Finding the right tools for WORSHIP with limited MUSICIAN resources

Churches with limited musician resources seem to be occurring in epidemic proportions. Also, many churches want to be able to utilize modern worship songs in their times of worship, but find it difficult to do so without proper instrumentation. Today, we have technologies available that provide great solutions for churches that need help. In this series of posts, I will be talking about many great solutions for churches of all worship styles–whether you need just a pianist or an entire band to assist in your times of corporate worship. This post introduces an amazing free app that will play your audio multitracks, display lyrics on screen for the congregation, will show chord charts of the music and much more. Read on.

Kenny

WorshipSong Band is designed to provide an innovative, flexible solution for worship leaders who need to fill out some missing parts in the band. It is a free, easy to use software application for IPad, Android, Mac, Chromebook, and Windows, that provides ground-breaking capabilities such as:

  • Playback of multi-track music (up to 15 individual tracks can be mixed, pitch/tempo shifted, and looped in any order)
  • Integrated chord charts  that can be transposed on the fly with a capo function and automatically follow your playback
  • Wireless Network Operation of all control, display, and playback functions, allowing playback control, chord charts, lyric display, and time-synced audio to be split across any collection of tablets and Macs/PCs.
  • Lyric display to an external monitor/TV, or Airplay, including background image and looping video overlay
  • Built-in Pads and unique ambient multi-tracks called Atmospheres.
  • Ability to generate automatic Clicks and Cues
  • Foot pedal control via Bluetooth or wired MIDI (up to 13 pedal/button inputs control features such as faders, looping, song flow, dynamics, and song order)
  • Open file format and easy instructions to use WorshipSong Band with any content. You are in complete control of your song library content and features. There are over 650 songs readily available to use from their partners
  • Audio import and built-in high-quality key change facility, allowing you to use any song in any key.
  • Song and set-list sharing between devices, enabling multitracks to be a tool for your whole team
  • MIDI output capabilities, in an easy to use GUI, allowing complete control of lyrics and lights in 3rd party applications like ProPresenter, Proclaim, or OnSong, or MIDI DMX lighting control software
Your application is much better thought out that the other ones I have tried. I love how the entire song is encapsulated in a single .zip file, along with the “tracks.txt” file for controlling everything. I also like the presets, and that they gradually fade up/down to the new levels. Then, of course, there’s the chords/lyric display… the list goes on and on. Thank you so much your time and dedication to this application and the music. It really is an amazing product 🙂
GoFrank Genus

Trinity Presbyterian Church, East Brunswick, NJ

Additional Uses

  • You can use simple split or rhythm tracks available for almost any song at a fraction of the cost of full multitracks and augment these with built-in pads and guide tracks for full-featured operation.
  • You can use only chord charts without tracks at all and take advantage of capoing, external lyrics, foot control of your charts, and automatic guide tracks.
  • You can download or purchase stem sets or multitracks from sites from many sources (to be outlined in next week’s post) and easily configure them to use in WorshipSong Band without going through WorshipSong’s web site to load them into your library. Check out the File Format used in WorshipSong Band here.
  • You can record your own parts and build up your own sound.

Networking with WorshipSong Band

The networking capabilities of WorshipSong Band make this an amazing tool for your worship ministry.

WorshipSong Band’s networking is a way for the control, playback, and display functions to be distributed across a wireless network and run in a synchronized operation. It achieves this by allowing separate copies (or nodes) of WorshipSong Band to perform different roles:

  • If networking is used, there must be a single node in the Master, or playback role on the network. This node is also connected to the audio output system and has the set list loaded. For a church setting, this node is often run on a Mac or PC tied to a higher quality multi-channel output system to allow full stereo output. Very inexpensive PCs such as a Mac Mini or Windows NUC can fill this role nicely.
  • There may be one or more nodes in the display role, either displaying lyrics or chords and the current playback state as sent from the master. These can be IPads or most any Android tablet, including low-cost ones. For lyric display with looping video, choose a Mac or a PC for this role (which can just be the main playback machine if desired).
  • Any node in the chord display role may play synchronized audio in time with the master.
    • The song zip file must be in the library of the network node
    • Synced audio mode must be enabled on both master and display
    • The Band Mix window will then control a local mix of the audio coming directly from the display node.  This will typically be routed to headphones for the musician using the display node, as a basic in-ear system
    • A latency adjustment is available on the display node
  • Any node in the chord display role may also function as a controller, offering control of the playback, mix levels, setlist, and more. The control role is only enabled if both the master and the display node have the remote control setting enabled. A controller node can change:
    • The mix levels,including master audio level and click level.
    • Set list song selection and song order (but a remote controller cannot select a song that is not already loaded in the master’s set list).
    • Song start, stop, pause, and looping control
    • Pad start, stop, and cross fade
    • Song tempo and key (only settable when the song is not being played).

More on networking WorshipSong Band here.

WorshipSong Band Feature Overview

Get the app here.

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Final Thoughts

I have been showcasing a number of great apps for our church worship teams that do not have a full compliment of band members. Each has some great strengths. I have been amazed at WorshipSong Band in that the software is completely free and simple to use. It’s networking capabilities make it a great solution for many churches. The ability to import multitracks from any source is a great plus. I will be listing many sources for those tracks next week. You can run multitracks, skip to or loop sections of the song, coordinate chord charts on every musician’s tablet, send lyrics to screen, and run an in-ear click to all musicians with this one free app!

While WorshipSong Band is a powerful application, it is simple to use for its basic features. You can begin simply using stereo mp3s and chord charts. Alternately, you could run a click track with pads and coordinate chord charts. You can start simple and let it grow in its complexity as your needs warrant. Be sure to take a look at this app!

Kenny