FREE - Live Setting Notes Manager

[tshapiro]

Using Microsoft Access, I've built a Live Setting Notes Manager. It works like this: using a list and some form fields, you build your sets based on songs and their related notes. With the click of a button, a script gathers up the info and creates the text files that are copied to the fantom directory. The text pages, 1 per set, have a 2 column list of your songs that goes at the top of each notes screen. So, for example, set 2 has the set 2 songs at the top spread across 2 columns. With this, you can fit 12 songs and the patch id in the window that can be seen at a glance. The script puts more extensive notes lower in the window so you can scroll to them if needed. The utility allow you to store alignment info with each song so that the script can always form 2 nicely aligned columns after you build or update your set order. The second function the utility has is a patch usage report. This lets you know if you need to move any of your presets based on you newly created set lists. So, after you've entered your song info, here is your pre-gig routine using the utility:

1) Using the set-builder screen, make any adjustments to sets and song orders.

2) Connect the Fantom via USB storage.

3) Press 'Update' which updates your Fantom's live setting notes screens. When done, disconnect your Fantom.

4) Review the patch usage report and see if any patch moves are needed. If so, make them.

5) Go to gig

If there's much interest in this, I'll clean it up and post it. I'm a programmer by trade so this whole thing only took me a few hours but has saved me dozens of hours in my first month of gigs.

[sunfly143]

sounds organisationally useful and one would really need a dowload link to check it out,thx

[lordelix]

This sounds like a really useful tool youve come up with! I would be very interested in checkin in out as well. My band does alot of live performances. So far Ive been skating by on memory in order to be able to call up the correct performance during set list changes. Needless to say this can really slow you down live since it can take up to an additional 10 seconds to pull up the proper performance and transmit the needed patch changes to my second board.

[Jimknopf]

Interested as well...

[tshapiro]

Ok then.

One thing I didn't mention is that the software has a virtual Fantom screen on it so you can see the sets how they look on your keyboard. With this, there are 2 UP/DOWN arrows that let you scroll like you do on the actual keyboard. I'm just finishing up having the graphics display the actual patch names for the F buttons. This is helpful in setting up the patches. I'll have it all finished this week and will post it with usage instructions and a demo sets.

[DD]

Sounds good,

I've just spent all day creating performances and then alligning them to the live play function.....

......tomorrow I am gonna look at adding some text files (wish me luck, Ive not managed to get the fantom set up with my PC yet !!)

Any help with live performance set up would be great


Keep up the good work!!

[tshapiro]

Once hooked up and configured, your Fantom will present itself as a drive. Look for the \Roland\PNL directory. In there you will find a bunch of text files: bank0001.txt, bank0002.txt, etc. These files are loaded by default into your bank notes screens. So, just edit these and when you disconnect the USB using your 'PC Unplug USB Devices' icon from the system tray and then 'Exit' from you Fantom, the new notes will show up.

I messed with it for a while and a major pain is that there seems to be inconsitant use of the Tab character so alignment can be tricky. If you're cramming a bunch of info in, that's an issue. That's where my little utility comes in handy. It does the alignment once you setup your 'buffer' characters in your song info. I'll post it with instructions. After you mess with doing it by hand, the utility will make sense.

[lordelix]

Awsome!! Cant wait to give it a test spin.

[donutninja]

Great idea!

[GargoyleStudio]

Sounds cool. I'd like to give it a go.

It's a real shame that Roland don't open up their file format and allow the whole live setup to be programmed as easily as the text files!

Mike.

[RevP]

Thanks in advance for your work and willingness to share it with the rest of us. I can't wait to try it out as I use the Live Setting feature quite a bit.

[Maureez Plays the Keez]

Interested as well!
Anyhow, I stopped trying to put sets in the live-performance tabs cause it was to much work, not so much editing the text files but registering the songs and performances. My best practise now is to use the live mode to register max 8 songs per tab, so you don't have to press the shift key. I place them in alphabetical order and use a text file to show the list of the complete song names registered in that tab. So even without knowing the exact position I can find the right tab quickly. And for the sets I have a setlist with the registered postion (e.g. 3.2 for tab 3, position 2) after each song.... printed on paper!

[Maureez Plays the Keez]

btw, most of the time I take out the PC card and put it in my laptop. Thats the most easy way to transfer (text) files for me. Does your access solution support this as well (write the text files to another drive actually). Should be great!

[tshapiro]

Maureez Plays the Keez,

Actually, you'll be happy to know that I've thought of both the methods you speak of:

1) Personally, I setup banks 1-4 as my show sets 1-4. I use these with my hip hop band. 5-20 are an alphabetical listing of songs with associtated patches, performances, sequences. For my accustic show, I use these sequences alot.

2) Memory Card, yes. I put the ability to create a list of target directories. So, you can pre-store your list and select 1 when you update. For example, I have test directory on my laptop that I switch to sometimes.

[tshapiro]

Still spending this week to polish it off. FYI... If you create the 2 column setlists that I talk about using my utility, you get the 2 columns followed by notes that look something like this:

Song1 [1 PatchName] Song7 [2 PatchName]
Song2 [2 PatchName] Song8 [1 PatchName]
Song3 [3 PatchName] Song9 [6 PatchName]
Song4 [4 PatchName] Song10 [1 PatchName]
Song5 [1 PatchName] Song11 [9 PatchName]
Song6 [1 PatchName] Song12 [1 PatchName]

Song1 Note - (Verse )C, F, G (Chorus) F, G Repeats
Song2 Note - (Verse )E, A, B7 (Chorus) E, A7 4x
Etc.


... The software does the aligning of course and spits out the layout above. You just make your sets, the software does the busy work. With this layout, you get a quick list of songs and can scroll down to notes as needed.

I have sets 1-4 as my show list.
5-20 are an alphabetical listing. ***with 5-20 I don't fill up the whole bank. Each bank has get 3-4 songs so that I can add more without re-shuffling my entire setup.