Hi, and thanks for such a cool app. I’m having fun with it!
BUT… (and please correct me if I’m missing something!)
I’m working on a long, pompous rock intro, starting with hats, bass, and organ, then adding instruments every 2 - 4 bars. To achieve the instrumentation changes, I’m using band changes at each point.
What’s confusing is saving a band with a name: “intro hats,bass.organ” for instance, or simply “intro 1”, etc. And yet, in the main window there’s zero indication of band names beyond “Band 1” and on. If I add a band change, all the labels shift accordingly, making the connection between the saved name and the displayed name even more obscure.
So–is there a way to have band change labels display the saved names rather than auto-generated numbers?
And–is there a band management function, as in a screen to look at, make changes to, and save bands to access at will?
Imagine how simple it would become if one could create a “pool” of bands named appropriately (in my case, like “Intro 1- HH,Bass,Organ”, “Intro 2 - 1 + Guitar Arpeggio”, or whatever naming convention the user chooses), then plug them into band change spots with names revealed and bands easily swapped or modified.
And how about being able to remove a band change after saves? Not just “Undo” but having full control.
Thanks!
Hi and thank you for your detailed feedback! I agree, managing bands could be far easier, especially for longer songs.
Yes, perhaps we could add an option to rename bands. When loading a template, the band could be named like that, perhaps with an indicator like (*) when the band was changed.
I also agree that in addition to the global user templates we already have, we could create a local pool of bands which are saved with the song. The pool could show all bands of the project and handle renaming and perhaps we could even add a button to link bands so you can have two identical bands for two identical sections and changes in one would be copied over to another linked one. Maybe we could even link all instruments or just drums etc.
Now this pool would work even without having to save your band into it as it would manage all bands by default. This would make it hard to go back to a particular state of a band. But perhaps we could add a button to save a snapshot you can then use to go back and forth between that snapshot and your current state.
The ideas are great, thank you! I’ll have to think a bit more about that.
I’m not sure if you already aware of this but a while ago I built a panel that allows you to copy over parts of your band to another band.
Regards!
Dennis
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Thanks for the response! And you’re right–I hadn’t been aware of the pasting options.
I want to clarify things, just to be sure I’m communicating well.
What I’m wishing for is the ability to, for instance, load a band template, make whatever changes I want, then save it with the name I choose. Then, THAT name of choice would be displayed in the band panel and in the labels on the main screen. Rather than Band 1, 2, 3, etc.–which obviously don’t “mean” anything other than the order they appear in the song–the name I saved under would be displayed.
As to the band pool idea, it’s pretty simple to imagine, maybe harder to implement. As is, you can start with a template band, customize its instrumentation, and save it with a custom name. This for as many bands as you want. (I assume there’s no limitation on number of bands?)
The thing is, there’s no easy access to those saved bands! I’d love a screen that’s just band functions to set them up and choose to use or modify at will. Then when composing, be able to hit Band Change and pick from them or create a new one–whatever’s needed.
I tried to include a shareable url here, but the result didn’t retain all the info: drums were wrong, tempo off… May have been an issue on my part. Anyway, thanks again!
I’m glad you now know about the copy paste options, that should make your songwriting easier.
So right now, you can save templates, the only thing we don’t do right now is showing their name in the flags or the band header. So the functionality is kind of there it’s just not that great to use yet.
I think the big question about the pool is if there is a need to have bands in there which are not in the song. Or do we just want to a representation of the bands which are already in the song, perhaps with some snap shots.
Maybe we could even add an option to import bands from another song.
About that sharable url: You tried to create a sharable url of your song and it doesn’t sound the same as in the project itself? This might be a bug. Could send me the name of the song so I can investigate that?
Regards!
Dennis
You’re mentioning options that might make more work for you! The band pool (or collection or whatever the best name might be) would be super cool if there were tabs for bands in the current song as well as “all” bands. That way the composer could see what they’re using in the moment and/or bands they’ve created in the past that might see further use.
The URL is “Draft 6.5a” by BarryMaxwell - Made With Hookpad. for“Draft 6.5a” by BarryMaxwell . Not sure exactly what’s happening, but for one thing I’ve got the drum track set to half time for part of it and it seems to play in normal time or even off the beat.
Thanks so much for the help and collaboration!
