Hi everyone,
I wanted to share something I’ve been working on for our band over the last few days.
I’m the synth player in a party/cover band, and we use Ableton Live and AbleSet for our backing tracks, clicks and cues.
One thing that has always been a bit messy during shows is changing the setlist on the fly. Even when our bandleader clearly called out which song we were going to play next, you’d still see everyone looking around at each other to make sure they had heard the same thing.
And because not every song we play uses backing tracks, AbleSet itself isn’t always the complete setlist for the whole band.
So I started building SetSignal.
The idea is pretty simple: one live setlist for the whole band, controlled by the bandleader. Everyone else opens the same setlist on a phone, tablet or laptop and can immediately see what we’re playing and what’s coming next.
When we start a song in AbleSet, SetSignal automatically follows it. The current song is highlighted, the next song is shown, the timer starts running and every connected device updates at the same time.
The bandleader gets a separate view and can make changes during the show. For example, skipping a song, moving something forward or choosing a reserve song as the next song.
As soon as the bandleader makes that decision, everyone sees the same thing. No more looking around the stage wondering: “Did he say this song or the other one?”
One important thing for me was that SetSignal doesn’t replace AbleSet. AbleSet still does what it does best: controlling playback. SetSignal is simply the live setlist the whole band looks at.
It also means songs without backing tracks can just be part of the same setlist.
One other thing worth mentioning: I’m not a programmer.
SetSignal has been built with Codex. I’ve put a lot — and I really mean a lot — of input into how it should work, tested everything on our actual setup and kept changing and refining it until it did what I wanted.
So this basically started with me thinking: “This should be possible somehow,” and then figuring it out together with Codex.
That has honestly been quite an interesting process in itself.
At the moment SetSignal can:
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import our normal PDF or Word setlists
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connect songs to the AbleSet song list
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automatically follow the song playing in AbleSet
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show the current and next song to the whole band
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show how much time is left in the song and in the set
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let the bandleader skip songs or choose reserve songs
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keep the original setlist visible, even when things change during the gig
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work in a manual mode when AbleSet isn’t being used
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run completely locally, so no internet connection is needed on stage
I’ve been building this mainly because I wanted it for our own shows, and it’s now getting to the point where I think it could actually be useful for other AbleSet users as well.
So before I spend a lot more time making an English version, installer and documentation, I’m curious:
Would you use something like this with your band?
I’m also interested to know whether people would mainly want macOS support or Windows as well, and what information you would want your band members to see on their screens.
If there is enough interest, I’ll probably make an English beta available for people to try.
SetSignal is an independent project and isn’t affiliated with AbleSet. It simply uses AbleSet’s OSC communication.
Interested to hear what you think.
