Hoster Newbie has questions

[UPNext]

Hi,
I've had Hoster for a couple months and things have been working great. Now that I am using it I wonder if there are better ways for me to do certain things.

1. If I create a songlist of all my favorite songs and also create songlists for all my other regular singers songs I can easily retrieve them. However during a show I typically would use the default songlist since I am adding various songs to it as the night goes on. It would seem ideal if while a song was playing I could open another songlist and import a track into the default list. Right now I don't see any way of doing that. I believe the choices are to wait until the song ends and open the other songlist, play the song and then come back to the default songlist. Maybe there's a better way to accomplish what I am trying to do. Any ideas?

2. This may be more of a wish than anything else. Once you create a songlist the only information you have about the song is the title. You don't know which brand of CD it is etc. It would be nice if you could "right" mouse click on a song entry and get the "Properties" of that song that are available in the Search window. Again there may be some other way to do this, if so please let me know.

3. If you create custom songlists and select to have the songs removed after being played you essentially destroy your custom songlist unless you manually add the song back again before closing the list. If there was some way to differentiate between the default songlist and custom songlists with the songs being "persistent" in the custom songlists unless you delete them that would work well. Otherwise you always have the risk of deleting songs from the custom songlists you have created.

4. Along the same lines as the previous point, if you select to have the songs stay in the list where they show as "Played" after being sung one time you cannot play it again. That's kind of a pain if you are practicing a song and need to reload it each time.

As I said I'm a Newbie and I may just be doing things incorrectly but I would be interested in your thoughts and ideas on these issues.

Thanks,

UpNext

[George]

Originally Posted by UPNext

4. Along the same lines as the previous point, if you select to have the songs stay in the list where they show as "Played" after being sung one time you cannot play it again. That's kind of a pain if you are practicing a song and need to reload it each time.

After the music stops there is usually a few seconds left on the counter when the credits page is drawing. Simply click on RESTART to play the track over.

If you don't want to play the back immediately, click PAUSE, and when you're ready to resume, click RESTART.

If you're rehearsing several songs, stay with one until you ready to go on to the next one.

Hope this helps with that part.

George

[jdavia]

1. However during a show I typically would use the default songlist since I am adding various songs to it as the night goes on. It would seem ideal if while a song was playing I could open another songlist and import a track into the default list. Right now I don't see any way of doing that. I believe the choices are to wait until the song ends and open the other songlist, play the song and then come back to the default songlist. Maybe there's a better way to accomplish what I am trying to do. Any ideas?

Each song you add to the list goes to the bottom of the list. It is easier to delete these after being played, or later on, if you decide to. You can always change the position of a song that you want to remain on the list to be above the temp ones.

2. This may be more of a wish than anything else. Once you create a songlist the only information you have about the song is the title. You don't know which brand of CD it is etc. It would be nice if you could "right" mouse click on a song entry and get the "Properties" of that song that are available in the Search window. Again there may be some other way to do this,

Maybe the Adminstration can take this as a request for the next version of Hoster, if it can be done.

3. If you create custom songlists and select to have the songs removed after being played you essentially destroy your custom songlist unless you manually add the song back again before closing the list. If there was some way to differentiate between the default songlist and custom songlists with the songs being "persistent" in the custom songlists unless you delete them that would work well. Otherwise you always have the risk of deleting songs from the custom songlists you have created.

All song lists are custom, since you create them. If you want to keep them. then name them say, "Custom 1" or "Default1" etc. so you won't forget. You don't have to keep the default name that Hoster gives the list. You can give it any name.

[UPNext]

I don't think that I am being clear. I understand that every songlist that is created is a custom songlist. However, if I create a songlist called "Larry's Songs" I would like all of the songs in that list to remain there until I manually delete them. That way each time Larry shows up at one of my shows I have all of his songs. If I have the option set to "remove songs after being played" (which I would normally do during a show) and I open up "Larry's Songs" and play a song, once it completes I have essentially deleted that song from Larry's songlist. To me that seems undesirable.

The other point along those lines was that once I create all these custom songlists for my regulars it would be nice to "import" one or more of their selections into the active songlist I have running during my show. Jumping from songlist to songlist in between songs would be almost as bad as changing CD's. Maybe this is not how Hoster was intended to work but it seems to me that it would be a nice feature. Maybe there is another way to accomplish this, if you know please tell me.

The last point had to do with a song being marked as "Played" rather than having it deleted from the songlist. I wonder why it cannot be played again. Perhaps the sole purpose is to keep it from being deleted from the songlist.

I really like the Hoster program and I just am trying to make sure I am utilizing all of it's capabilites. Thanks for your help.

[jdavia]

if I create a songlist called "Larry's Songs" I would like all of the songs in that list to remain there until I manually delete them. That way each time Larry shows up at one of my shows I have all of his songs. If I have the option set to "remove songs after being played" (which I would normally do during a show) and I open up "Larry's Songs" and play a song, once it completes I have essentially deleted that song from Larry's songlist. To me that seems undesirable.

As it is now you have to change the way you operate. It only takes one click to open the same playlist.

The other point along those lines was that once I create all these custom songlists for my regulars it would be nice to "import" one or more of their selections into the active songlist I have running during my show. Jumping from songlist to songlist in between songs would be almost as bad as changing CD's.

It is just as easy to search for a song using part of the song name while a song is playing and add it to the playlist presently on the screen.
[quote]
The last point had to do with a song being marked as "Played" rather than having it deleted from the songlist. I wonder why it cannot be played again. Perhaps the sole purpose is to keep it from being deleted from the songlist.
[quote] No, you control that. I think it is to keep on with the list without a repeat.
REPEAT: Maybe this can be a request. to add a repeat button or make it so that if you scroll up to the previous song and back it will re-play that song.

[mindonstrike]

I think what upnext is referring to is a singer database rather than a playlist. Using the search funtcion to look up a singer and add a previously sung song by that singer to the playlist, eliminating the need to keep a singers old songslips. This feature was suggested in the feature request section of the forum at some time in the past, though I don't recall MTU's response to it. Now that I've stopped lugging discs itwould be nice to get rid of the big box of envelopes as well .

As for the songs showing as played about the only thing you can do is stop or skip before the song/file plays to the end

Sam

[UPNext]

Yes Sam, That is what I was referring to. It would seem to be a nice feature. Thanks for all your help.

[gduns - with the Lord]

Upnext,
One thing you can do, is open hoster, and select the songlist with your songs on it.

While that hoster is open, click the Hoster icon, and open another hoster window and pick the Playlist you are using for the show.

all you have to do to sing one of your songs is select the hoster in the taskbar that has your songs in it and play from there. When you are done, select the other hoster for your show.

I do this sometimes with 3 or 4 hoster windows open.

[jdavia]

Glad to read that someone else is doing that.. I suggested it in this post concerning dual songlists.
http://forum.mtu.com/showpost.php?p=38212&postcount=30

They seem to think that it was too much work. I think is saves work after it is set up.
Singers names can be displayed while a singer is singing, switch from playing a song from one playlist to another, You can work on several playlists at a time, maybe even copy/paste, You can dual task mostly anything if you dare try.

[UPNext]

Gduns, Thanks that's good idea and probably the only way to get around it at the moment.

[George]

In a pinch you can import into one Hoster while another is playing. I haven't messed around with it for two or three years or so, but I'd imagine it works even better now that a lot of the bugs are gone.

I've sometimes changed to a higher screen resolution setting and been able to use multiple programs without having to minimize back and forth when I really wanted to keep an eye on both programs. Harder on the bifoculs though

Several of the guys were doing this a while back. Didn't want to give the impression it was original with me.

George

[jwear]

Originally Posted by mindonstrike

I think what upnext is referring to is a singer database rather than a playlist. Using the search funtcion to look up a singer and add a previously sung song by that singer to the playlist, eliminating the need to keep a singers old songslips. This feature was suggested in the feature request section of the forum at some time in the past, though I don't recall MTU's response to it. Now that I've stopped lugging discs itwould be nice to get rid of the big box of envelopes as well .

As for the songs showing as played about the only thing you can do is stop or skip before the song/file plays to the end

Sam

Yes, I remeber this being brought up beta discussions, and I agree; it would be very nice. Even to the point of auto adding all songs permormed by a unique singer name to their singer list by default.

-JW