User guide

How to use Stagehand

This is the manual for version 1.6.0. It names the controls as they appear in the app. Follow it in order the first time, or open the topic you need from the list.

What is new in 1.6.0

• Add Songs. One sheet for Create New Song, From the Web, Scan a Page, and your file locations. Adding songs.
• A chord bar above the keyboard in the editor, with the chords of the song's key, [ ], #, b and /. Key bar.
• Rewrite into key and Text tools in the editor. Editor tools.

What was new in 1.5.1

• Modules. Utilities has a new Modules menu with a switch for the Projector, Pads, Share Sessions, Indexes (Quick Access) and the Web Console. A module that is off has no button in the top bar and does nothing. Modules.
• The Web Console switch and its port moved from Settings to Modules.
• The Index (bookmark) button now sits right next to Songs in the top bar. Menubar.
• Sharing: a join request appears as a popup with Accept, Accept with control and Reject. A device you allowed rejoins without asking, and devices are shown by the name in Settings > General > About. The screen stays awake during a session.

What was new in 1.5.0

• Share one song with other iPads and iPhones nearby that are running Stagehand. You allow each device. A viewer sees the chart. A controller can change the song. Sharing a song.
• A guest does not need the song in its library. Save to library asks before anything is written.
• PDF songs are shared too. A guest can use its own key and capo, and Follow host returns to yours.

What was new in 1.4.0

• Arabic and right-to-left charts. Each line is drawn in the direction it is written, so one chart can hold English and Arabic. Chords sit over the letter they belong to. Text direction.
• The projector and the editor follow the same direction rules.
• The web console editor has a live preview and resizable panels. Editing in the browser.
• Fix: a pad changing key now crossfades smoothly. The old pad no longer drops out before the fade. Pads and tracks.

What was new in 1.3.0

• Backing pads in the key of the song, with Play, Pause and Stop, a status light, and a panel laid out so the common controls are in view. Pads and tracks.
• Song tracks on a new Media tab: several files per song, tagged by key, with a mini-player. Song tracks.
• A shared mixer with a limiter, optional ducking, lock-screen controls, and a Do Not Disturb reminder.
• Keep me in this key now holds from every list, with a relative-key rule. Keep me in this key.
• Topic chips have view options: show or hide, scroll or grid, one or several, and order. Keys and topics.
• A ? in every panel opens its help. Menubar.
• The web console manages the audio library, the pad key map and each song’s tracks. Web console.
• The top bar fits an 11-inch iPad held upright, and stays up while a panel is open.

Not in this version

These are easy to look for and are not in 1.6.0. The app does not show disabled stand-ins for them.

• Pictures as a song format
• Chord diagrams and two chord systems on one chart
• Autoscroll and foot-pedal page turns
• Printing or exporting a laid-out page
• iCloud, Google Drive or OneDrive watching a folder for you
• A Stagehand account, or copying a whole library to another device. Sharing shows one song for a session; it does not sync the library
• MIDI, Ableton Link, a click, pitch shifting, or stems. A track plays at the speed and pitch of the file

You can still pick files from iCloud Drive, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or Box in the Files picker, when that app is installed. That copies the files you choose. It does not keep the folder in sync.

The library has three tabs: All songs, Indexes and Sets. The empty Books tab from 1.0 is gone.