Page 1 of 1

Virtual Music Stand using video output for Chords and Lyrics

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2018 6:40 pm
by Ahtune
It would be amazing to be able to tie in the features of a program like OnSong (which is an iPad chord chart app) to take advantage of the video output capabilities of Live. I don't want to have to use OnSong specifically, or any external application for that matter, but rather get these kinds of chord chart functions within Live so that musicians playing along to MultiTracks could have an easily transpose-able confidence monitor. This would be extremely useful for worship ministries that already use Live to run their backing tracks. Some worship ministries already use the video output to run lyric videos for the congregation but for those that do not, the chord charts could be really useful.

So here is what I envision...
Lines of lyrics that are linked to cue points in the timeline so they are easy to time to the music. If you have ever seen the OnSong format it looks something like this.

[D]Lyrics of the [G]song, [AM7]more lyrics [G]of the [D]song.

The program then takes the chords (shown in the brackets) and places them over the appropriate word or syllable. The cool thing is that it then becomes very easy to transpose the key and all the chords update. It can even calculate capo positions for the guitar player and update the chords as required.

So what would be amazing is to have Live generate the stills (probably white text against a black background) of the chords over the lyrics and then output them for use as prompter for the musicians using a front of house TV Monitor. Also necessary would be a way to work out font choices, sizes of words vs chords, transitions of the stills, colors for fonts and backgrounds, timing shifting, possible mirror options for reflective prompters and so forth.

One thing that would make it super epic would be the ability to have two versions of the chords and lyrics on the screen at the same time, like the capo version and the non capo version. Then everyone could have the chords that they need.

I think it would probably be easier to just cut a deal with OnSong or any/all other virtual music stand apps to work together on an addition to their format that would provide time code information for each line to Live. It would also be extremely cool to be able to send the lyrics without the chords to back of house to have PresenterPro put them on the audience facing screens. This would assure that the correct lyrics are always presented to the crowd and the correct lyrics with chords are always shown to the band.

Can't wait to hear additional input on this and look forward to seeing some sort of implementation.

Re: Virtual Music Stand using video output for Chords and Lyrics

Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 5:09 am
by arretx
So, we use ProPresenter, OnSong, and Ableton Live. Currently, our WL prints out music for everyone. I'm the only one who uses OnSong. No paper for me please.

I have OnSong listening to Ableton Live via two tracks so songs are called up automagically, and then sections are triggered. It's a network midi session.

ProPresenter runs on a separate FOH system, listening to MIDI to call up songs automagically as well as change slides at the right times.

Not every song we have is pre-programmed, so we have volunteers to help when needed.

We're planning a way to feed a media streaming server the HDMI output from OnSong such that anyone can use their mobile device (on their music stand or something of that nature) to tune into the stream, which would be showing the song sheets.

The last thing I think I want to do is put Ableton Live under more stress. Between ProPresenter and Ableton Live, the only thing I really need OnSong for is chord charts above words. I let ProPresenter do the heavy visual lifting right now.

Re: Virtual Music Stand using video output for Chords and Lyrics

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 5:15 am
by 8E
Ahtune wrote: So what would be amazing is to have Live generate the stills (probably white text against a black background) of the chords over the lyrics and then output them for use as prompter for the musicians using a front of house TV Monitor. Also necessary would be a way to work out font choices, sizes of words vs chords, transitions of the stills, colors for fonts and backgrounds, timing shifting, possible mirror options for reflective prompters and so forth.
Can't you just use a video track for that purpose? Just have your text ready in a jpg format and drop it in the audio track. The movie window will show it up.