I would like to be able to do something in BIAB, and have figured out a way to come close, but not quite ideal. I would like to be able to have a setlist of songs, which I could easily change for different gigs. Ideally, it would be nice to use the "Next" button to bring up the next song in order, but not play it automatically. Also would be good to be able to see the song list and select a certain song, in case of a request, change in plan, etc.

The "Prev" and "Next" buttons only work with songs in a folder, in alphabetical filename order. A workaround could be to rename the files with a numeric prefix, like "01-Skylark.MG1", "02-Blue Moon.MGU", etc. But that wouldn't be that easy to change. And to open a song out of order, would have to go to the Open function and look for it.

SongPicker lets you pull in songs from a folder, and lets you sort the list on various fields, but doesn't seem to be any way to set your own specific sort order. At one point, I saw a sequence number field for each song, but didn't seem to be editable; and now I don't seem to see that field. It also keeps the last song played highlighted, which is good.

Jukebox seems to only work with songs in alphabetical name order, or random which doesn't help. "Delay between songs" looked promising; but the app is completely locked while waiting for the delay time, so no flexibility with that.

Favorite Songs is probably the closest match, as it lets you create and order multiple lists. Still have to open that window and select the song, rather than just clicking the "Next" button. And for some reason, that list doesn't keep the last song highlighted, so have to remember where you are. You can play a Favorites list with Jukebox, but still have the limitation of either automatically starting the next song, or waiting the fixed number of delay seconds.

Seems like this would be a common thing that musicians would want to do. Or maybe I'm expecting too much. Any ideas from you experts??

I use your first method.
All my songs are ordered, with a set number and a position in the set.

I first put all my songs in major folders. Mine happen to be DECADE. so songs have 50-name, or 70-name. And they stay in that folder in alphabetical order.

I make sets of songs in folders by name, such as Anne Murray, or Ink Spots. I then drag songs from the decade folder to the particular set I need and put a sequence number on the front so I might have 01-50-name, followed by 02-70-next.

These will play in order, once you select the folder. When you no longer need the Ink Spot folder, for instance just delete the sequence number from the name and return it to the decade folder.

You could create 1 folder per gig or even 1 of known special requests such as Happy Birthday.

Switching between folders is time consuming, but certainly doable. Putting a complete evening set in one folder is practical. Adding a sequence number can be a chore but there is software out there that can help. I use "The Rename". It's free and work well.

Thanks Dave! I'll take a look at "The Rename", which sounds like it would do the trick. Just a little frustrating that BIAB provides several different features for that kind of thing, but none of them quite do what I would like. Thanks again!

Bill R

Bill:

You're almost there with the last method you mentioned, that it, using the "Favoites" selection.

After you have created your set list in Favorites, there is a "Jukebox" button in that Favorites dialog box. Use that to start the regular Jukebox function to go through your set list.

Two other things you can set up.

- Go to Opt > Preferences and check the box that says "Pause play until MIDI or key received". Now when you select a song in the Jukebox, it won't start playing until you press a key on the Qwerty keyboard (the spacebar works well for this).

- If there are times when you need to jump to a different song (like a request, not just Next or Previous) IN YOUR CURRENT SET LIST, you can use the "Song" button and set up it's preference (by clicking on the bottom half of the button) to jump to your "Favorites" window, where your set is listed. From there you can just quickly scroll through your set and double click on any song to bring it up for playing.

You would then of course, have to go back to that list to continue your "regular" set.

Let us know if that's not what you're after and we'll keep looking for a solution.

Good luck!
LLOYD S

Or, you could render the BIAB files to WAV or MP3 and use this free program:

http://mike-warren.net/digitalfakebook/


Very simple to use, and you can also have the lyrics and chords on screen.


Regards,

Bob

Sorry for the delay is replying to you, Lloyd. I think this will work great for us! The "pause before playing" setting was the missing link. We have a gig next Friday, so we'll give it a try.

Thanks!
Bill R

Bill,

You don't have to rename them, you can use the "up" and "down" feature to place the songs in the order you want the jukebox to play them.

Later,