Read The Bleepinโ Manual
๐ Make Some Noise
This section of live bar settings affect how audio playback functions in OnSong. The following settings can be used to change this behavior, if fading or crossfading of tracks should occur and if audio tracks in iCloud (iTunes in the Cloud or iTunes Music Match) are available for linking.
The Noise Happens Here
This section controls how backing tracks are controlled & played in the app. (Spoiler: it's loud.)
How Your Audio Button Acts (Shocking, We Know)
You can change the behavior of the live bar button from the default Play/Pause method here. Your options are:
- Play/Pause will start playing the audio track from the beginning. Tapping on the button again will cause the track to pause, allowing you to resume playback where you left off. (Revolutionary.)
- Play/Stop will start playing the audio track from the beginning! Tapping on the button again will stop the track, returning the playhead to the beginning of the song. Tapping on the button again will start the track from the beginning. (It's like a loop. Fun.)
- Play Only is designed to prevent the song from accidentally being stopped. Tapping on the button will start playing the track from the beginning & will not stop playing song until it ends, or until another song is started. The live bar button will display a locked icon to indicate that playback can not be stopped. You can stop playback from the Playback Hamburger or Playback HUD Thingy.
Should Your Backing Tracks Play Like a Playlist or Nah?
Typically backing tracks are assigned to songs & can be played back by tapping on the audio live bar button, or by assigning an action to a foot pedal or hot corner. Turning on this setting will allow audio tracks to play one after the other without you lifting a finger, turning all backing tracks in a set into a legit playlist. This can be set to:
- Off requires that each audio track be played with user interaction or a trigger. (You gotta do stuff.)
- On allows audio tracks to play through all songs in a set without user interaction. (Finally, automation.)
- Repeat allows audio tracks in a set to be played back continuously. Once the last audio track in the set is played, the first audio track in the set will be started. (It's called looping. Welcome to 1987.)
Auto-Matching Your Tracks (So Lazy)
OnSong automatically links tracks in your iTunes Music Library & OnSong Media Library to chord charts by exact match on the song title. You can turn this option off or broaden the search by choosing from the following options:
- Off turns off any automatic matching of backing tracks. (Manual labor! How quaint.)
- Matching Title finds backing tracks that exactly match the the title of the song. (Laser-focused. We like it.)
- Starting with Title finds tracks that start with the song title. This can be used when backing tracks may have info such as (Live) or (Featuring) in the title. (Flexible. Shocking.)
- Containing Title finds any tracks that contain the name of the song. (Loose vibes.)
Crossfade (The Smooth Operator Section)
This section controls if backing tracks should crossfade between each other when supported by the track type. (Fade to black, or whatever.)
Crossfade Between Tracks
This allows the track from one song to fade out while fading in a track from the next song. This can be used for the smooth transition between songs. When the music is played through the in-app player, playing a different track when another is already playing will cause the playing track to fade out while the new track fades in. If track is being played by an external app, OnSong will fade the playing track out, & then fade the next track in when possible. (Ooh, fancy.)
Note that crossfading is only available for backing tracks that are played using the built-in OnSong player. If a track is played via Spotify or streamed or DRM-protected through Apple Music, crossfading will not be available. (Bummer.)
Fade Audio In (Softly Does It)
This option allows you to choose a duration with which to fade audio in. Backing tracks do not fade in when started at the beginning. This means that fading only occurs if the track is started in the middle of the track. Options for fade in duration include:
- Off no fading occurs. Default.
- Fastest fading is set to span 0.1 seconds.
- Faster fading is set to span 0.2 seconds.
- Fast fading is set to span 0.3 seconds.
- Normal fading is set to span 0.8 seconds.
- Slow fading is set to span 1.4 seconds.
- For 1 second fading is set to span 1 second.
- For 2 seconds fading is set to span 2 seconds.
- For 3 seconds fading is set to span 3 seconds.
- For 4 seconds fading is set to span 4 seconds.
- For 5 seconds fading is set to span 5 seconds.
Fade Audio Out (The Exit Strategy)
This option allows you to choose a duration with which to fade audio out. Backing tracks do not fade out when ending the song. This means that fading only occurs if the track is stopped or paused in the middle of the track. Options for fade out duration include:
- Off no fading occurs. Default.
- Fastest fading is set to span 0.1 seconds.
- Faster fading is set to span 0.2 seconds.
- Fast fading is set to span 0.3 seconds.
- Normal fading is set to span 0.8 seconds.
- Slow fading is set to span 1.4 seconds.
- For 1 second fading is set to span 1 second.
- For 2 seconds fading is set to span 2 seconds.
- For 3 seconds fading is set to span 3 seconds.
- For 4 seconds fading is set to span 4 seconds.
- For 5 seconds fading is set to span 5 seconds.
Pan (Left, Right, or Nope)
Pan lets you shift the output of backing tracks to both left & right channels (default) or to just the left or right channels of the output. This is useful for sending backing tracks to a sound system as a mono send in conjunction with a metronome. (Your sound guy will thank you.) Channel options include:
- Left outputs the audio only in the left channel.
- Both outputs the audio in stereo to both the left & right channels. Default.
- Right outputs the audio only in the right channel.
Note: Panning is only supported on tracks that can be played back through OnSong. When using a Spotify track, or streamed/DRM-protected tracks in Apple Music, the track must be played through an external app which does not permit pan control. (They're weird about it.)
Apple Music (The Fruit Company's Stuff)
This section provide finer control over how OnSong should play Apple Music tracks. (Because they gotta be special.)
Play Apple Music Tracks (Your Way)
When you link to tracks in your Apple Music Library, OnSong attempts to play those tracks using OnSong's audio player in order to enable pan & crossfade. You can choose to play the tracks either in OnSong or the external Music app. Tracks that are streamed or DRM-protected will play in the Music app regardless of this setting. (Apple's rules. We don't make 'em.)
Show Music in iCloud (The Cloud Thing)
OnSong will display audio tracks whether they are physically stored on the device, or stored in iCloud. Tracks played from iCloud will experience a delay when playback is started. Because of this & then chance that audio will not continue during a network interruption, you may want to disable any tracks being played from iTunes in the Cloud or iTunes Music Match. (Bad WiFi = sad times.)
When this option is turned on, all tracks are displayed for playback. By turning this option off, cloud-based tracks will not be able to be selected using the Audio Track Picker Doohickey or the Choose Custom Track Window Whatsit.
Video (The Moving Pictures Section)
This section provides settings specifically for playing video backing tracks. (Who knew?)
Pausing Video Track (Freeze Frame)
Playing a video file as a backing track will overlay the video on top of other colors or media that you've configured in the External Video Hamburger. However, if the video is paused, it's unclear how to handle transitions between the backing track video & the original media. This setting lets you change the behavior:
- Hides Video will hide the video when you pause it, applying crossfade visually if enabled. Playing the video will show it again, fading in with crossfade is enabled. (Default. Makes sense.)
- Keeps Video will keep the video on the screen, but pause the video. No crossfade is applied since the video will remain until it's played again, or another backing track is loaded, etc. (Stubbornly persistent.)
Volume (THE LOUDNESS)
This section provides additional settings for volume control. (Because you might wanna adjust how loud it is.)
Show Volume Indicator (The Number Goes Boom)
When the physical volume buttons are pressed on the device or are changed using an action, the volume is displayed in the middle of the screen. Since this disrupts the view of song content, this is disabled by default. You can reenable the built-in iOS volume indicator by turning this option on. (Your lyrics will get a little visitor.)
If a track is linked to your iTunes library, it will playback using the built-in Music app unless crossfade or pan is enabled. Tracks then playback through OnSong to allow for extended control of the tracks. Tracks under digital rights management (DRM) protection or being played back through iCloud must be played through the Music app & will not have crossfade or panning capabilities. (Apple likes to keep things locked down. They're that friend.)
