Guide

Web console

A browser on a computer can list, edit, upload and export the library, and manage the audio library, the backing pads and each song’s tracks. The console is off until you enable it, and a session does not start until you press Start. The iPad has to stay in the app.

Enable it

1. Open the gear menu and tap Modules.
2. Turn on Web Console. The Web console row now appears in the gear menu. iOS asks for local network permission. That prompt shows up here because you just asked for the feature. Leaving the switch off means no prompt and no open port.
3. The port field appears. The default is 8080. If that port is already taken, Stagehand binds the next free one and shows the port it actually opened. Do not bookmark a port the screen is not showing.

Enabling does not start a session, including on the next launch.

Start a session

1. Gear menu → Web console.
2. If the switch is still off, the screen says so and points you at Modules.
3. Tap Start. The iPad stays awake while the session runs. Keep Stagehand in front.
4. Read the address and the PIN on the device. They are sized for a music stand.

You will see an IP address first, then a .local name, both with the port, then a six-digit PIN. Use the IP address when the network blocks local names, which is common on guest Wi-Fi. Copy either address. A QR code opens the address on a phone.

Connect the iPad to Wi-Fi first. Without it, the screen says there is no address.

Open it

1. On a computer joined to the same Wi-Fi, open the full address, including http:// and the port.
2. Enter the PIN shown on the iPad. The browser keeps a token for this session only.
3. The page has the library and collections on the left, the song table in the middle, and an editor on the right.

The page is plain and served by the app. There is nothing to install on the computer.

What you can do

• List, read, create, edit, rename and delete songs, including a bulk delete.
• Upload one file or many. Drag files onto the window. The conflict choices match the app: Replace, Keep both, Skip. A large drop is sent in batches.
• Edit title, artist, key and topics.
• Create, rename and delete collections, add and remove songs, and drag to reorder.
• List, switch, create and rename libraries.
• Download one chart, or the whole library as a zip. A large library shows progress on the iPad as Preparing library zip….

Select several songs with Shift and Ctrl or Command. Edits in the browser write the chart file. The iPad’s library updates immediately, including a chart you have open.

If the iPad and the browser both change the same file, the write that is out of date is rejected and the browser shows a conflict instead of overwriting.

Editing in the browser

Open a chart and the editor shows the text on one side and a preview on the other. The iPad draws the preview with the same reader you use on the iPad, so it matches what you will see, including Arabic and mixed-direction charts. It refreshes a moment after you stop typing.

Drag the dividers between the library, the song table, the editor, and the text and preview to give each the room you want. Focus a divider and use the arrow keys to move it, or double-click it to reset. The sizes stay in your browser.

The text box takes the direction of the chart. The Text button in the editor header forces left to right or right to left, or returns to automatic. A browser cannot give each line its own direction, so on a chart that mixes both, trust the preview.

Audio, pads and tracks

The page has three tabs: Charts, Audio and Backing pads. A song’s Media panel sits under its chart editor. Everything you change here is what the iPad shows, at once, and the other way round.

Audio

• Every file in the shared audio library, with its format, size, length, and how many pad keys and song tracks use it.
• Upload mp3, wav, m4a, aiff, aif or caf files. Large files are fine: each one is sent straight to disk, one at a time, with a progress bar and a Cancel. The limit is 1 GB a file, and the iPad needs room for it.
• Rename changes the name you see, not the file.
• Delete first lists the pad keys and songs that will lose the file, then asks you to confirm.
• Play previews a file in the browser, with a scrubber.

Backing pads

The twenty-four slots, major and minor, as on the iPad. Choose a file for a key, clear a key, and set that key’s trim from −12 to +6 dB. One file can serve several keys.

A song’s Media

Turn the song’s Media switch on, add files from the library, and for each one set the key tag (or Any key), the default for a key, the level, and Loop. They follow the same rules as the Media tab on the iPad.

Audio is accepted only on these audio pages. The chart importer still refuses an audio file and never turns it into a song.

Stop

Tap Stop on the console screen. The session also stops when you leave the app. iOS will not keep this server running in the background. The browser should say the console stopped, rather than spinning. The iPad explains that you need to start it again with the app open.

The screen lists connected browsers. Revoke disconnects one of them. A wrong PIN is rate limited.

Safety

Anyone on the same Wi-Fi can reach the port. That is why the PIN exists, why the feature ships off, and why a session is something you start on purpose. Do not start it on a network you do not trust, and stop it when you are done. Stagehand does not expose this service on the public internet by itself. A VPN or a router rule that publishes the port would be your network, not the app.

Uploads can be large, so keep the iPad awake and on the same Wi-Fi until they finish. Audio is private to your network the same way charts are. See Pads and tracks for what the files do.