[nzlotrfan]

Firstly, Merry Christmas guys.

Context: I use backing tracks along with lyrics.

When I have a new gig, currently I check the total length of my songs first by creating a playlist on my computer (in mediamonkey) and seeing what it adds up to. For example 20 songs might total 59:40minutes. Then I go ahead and replicate that playlist in MSP companion. But it would be super handy to see how long my current playlist is straight in MSP companion (seeing as each lyric sheet file has the music file loaded into it), as it would save me having to effectively create two playlists all the time.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Thanks so much!!!

[Geoff Bacon]

You can do this already.

Long press a song in the setlist, choose "Edit Song" and set it's duration (at bottom of page)
Repeat for all other songs in the setlist.

In Settings/Library Settings check "Show Setlist duration".

I see there is "Calculate Setlist Duration Using Audio Files"; I'm guessing that you could check this and only adding durations for any files that don't have an audio track.

Note: You don't have to set all durations immediately, just those you need to use (the Setlist editor will say something like "55:02 mins  (21/23)" meaning that 2 songs don't have a duration specified)

Geoff

[nzlotrfan]

Ah right you are! Thanks for that. If it is possible to display that functionality in the windows companion app that would be super handy, but having it in the app is still a great help. thanks!

[palosanto]

You can do this already.

Long press a song in the setlist, choose "Edit Song" and set it's duration (at bottom of page)
Repeat for all other songs in the setlist.

In Settings/Library Settings check "Show Setlist duration".

I see there is "Calculate Setlist Duration Using Audio Files"; I'm guessing that you could check this and only adding durations for any files that don't have an audio track.

Note: You don't have to set all durations immediately, just those you need to use (the Setlist editor will say something like "55:02 mins  (21/23)" meaning that 2 songs don't have a duration specified)

Geoff

Geoff,
Just found this thread and I have a question:
Sometimes even if I have an audio track attached, I might play it faster or slower and that's the duration that I want to use so I tried overwriting the automatic duration   
but the total setlist duration doesn't change so it seems to ignore the new duration that I entered manually and still uses the audio track even though the duration field shows the one that I entered manually.

Is this normal or should the total set duration be updated?

Also, is there a way to filter what pieces don't have a duration so that I can enter it?
Thanks,
Juan

[Geoff Bacon]

I only have a few audio tracks so don't compute running time from the audio. (I get the time by a stop watch on my phone when I'm rehearsing)

I initially used the Mobile Sheets companion to determine which songs didn't have a duration (click on the Duration column header to sort; blank fields are shown at the bottom of the list; click again and they will be at the top of the screen). I only needed durations for a couple of playing groups (each has their own collection).
You can use the companion filter to restrict the collections being considered (this reduces the number of songs to look at).

I suspect there is a way to do this using MSP but I can understand how the companion works.

Now that most songs have a duration, I tend to always fill in the duration field when I add a new song.
When creating a setlist, I regularly check the running time to see if a song is not included e.g. 10/11 means that one of the recently added songs needs a duration.

Hope this helps.
Geoff
PS When setting the duration, you don't have to be to the exact second - add 5-10 seconds to allow for song switching and/or interaction with audience

[palosanto]

Thanks Geoff.
I've turned off now the "Calculation of Setlist Duration Using Audio Files" and the total times are computed correctly whether entered manually on songs without audio or automatically in songs that have audio even if I modify those songs length manually.

I'm still a bit confused because having off that setting, if I add an audio clip to one of the songs in the set list, the time is added an I thought that it will ignore songs with audio for the running time.

So, I guess the only difference in having the setting on or off is that having it off allows me to modify it manually whereas having it on, even though I can modify it, it still computes it with the audio even though the Duration field shows the modified one ...
Perhaps the Duration field should be greyed out so that it it can't be modified manually when the setting is on otherwise the numbers don't add up.