the ChordPro directives to work…for example:
{textfont: Helvetica}
{textsize: 30}
{textcolour: blue}
Thanks @npudar. I have been able to successfully import PDF files into Chordpro/Text Lyrics, so that is meeting my needs OK. And, I look forward to the 4.1 update (tomorrow!) with easier PDF importing.
Slightly late sharing this (@brandon thanks for the prompt) This contains the Open Sound Control files (the layout json and custom module) and a sample html file that has the lyrics.
The chord names displayed above the text were done using CSS - via the OSC layout file. It’s a bit of a hack, but basically the html file has used some dummy tags around the chord name, which the CSS moves to above the lyrics text and changes the font color.
The ‘custom module’ file needs to be edited to add in your folder path where you’re storing the lyrics html files. The file name must match the song name in GP.
Thanks @rank13 for sharing. I set it up with Open Stage Control and edited the .js file to change the html source directory.
It launches and loads the lyrics for the file One (which are imbeded in the .json file it seems) but it doesn’t switch to the other test songs, “Two” and “Three” when I change those songs in GP.
It is also reporting this error in OSC’s console:
(INFO) Server stopped
(ERROR) Custom module loading error
D:\Dropbox (Personal)\Music\Gig Performer\Open Stage Control\GP-Lyrics.js:5
var [sendHost, sendPort] = sendTargets[0].split(':')
^
TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading '0')
at D:\Dropbox (Personal)\Music\Gig Performer\Open Stage Control\GP-Lyrics.js:5:39
at Script.runInContext (node:vm:139:12)
at Object.runInContext (node:vm:289:6)
at CustomModule.load (C:\Program Files\open-stage-control-1.17.0-win32-x64\resources\app\server\src\server\custom-module.js:125:1)
at new CustomModule (C:\Program Files\open-stage-control-1.17.0-win32-x64\resources\app\server\src\server\custom-module.js:85:1)
at new OscServer (C:\Program Files\open-stage-control-1.17.0-win32-x64\resources\app\server\src\server\osc\index.js:19:1)
at Object.294.../custom-module (C:\Program Files\open-stage-control-1.17.0-win32-x64\resources\app\server\src\server\osc\index.js:209:1)
at o (C:\Program Files\open-stage-control-1.17.0-win32-x64\resources\app\server\node_modules\browser-pack\_prelude.js:1:1)
at C:\Program Files\open-stage-control-1.17.0-win32-x64\resources\app\server\node_modules\browser-pack\_prelude.js:1:1
at Object. (C:\Program Files\open-stage-control-1.17.0-win32-x64\resources\app\server\src\server\server.js:238:1)
(INFO) Server started, app available at
http://172.20.1.76:53344
http://127.0.0.1:53344
So it’s not able to read some undefined properties but I don’t know enough about js to understand this error. Perhaps you can help.
