Add songs and upload rehearsal tracks

Rehearsal tracks are audio recordings your singers practise with: one for the sopranos, one for the altos, and so on. Members play or download them on the Rehearsal Tracks page of the portal. You need Member portal: rehearsal tracks switched on in Features.

How it is organised

There are three things, and it helps to know all three before you start.

Thing	What it is
Song	One piece of music. Songs live in the Song Library and stay there from season to season.
Track	One audio file for a song, made for one voice part or for everyone. A song usually has several.
Lineup	One concert's set list: songs from the library, in running order.

Members only hear songs that are in a published lineup. A song sitting in the library is yours alone until you put it in a lineup and publish that lineup. So there are two jobs:

1. Add songs and upload their tracks. This page.
2. Put the songs in a lineup and publish it. See Build a concert lineup and publish it.

You can do them in either order.

Before uploading, check your list of voice parts is right, because every track is filed under one. See Set up your sections and voice parts.

Add a song

1. In the admin panel, open Rehearsal Tracks.
2. Press the Song Library tab. The page opens on Concert Lineups; the number beside each tab is how many it holds.
3. Press New Song.
4. Fill in the form (below) and press Add Song.

Box	What it is for
Title	Required. The name of the piece.
Composer or arranger	Shown to members under the title. Optional.
Notes for singers	Shown to members under the song: which edition, which bars to watch, where to breathe. A web address that starts http:// or https:// becomes a link for members. Optional.

The new song opens, ready for its tracks.

Upload tracks

1. In the Song Library, press a song to open it. A box at the top finds a song by title or composer.
2. Press Choose audio files and pick the files for this song. You can pick several at once.
3. Each file joins a list. For each one:
   • check the voice part in the first box. The site makes a guess from the file's name; a box with a coloured edge, reading Voice part..., means it could not guess and you must choose;
   • optionally type a label in the second box.
4. To add more files to the list, press Add more files. To take one out, press the cross at its right.
5. Press the upload button, which says how many it will upload, for example Upload 4 tracks.

A song open in the Song Library with four audio files waiting to upload, each with a voice part chosen from its file name and an empty label box

The files are uploaded one after another. Stay on the page until the list empties. A file that fails stays in the list with the reason under it, and the others are uploaded.

How the voice part is guessed

The site looks for whole words in the file name, so "Gloria - Alto.mp3" is taken as Alto.

Words in the file name	Guessed as
sop, soprano, sopranos, s1, s2	The part whose code is soprano
alt, alto, altos, a1, a2	The part whose code is alto
ten, tenor, tenors, t1, t2	The part whose code is tenor
bass, basses, bari, baritone, baritones, b1, b2	The part whose code is bass
The code or the label of one of your own parts	That part
all, full, tutti, satb, choir, piano, accomp, accompaniment	All parts

The guess is a starting point. Check every file before you upload, above all if you have changed the voice parts from the four a new site starts with: a file named for a part you have renamed or split is often left for you to choose.

All parts

Choose All parts for a track everyone uses: the full choir, the accompaniment alone, a recording of the whole piece. Members see these tracks whichever part they have chosen.

The label

A track is shown to members by the name of its voice part, such as "Alto". Type a label to show something else: "Alto 2", "Slow", "Bars 40 to 68". A song can have several tracks for one voice part, and the label is how members tell them apart.

Which audio files can be uploaded

Accepted	MP3 (.mp3), M4A (.m4a), AAC (.aac), OGG (.ogg, .oga)
Refused	WAV, and everything else. WAV files are very large: convert them to MP3 or M4A first. Most audio programs, including the free Audacity, can export MP3.
Size	Up to 50 MB for each file

MP3 is the safest choice: it plays on every phone and computer.

On a self-hosted site

The size limit is UPLOAD_MAX_TRACK_MB, 50 unless you set it. The hint beside the upload button always says "up to 50MB each" whatever the setting; the error message gives the real limit. See Public file addresses and upload limits.

Look at a song

Each song in the library shows its composer, how many tracks it has, and which lineups it is in, or "not in a lineup". Press it to open it.

The Song Library with one song opened, showing a track with a player for each voice part and the Choose audio files button

An open song lists its tracks in the order of your voice parts, with All parts last. Each track shows its part, its name, its length, its size and the name of the file, with a player so that you can check it is the right recording.

Change or delete a track

To change a track's voice part or label, press its pencil, choose the part or type the label, and press the save button beside it.

To delete a track, press its bin and confirm with Delete. The audio file is removed too.

A track's audio cannot be replaced. Delete the track and upload the new file.

Change or delete a song

To change a song's title, composer or notes, press the pencil on the song, make your changes and press Save Song.

To delete a song, press the bin on the song. The question names the song and says how many tracks go with it. Press Delete. The song and all its tracks are removed, and this cannot be undone.

A song that is in a lineup cannot be deleted. The message names the lineups: remove the song from each of them first. See Build a concert lineup and publish it.

If something goes wrong

Message	What to do
Choose a voice part for each file first.	At least one file in the list still reads Voice part.... Choose its part.
That file type is not supported. Upload an MP3 or M4A (WAV files are too large; convert them first).	The file's name does not end in .mp3, .m4a, .aac, .ogg or .oga. Convert it.
File too large. Maximum size is 50MB.	The message gives the limit in force. Export the track again at a lower quality: for a rehearsal track, MP3 at 128 kbps is plenty.
That file is empty	The file has nothing in it. Export it again.
Choose which voice part the track is for	The track is filed under a part that is no longer on your list. Choose a current part.
Upload failed	The upload did not complete, often because the connection dropped. Press the upload button again; only the files still in the list are sent.
This song is in a lineup (...). Remove it from there first.	Take the song out of the lineups named, then delete it.