Guide

Backing pads and song tracks

A pad is a long file under the chart, chosen by the key the room hears. A song track is a file attached to one song, for singing or playing along. They can run together. The app includes neither. You bring the files.

Backing pads

The waveform in the song menubar starts the pads, or stops them when they are on. A small light on it shows what they are doing: green and pulsing while a pad sounds, amber when paused, orange when pads are on but silent (no key, or no file for the key), and grey when stopped. The light does not pulse if you have Reduce Motion on, and the panel says the same thing in words. The chevron beside the waveform opens the Pads panel. Pads stay off until you start them.

iPad Pads panel, stopped: the status light is grey, Play is ready, Stop is dimmed, Follow the song’s key is on, and the key grid is below. — The Pads panel, stopped. Play and Stop are at the top, then the key, the level, and This song. Transitions and Mixer fold away.

The Pads panel

The panel is ordered by how often you reach for each control, so the common ones are in view without scrolling.

Play starts the pad with a fade in of about a second. After a pause it carries on from where it stopped. The button becomes Pause while a pad plays.
Pause fades the pad out and holds it. A song track that is playing keeps going.
Stop fades the pad out and switches it off. Play then starts again from the beginning. Stop also clears a pause caused by a call or unplugged headphones.
The status line under the title says what is happening, for example Playing: Warm Pad · G major, Paused, No pad for E minor or Choose a key to play.

iPad Pads panel while a pad plays: a green light, the status line reads Playing Bright Pad, G major, and the button reads Pause. — Playing. The light is green and pulses, the status names the file and the key, and the main button has become Pause.

iPad Pads panel paused: an amber light and the status line reads Paused. The button reads Play. — Paused. The light is amber. Play carries on; Stop switches the pads off.

Tap any key in the grid and the pad starts in that key, whether the pads were on or not. Two sections fold away and remember whether you left them open:

Transitions: Loop keeps the pad going. Crossfade is how long one pad fades into the next when the key changes, from 0 (a straight cut) to 15 seconds. Loop seam blends the end of the file into its start so there is no gap or click. When the key changes is Wait (a moment, 300 ms to start, so only the last of several quick key changes plays) or Ask first, which shows a banner so you choose Change or Keep.
Mixer: the song track and master levels, Duck pads, and Stop all. See Levels.

iPad Pads panel scrolled to the Transitions and Mixer sections, both open. — Transitions and the Mixer, opened.

Every panel has a ? beside its title. In the Pads panel it opens this panel’s own help: what each control does, why the light is a colour, and what to try if nothing plays. The arrow at the left returns to the controls.

iPad Pads panel showing its help text: Play, Pause and Stop, and Which key plays. — The help for the Pads panel, opened with the ? beside the title.

The same key does not restart the pad. A new key crossfades. If that key has no file, the pad already playing keeps going and the panel says so.

Follow the song

Follow the song’s key uses the sounding key, after transpose. It does not use the capo shape. Turn it off and the key you picked stays put. You can start a pad in any key, including on a chart that has no key.

A single song can be set to Auto, a specific key, or Off with This song. That choice wins over the follow switch.

Your pad files

One library of files is shared by every song library. There are twenty-four slots: twelve major and twelve minor. C♯ and D♭ are one slot. Tap Edit pads… beside the key grid to import files and give each key a file. Accepted files are mp3, wav, m4a, aiff, and caf. The app copies them into its documents. It does not keep a link to the place you picked them from. One file can serve several keys. You can also manage the library from a computer with the web console.

The Backing pads screen: a grid of twelve keys with Major selected. C and G have files assigned and the others are empty. — Backing pads: the key map. C and G have a file. The empty keys say Empty. Manage files lists, renames and deletes the files themselves.

Song tracks

Open Chords and the Media tab. Add track takes a file from the same audio library, or imports a new one. Several files can sit on one song. Tag a file with the key it was recorded in, or leave it as Any key. One file per key can be the default.

iPhone Media tab: Media is on, the mix levels, and two tracks tagged G major, Worship Mix and Sunday Mix. — The Media tab on iPhone. Worship Mix is the default for G major. Sunday Mix is tagged with the same key.

Nothing plays until you tap play on the bar above the footer. Changing song fades the track out and does not start the next one. If you transpose while it is playing, it keeps going and the bar says the track no longer matches. Switch moves to the file that does.

iPad chart. The pads control sits in the top bar, to the right of Chords. — The pads control is in the top bar. A track’s player appears above the footer only after you tap play. Open it for the scrubber, the level, Loop and a pads switch.

An audio file added through Add Songs is not added as a song. Add it from Backing pads or from a song’s Media tab.

Levels

Pads, the song track, and the master each have a level. The pad level is in the Pads panel, with a mute. The song and master levels are in the Pads panel’s Mixer and on the Media tab. Mute is per channel. Duck pads while the song track plays is off until you turn it on. Stop all fades both out. Limiting appears when the master limiter is working. The limiter is always on, so a loud file cannot distort.

On stage

The first time you start pads or play a track, Stagehand suggests Do Not Disturb or a Focus. It cannot turn that on for you. You can choose Don’t remind me again, and bring the reminder back with Show audio reminders again in Settings.

iPhone: the Do Not Disturb reminder over a chart. — The same reminder on iPhone. OK and Don’t remind me again sit side by side.

Playback continues when the iPad locks or you switch apps. The lock screen controls the song track only. Unplugging headphones pauses. It does not jump to the speaker. The ring and silent switch does not mute pads.

A backup includes the assignments. The audio files themselves are included only if you turn Include audio files on. See Backup and restore.

If nothing plays

The light is orange. Read the status line. No pad for G major means that key has no file: tap Edit pads…. Choose a key to play means the song has no key and none is picked: tap a key.
Paused by the system. A call or another app interrupted the sound. Press Play.
The status says it could not start. Press Play again. Stagehand already tried once more on its own.
Check the pad Level is not muted or at the bottom, and the iPad volume is up.
A file that cannot be read shows File missing in Backing pads. Add it again.