erik_nie

I developed a tool that I want to share in this community. The key functionality is: Displays all sheets from an iCloud folder in one page (scaled to make button as big as possible) Display lead sheets from a text file or a image and display that as big as possible on the screen When a Backing track is present in that folder with the same name, it can be started from the UI Multiple program changes can be sent when selecting a song This means that everything can be prepared inside the iCloud folders from any PC, MAC or tablet. The App will read the folders and subfolders and makes it very quick to start displaying without any scrolling Once the sheet is displayed you can easy go back to the matrix view or go to the next sheet (if you have multiple pages). Video: Movie QSheets.mp4 I needed this app because we have setlists, but also deviate from it. The traditional Sheet applications are not so quick, because you will need scrolling and.or menu diving to find the songs. Also setting up Program changes and audio files are not so easily added. Also making backup is sometimes a manual action that might be forgotten. I know that existing app have more advanced functionality, but just did not fit my workflow. Perhaps it also fits your way of working, I am not certain if it is permissible to discuss this topic here. The application is based on the same functionality that I have been using for several years in various environments to display chords on a tablet for the songs we perform. Initially, I developed the app in Android, MacOS, Python, and Pythonista. Recently, I created the native iPhone and iPad app. Though it took some time for me to become familiar with Xcode, I discovered that an app will only work for a week unless it is released in the store. So I signed up and decided to enhance its stability and functionality and release it as my first app. I decided to make it a one time buy option for a low amount money, that might give me some reward in the yearly fee and time spent to develop and maintain this app. For more information, please visit https://qsheets.eriknie.synology.me or the App Store at https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/qsheets/id6446899882

This would tick all the boxes: Keyboard with PC

This is an overview of my setup: - Nord Stage 3 - Nord Wave 2 - Self made Mixer for down mixing my two boards and the click track from the iPad, also supplying my in-air mix (with aux from main desk and mixdown) - Self made App to show sheets, Play backing tracks and Send Program Changes The bigger iPad on my Nord Wave 2 is just for controlling the XR-18 mixer for the FOH mix This movie shows the working of the app with my two Nords. I was worried about the lifetime of the apple camera kit and fixed it to remove any stress on de cables when connected to the iPad. I used a USB Audio Interface because there is a slight amount of hum when using the audio Out of the iPad. This depends on the used USB hub and (strange enough) also on the used USB cables. The Audio Interface is a cheap Chinese interface, but sounds amazing. I shrink-tubed it, no clue about the brand. Is at least 10 years old. Any compliant IOS audio interface will work, but it took me some time to get rid of the hum. Is used this setup at least 10 times in live environments without any problems. IMG_8040.mp4 Here you can retrieve more info on the design of the mixer: Mixer design I hope this gives some inspiration to others.

I've made this one, works great for years. Planning to make one for our drummer as he has a few sources to mix-down, including a click track, metronome, his roland pad and his e-drums Mixer with several input You can make any configuration: First mix down all sources, then mix your monitor/in-ear mix. The sky is the limit and you can make it in the correct form, with the right connectors and in the color you like. I desoldered the connectors and soldered the cables directly to the boards to prevent contact issues with the small connectors.

If I had weekly gigs I could also remember, but there is too much to remember and sometime a song is not played for 2 months. Right programs, right key, right chord inversion, right lick, After a few bars I quickly get the hang of it, but that's also not professional... I alway envy people that can play 100's of songs straight away. My iPad is directly above my keys and therefor not really distraction the connection with the audience

That's a nice tool to easy write chord charts! Thanks for the link

I've created a Apple app from my Pythonista version. Works great, fast and reliable. I had some issues with iCloud loading the larger content and was missing the mp3 files during a gig. See my new tool If someone is interested in the Pythonista Code, send me a DM and I can mail you the full code

If it seems simple, it still could be very complex and difficult to play. Was a nice concert! Thanks for the insights!

Nice details Jim and others! Yesterday I was at a Brit Floyd show in Eindhoven/The Netherlands. Great impact! Lights and sound was spot-on. 99% of the real deal. I know all songs with every details as it is important music for me during difficult times... the live feeling added so much extra! Like classical music, the writers are not performing anymore, just cover-bands (Orchestras). Floyd will always be played I expect. I watched the keyboard player, he was not as busy as I expected, so many things are covered using backing tracks. As the full show is based on video-syncing I expect that everything has a backing track. I could not see any additional laptops, but perhaps they are back-stage. Relatively simple setup (Nord Stage, Nord organ and a poly synth, could not see the brand). Apparently the percussion player also played keyboards. Technical details/stuff aside, I had a great evening. My daughter saw Floyd for the first time live and could not stop talking afterwards!

I checked forscore and that should work well. I still use my own app written in Pythonista mainly because all data (pictures, text and MP3/WAV files) are located in iCloud and can easily be changed from any PC/MAC. My iPad automatically syncs this and my app will automatically gets the latest data. Even the Python code of the app is stored on iCloud. I have a backup iPad that I use and that is always up to data after syncing iCloud. https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/182141-your-methods-for-lyrics-charts-tab-and-notation/?do=findComment&comment=2895695 Recently I added the option to also select patches on my Nord Stage 3 and Nord Wave 2 when selecting a song. No need for setlist anymore (as this is extra preparation befor a gig and when deviating it can take some extra time to find the right song). Now I just use the printed setlist as reference. Good luck with finding the right application for your task. There are many to choose from!

For live usage I used Mainstage with all internal synths, VB3 and sforzando with all my collected samples. I had too much stability issues with several VST that I did not want te be afraid with every update and limited those. I even sampled favorite sounds from VSTs In the end I went with hardware... For studio

another option: Use sforzando and pick up some sfz files for the missing sounds. you could even sample your own from hardware. Very low on resources, stable and free. In my laptop time I had some crashes with several VST and was afraid to update anything. That's why I limited my softsynths to mainstage with it's instruments, VB3 and sforzando (or use the mainstage sampler). Updated MacOS and Mainstage after a few months of release. This gave me a feeling of control.

Fully agree, everything on a keyboard is a compromise. Even the piano's and e-piano's are sampled. I could get a decent job in a Piano/hammond band, but hate to use only 2 sounds all night. My fun is to recreate the original, using effects, samples of notes/phrases. This could be any sound. Because we play 60 songs a night I do not have 100% accurate brass sounds for every song, but only a few presets. That gets me through the night. My brass sound: I use my Nord Wave 2 with a mix of Nord samples, a synth brass sound from the analog synth, a Motif brass sound that I found on the nord sound forum. Some sounds moved an octave and different balance will get several flavors. With some ping-pong delay and reverb. Still searching for a better sample-sets of generic (pop) brass sounds. I also play a sampled bouzouki (?), wazoo, strings, accordion, flute, EDM-wavs, and wooshes and drones. Even 2nd guitar riffs. I don't mind. It is also often a matter of your playing style, volume, effects to get it realistic in the mix. YMMV

We had a Yamaha 01v96 mixer on stage for FOH & monitor in-ear, but want to move into something lighter and an option to quickly mix from the center during soundcheck. I had an XR18 that we tried, but we could not get a coherent mix. tried this 2 times during rehearsals. But the main out and the monitor mixes did sound as clear/coherent as the Yamaha. The individual sounds seems so interact and made a mess out of the total mix. Then I read this happend to others with a X32/XR18 Behringer. I found a MR18 and transfered the project. The feeling of the Yamaha was back and no issues with coherency. Perhaps it was just in our minds, but everybody in the band noticed the difference and it was pretty big from uncomfortable to nice and relaxed. No clue why. What I would do in your case is: learn and use the XR18, if you are happy with the result, stick to it and if you see a MR18 available: get it and transfer the project. The flexibility of both mixers is great and can do what you have in mind. The MR18 is just cleaner in our situation.

I saw your post (at the same time as mine), the bluetooth midi connectors could be a solution: Could buy two of them and use them for inter-midi between my two synths (using a iPad application MidiFire) and also use it for sending the program changes. I'm a bit creepy of the use of wireless connection for live midi, the program changes will most probably work. Still, wireless is not preferred. Could make my setup time quicker. Not sure about the reliability and the latency of this option... any users out here that have a similar setup or use the Quicco Sound mi.1 II? I could remove the camera connection kit and just use bluetooth.

Thanks for the quick reply. I have two Nords that are midi-connected to each-other, so no free midi port. (Use the organ-section in the Stage 3 to be played from the Wave 2) Could you point me to a small ground loop filter?

Hope that someone can help me. Buzz in my case is a higher pitch sound, not the typical 50/60Hz. Like a phone is too close. My situation is as follows: - We have a few songs with some backing tracks (mostly percussion, effects), stereo output is good enough: left -> audio, right -> click - I have a iPad mini with an application that can play backing tracks, display chords/lyrics and can send out midi program changes (made this myself, but could be any of the usual suspects) - In a first version I did not use the program change output and just plugged the iPad into the charger and use the audio out from the iPad to my mixer. This was 100% clear and no buzz. - When added the option to send program changes and connected my midi board (Nord Stage 3 compact) I noticed a high pitch sound on the audio out of the iPad. When I took out the USB cable it was 100% clear again. Connection via the official Apple connection-kit with charger input, so it can work all night during a gig. - I have a no-name USB-audio interface, so I added a none-powered USB hub where I connected the Nord Midi and the audio interface. The buzz was less and almost acceptable. Again: removing the midi USB cable did remove the buzz completely. That no-name USB interface was already a few times a lifesaver/backup for my old Laptop rig. I changed the cables and USB Hub with anothers, and have a short USB cable with ESD-Coil. I think this is pretty straight forward setup and other might have similar issues. Hope that there is an solution for this. I could think of: - using a high-end iPad audio interface. This might be expensive, bulky, overspec'd, another wall-wart,... - Battery only iPad. This makes me nervous, as we play 4 sets of one hour - Balanced USB cable. Do they exist? - Using a DI box. I have two small audio transformers that I could put in a small box. - ???? The level is now almost acceptable and I played a gig with it.

I change patches via my iPad, so no need to access knobs or even view screens. Got a Nord Wave 2 over a Nord Stage 3 compact. They are as close together as possible to quickly switch between boards. Stage is mainly for piano sounds, use modwheel for volume of layer (pad/string) and use the A/B layer to switch sounds in a song. Why do all keyboard have their screen so high, I would put most used functions (knobs/screen) as close to the keyboard as possible to allow stacking....

Some use wired IEM, Vocalist use wireless. With our new PA it looks really nice.. We always bring the lights. We want to simplify our sound system with a Midas RM18 (so we can easily soundcheck from FOH), but no digital mixers are available here in the Netherlands....

This is dutch language thing: Bes is the way we pronounce Bb and Cis is C#. I use small letter for notes or high notes in the chords (to show inversions). This works for me. To be honest I play most songs by head, but without chords I start to think and black-out.

I tried different apps but wrote my own apps because it just didn't fit my requirements. I wanted to have: single click between songs and overview, no scrolling, backup in icloud, setlist and playing backing tracks. The app runs in pythonista and looks like this: Main screen with songs. this is a folder in iCloud. it is easy to maintain in my Macbook. I can also use subfolders to store old material. Is also shows the time and battery status. It is possible to use jpg or txt files. txt files are shown as large as possible. the songs are shown in one page to avoid scrolling. In this case a jpg is shown with some score and chord info. When clicking in the center of the screen the main screen shows, in the right area it will move to the next song, left to the previous. There is also an option to create a .set file with parts of the name of songs in a set like this: Relight WeAre SoExi Inferno Abba AnyPlace the matching song is searched for the chords folder and a set is created like this (looks ugly, i found no option to center multi-line buttons): in this case a mix of 3 sets. when a song is selected, the jpg or txt is shown. including the progress and next song. In this case a queen medley with 2 parts. searching for queen gave two results: queen1 and queen2. In this song there is a backingtrack. It plays the backing on the left channel and the click on the right channel. If a .wav file is located with the same name as a .txt of .jpg file the play/stop option is added. This works very fast and super reliable. I still sometime check if other apps can work this fast, but it always takes more clicks and scrolling.

It is an Pharos light controller LPC1. Making it spontaneous will be a challenge as it is not geared towards live shows...

I tried different apps but wrote my own apps because it just didn't fit my requirements. I wanted to have: single click between songs and overview, no scrolling, backup in icloud, setlist and playing backing tracks. The app runs in pythonista and looks like this: Main screen with songs. this is a folder in iCloud. it is easy to maintain in my Macbook. I can also use subfolders to store old material. Is also shows the time and battery status. It is possible to use jpg or txt files. txt files are shown as large as possible. the songs are shown in one page to avoid scrolling. In this case a jpg is shown with some score and chord info. When clicking in the center of the screen the main screen shows, in the right area it will move to the next song, left to the previous. There is also an option to create a .set file with parts of the name of songs in a set like this: Relight WeAre SoExi Inferno Abba AnyPlace the matching song is searched for the chords folder and a set is created like this (looks ugly, i found no option to center multi-line buttons): in this case a mix of 3 sets. when a song is selected, the jpg or txt is shown. including the progress and next song. In this case a queen medley with 2 parts. searching for queen gave two results: queen1 and queen2. In this song there is a backingtrack. It plays the backing on the left channel and the click on the right channel. If a .wav file is located with the same name as a .txt of .jpg file the play/stop option is added. This works very fast and super reliable. I still sometime check if other apps can work this fast, but it always takes more clicks and scrolling.

Red Box with display is a controller for the lights. We distribute this: I select some programs based on the songs and bassist has a kind of light-effect button-board. He can override the lightshow with: - Black-out - Blinding (All light white and pointing to audience, during those audience participation parts...) - Wild-break 1 (High energy colors and movement during drum fills or moving into sections of songs) - wild-break 2 The left box is a self made mixer: https://www.norduserforum.com/general-nord-forum-f29/nord-mixer-t20331.html

First gig after corona shutdown. Good to be back!