What changes do you want to see in future versions?

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Permalink Reply by Yvonne Smith on January 20, 2009 at 8:22pm

I think these new ideas sound great - can't wait to see them in action
V

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Permalink Reply by Nigel Steady on January 30, 2009 at 9:44am

I've just installed the trial version so may not have got through the whole of it but I would like to suggest the following:

1. Keep the Notes about a song displayed at all times. As soon as you change the song the Notes box closes. I would like the option to keep it open but refresh with the new notes as you change the song. As long as you can drag it to one side and it stays there that would be fine.
2. Probably a bit tricky but on some songs there are intro's, linking passages and endings that would be useful to have notated. Poor memory on my part probably but I'll have the chords for the main part of the song and then some notation on odd parts. It would be great if these notations could be transposed along with the chords!

That's it for now. Looks good.

Thanks
Nigel

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Permalink Reply by Power Music Guru on January 30, 2009 at 10:00am

Good points, Nigel:
1. This would be easy to do, but probably better to have as options in the default settings? What about the following options of configurable settings:

• Show notes all the time only if there are any
• Show notes all the time (even if empty, because they can be edited)
• Only show notes when pressing N for each song (the way it is just now)
• Show notes when N is pressed and keep open for all songs

2. The way round this would be to create another song eg 'song name intro' and put on the playlist before the main song. Similarly for linkings and endings. It would work like turning a page. Transposing would be trickier as Power Music was never intended to replace sequencer software, therefore can not transpose sheet music as it is stored as images.

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Permalink Reply by Nigel Steady on January 30, 2009 at 3:22pm

Thanks

1. Those options seem to cover it all, but how would you envisage it working in full screen mode? Would these apply then or do we need an option to keep open in full screen mode as well?

2. I thought the notation transposing would not be on, I am envisaging using this is a performance situation so the liklihood of me needing to transpose is very small. The links I have are often just 4 bar phrases and it would be good to have them on the same page as the chords, but wih no transpostion I could just scan in what I need.

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Permalink Reply by Power Music Guru on January 30, 2009 at 3:39pm

1. Those options were meant for full screen mode, but they could apply to the select screen too.

2. This is a good suggestion - it would mean a change to the structure of the chord sheet as it is made up of 'text' lines and 'chord' lines, but it should be possible to insert images. This feature could be combined with the new suggestion on the list to insert column breaks - you could then display chords in one column and sheet music in the other to keep the whole band happy!

Thanks for these suggestions Nigel - I will add them both to the list.

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Permalink Reply by Power Music Guru on October 8, 2009 at 9:28am

Hi Nigel
Your suggestions are now implemented in version 2. The notes are always displayed if the playlist sidebar is visible, and being able to display both music and chords was added in a previous version.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Lake on March 18, 2009 at 10:24am

Having used Worship Assist (a presentation package) for a number of years, and for other support reasons, I would have the following requests for future changes and comments:
. The copyright information should really be stored with each song so that there is a complete record. At present there is no recognition that it is copyright material;
. To be able to import songs from WA would greatly help me;
. I would like the ability to have the database in a user defined directory so that I can arrange for it to be included in external drive backup routines. I would always try to save data stuff outside of a user profile to save space and to make it easy to find etc;
. I was a bit surprised to not be able to find the software install directory. Is there a reason this is hidden, or is it very obvious and I have just missed it?
. I gather from the data files, that audio files are not automatically moved into the data area. This is a good idea so that these large files are not duplicated, but I think it needs to be made clear that these are linked (my assumption from what I saw) rather than moved into the "audio" directory and therefore display the link or give the option of displaying the link. The first audio file I selected was not on the laptop where I have installed PM;
. I see that the lyrics are automatically extracted from the chords and lyrics data. As the lyrics may in some cases need to be different (or have other information) than for the chords & lyrics display, I would either like the ability to have a third tab for the lyrics to be entered, which could be extracted using a button from the chords & lyrics tab (as per WA), or a way to display just the lyrics from the C&L tab so that a user can see what the lyrics on their own would look like without having to save the song and then go F5 etc;
. The entry of bar markers etc. in the chords tab is a great help and is something missing in WA;
. I initially captured a one page portrait piece of music, and then thought it would be better as two half landscape pages, so captured these separately. When going through the data files, I find that the original portrait png files was still stored, which is fine, but I could not see it displayed in a list anywhere, so I guess there is potential for these "trial" images to grow in number and cause a few problems down the track. It may help to have an option to display all captured images and give an option to delete unused ones. It therefore might also help as per Photoscore lite to identify for the user which images are not linked to a song and give an option to delete these.
That is all I can think of at present, but despite these comments I can really see the value of the software and looking forward to trialling it with the pedal.
Rob.

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Permalink Reply by Power Music Guru on March 18, 2009 at 11:18am

Thank you, Robert, for your valuable contribution.
We are currently working on the next generation of the program which will be called Power Music Pro. Some of your suggestions are on the list for that version which will integrate with it's own song projection program. Details are not on this site yet as we are still working on the spec.
Going through your points one at a time:

• Currently the copyright information would be displayed as part of the chord sheet, but in the Pro version this will tagged with the song
• There are many presentation packages around so we haven't integrated with a particular one - can you copy and paste from WA as you use each song?
• The following answers both of your next points - the technology used in the installation is called ClickOnce deployment. There are many advantages for this - with Windows Installer deployment, applications often rely on shared components, with the potential for versioning conflicts; with ClickOnce deployment, each application is self-contained and cannot interfere with other applications. Because ClickOnce applications are isolated, installing or running a ClickOnce application cannot break existing applications. ClickOnce applications are self-contained; each ClickOnce application is installed to and run from a secure per-user, per-application cache. Updates are then handled securely without the risk of breaking other applications. This is why the install directory is in the local user's application directory. If you make regular backups within Power Music then you can save the backups to any external drive for future restores if you have to re-install.
• Yes, the link to the audio file should be displayed. I will add it to the list and include it in the next update. (The help files make it clear that these files are linked.)
• Separate lyrics plus separate tabs for other instruments will be part of Power Music Pro. The lyrics will be able to be extracted and edited for each tab. The current version is not intended to be used for song projection and the lyrics are simply an optional extra for printing for singers or for copying and pasting from the select song screen to any other editor or song projection package.
• Yes, an option to delete unused images is a good idea. png files are small compared to .bmp files but they could still add up when you have thousands of songs.

Thank you for your comments - I hope I have answered them all and I have added some to the list of changes to be made.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Lake on March 19, 2009 at 10:20am

Thanks for the response. As you could tell I was keen to get into the package, so the above was from only a few hours of use, and referencing back to my experience with WA etc.
I have not heard of ClickOnce deployment before, but understand now why I was so stumped in finding the exe file etc.
As a typical user, I did not go into the help file very deeply. Sorry about that.
Understood about the lyrics.
WA is a package that probably started out as a presentation tool, but has the added advantage of being able to store chord charts as well as lyrics. Sometimes it would be nice if it could be split into two packages, but referencing the same database. The chord charts are not available during a presentation, and when working in a chord chart the presentation is not needed, so they could be separate.
And along comes PM.
I suspect that I will port all of my songs across to PM, which I can do by copying and pasting from WA (it stores the chord chart text in courier format so is non-proportional equal space based chord palcement as per PM), and using the superior presentation tools of PM for this type of music. I will just have to check on the printing ability of PM as until we get more technologically setup, it would probably be maybe one PM screen and paper for the others in the music team, therefore I still need to be able to print easily.
My only suggestion would be not to add so much song presentation functionality that it takes away from the music team needs and perhaps loses its appeal, but if there was a way that you could access the same database (even just a copy of the database) that would certainly help in keeping words and music in sync.
I have had a brief look at a few of the other presentation packages, but still like WA because of its simplicity in setup etc. I would certainly recommend having a look at the package from www.churchassist.com for the sort of functions that are available. We create a complete set of songs and titles for the service for simple cursor down movement between items. I will upload a typical set list for reference.
Good stuff. I look forward to getting deeper into PM and hearing about the proposed developments along the way.

Attachments:

• OOS 15-3-09.pdf, 5 KB

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Permalink Reply by Power Music Guru on March 19, 2009 at 10:37am

Good points, Robert. One of the ways in which Power Music would integrate with the song projection program would be import/export of lyrics only. Power Music at the moment exports the entire song for import including sheet music and chord charts, but the needs for the congregation and the music team are quite different and we think that they would still have to be controlled separately when used live. We are open to other opinions as we want to produce what suits our users best.
Thanks for the guidance re. WA and for your sample listing - it is helpful. Please keep the suggestions coming as you delve deeper into Power Music.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Turner on August 11, 2009 at 1:13pm

Referring to our discussions at the Christian Resources Exhibition last year and subsequent emails I would disagree with Robert about multiple PCs "live". This goes to the core of "worship" which is a debate in itself. However I often feel that large groups (e.g. Spring Harvest) almost lead to a performance as opposed to corporate worship. So, yes the needs are different, but the core is the same - all need to know what they are playing/singing and have this made availble in a format that is easily accessed. From my perspective, therefore, while your comments may hold true for larger churches with greater PC skill base, many churches simply do not have the members with the ability to run such software (often they are already in the band!) ... but they still want to allow their worhsip to develop.
Although hard to achieve, software that allowed different outputs to go in different directions is a very strong options for these congregations. Once installed one operator could control the words onto a main screen and also a different "feed" to the musicians. Using our summer camp scenario either I try to run two PCs at the same time (one for the band, one for the main screen), or we revert to using paper copies for the band and I control the main screen. My 6 year old is almost trained for the main screen PC, but a PC with 3 or 4 monitors options would be so much easier.

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Permalink Reply by Gordon on August 11, 2009 at 6:11pm

I don't think linking together the music (for the band) and the words ( for the congregation) on one PC is a good idea. Who would be in control? The musicians need to control the page turning for the music and it would be very difficult for the same musician to control the display of words. In our church we use completely separate PCs for the music and the words - and it works very well. The problem is that where you turn a music page would not be the same place as turning words.

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