MP3 Transposer
This feature has been requested by several churches, and it won’t take you long to figure out why. With the MP3 transposer, you can change the key of an MP3 so that your musicians can hear the song in the key they will be performing it, while maintaining the original tempo of the song. To try this out, Planners can log in to their account, browser to Library >> Files tab, and click the transpose icon next to the MP3 they want to transpose. The steps are easy, though it could take a minute or two for the new file to be generated.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll integrate it with other parts of the website. Feel free to give us your suggestions via the Feedback page on the site!
PDF Setlist Builder
Also know as “PDF Concatenator”, “PDF Combiner”, and the more ambitious “Virtual Music Stand”, this feature allows you to build a single PDF from the PDFs and lyrics of songs scheduled to be performed at a service. You can select which details to include, and what the order should be. And in a few seconds, a PDF is ready for you to download or email to yourself. Why would you want this? Well, our main goal was to develop a “budget-minded” electronic music stand that would work with your iPad (and other future tablets). The iBooks app on the iPad lets you flip through PDF files using finger swipes much like how you would with real pieces of paper. So imagine setting your tablet on your music stand and using it instead of sheet music. With this PDF combining tool, you can do that. There is even a USB foot petal device on the market that will let you turn the pages with no hands (http://bit.ly/cqpJGC).
The current version of the iPad OS requires a couple of steps for iBooks to read and store the PDF (we provide instructions each time you use the PDF builder). But the next version of iOS for the iPad will make it very simple.
Of course, it is super easy to share worship flow plans and songbooks with others in your WorshipPlanning.com account. But what if you want others on the Internet to have a look? Maybe you want their feedback? Or maybe it is a special guest at your church that needs to see that info? That’s why we’ve create a special page that, if you permit, allows people to access songbooks and worship flow lists via Twitter, Facebook, and a few other social media sites. But don’t worry. Only general info about the song and worship flow are shared (nothing copyrighted), and you can unshare at any time. Just look for the universal green “share” icon in your Planner account to start sharing.
I love all the new enhancements you continue to make to this wonderful worship technology enablement tool. Keep up the good work!
Any updates on WP for Android phone users? I’d love to see that ASAP (we’ve got a number of Droid phone folks on our teams).
I’d also love to see some kind of direct retrieval of SongSelect information from CCLI that’s in one of your competitor’s products (as opposed to having to first download that little song information file from SongSelect and then having to import it into WP). Although I really liked that feature in the other product, your product is much more intuitive to use which is why we’re with you and not with them (LOL!).
Thanks again — our moving to WP has been a blessing!
Thanks for the great feedback and encouragement, Mike! It really is a lot of fun for us.
The Android app is in the works. For the iPhone app, we used a framework that allows us to easily port the app from one platform to another. Our hope was that immediately after creating the iPhone app, we’d flip a couple of switches, reverse the flux capacitor, and out would pop an Android app. As it turns out, the process is slightly more involved, though certainly not as complicated as a complete re-write. In the meantime, we are planning an updated version of the iPhone app that will allow more Planner-type functionality. So our decision has been between syncing the Android app now, or when version 2.0 comes out. I believe it will be with the current version of the mobile app. And, for what it’s worth, I am an Android user as well.
CCLI integration has been something we revisit every several months. Last time we checked, they were not permitting any third-party website integration, so I am curious as to how one of the other services is doing it. Perhaps we can chat by phone and that might give us some clues on the approach we need to take.
Thanks again, Mike.
Tom,
I must be ‘losing it’ (LOL!) I thought for sure when I was doing product evaluations back in 2009 for our congregation that PlanningCenterOnline had that direct import feature, because I remember thinking how nice that was. Apparently they’ve either deprecated that feature or I overlooked something because I no longer see that available (other than a database they maintain of CCLI numbers and song titles from which planners can initially pull when adding a new song). As it stands today, you’ve got them ‘beat’ with the ability to import a CCLI song export file.
Sorry for the confusion on my part (but that still would be ‘killer’ feature — LOL!).
Thanks again!
Rules for these kind can sometimes change. It’s possible some sites had something set up, but then pulled it down for one reason or another. Nonetheless, I agree it would be a powerful feature to have. We’ll keep investigating on how it could be implemented.
Thanks Mike!