What is SingAccord Song Editor?
Unlike SingAccord, in which users can only reorder sections of an imported song, SingAccord Song Editor gives users total control over every meticulous detail of a song file. If you are a music composer, editor, arranger, publisher, or online worship sheet-music retailer, Song Editor is the app for you. Song Editor does not do the other things worship leaders need, like export videos set note colors, etc... .
Song Editor, now available on the Mac App Store, requires macOS 12+
How does Song Editor fit into my workflow?
As a publisher, your engraver would have already prepared files in a major notation app like Finale, Sibelius, MuseScore, etc... All of these apps can export to a file format called, "MusicXML". Both SingAccord and SingAccord Song Editor can import MusicXML, but only Song Editor can fix all the little things MusicXML can't include or errors that engravers gloss over.
Song Editor then saves the song in a format called "SingAccord Song", (*.singaccordsong), and you would then distribute these *singaccordsong files to your customers. When a *.singaccordsong file is opened in SingAccord, it appears identically to how it looked in Song Editor, so your quality assurance process can be sure how every feature will show up in SingAccord. You can, of course, start a new song from scratch, but my guess is you won't want to start from zero.
Song Editor then saves the song in a format called "SingAccord Song", (*.singaccordsong), and you would then distribute these *singaccordsong files to your customers. When a *.singaccordsong file is opened in SingAccord, it appears identically to how it looked in Song Editor, so your quality assurance process can be sure how every feature will show up in SingAccord. You can, of course, start a new song from scratch, but my guess is you won't want to start from zero.
Why is Editing the songs important?
There is this one critical important feature that mere MusicXML can't cut. Worship leaders want to be able to reorder the sections of songs. With just lyrics on slides, the existence of pickup beats wasn't an issue. The people putting the slide shows together worked with the songs on that basis, and 5/6 of them can't read traditional music notation.
However, SingAccord needs to be able to stitch the song together correctly when these same people drag sections of songs into order. So it needs meticulous information about pick ups beats, when they change from section to section.
For traditional song forms, the number of pickup beats remains constant throughout the song. However, in modern song forms, the number of pickup beats can change from section to section. While engravers could put double bar lines (or dotted bar lines) in the middle of a measure to indicate a section change,... they just don't. They say things like "musicians can use musician's intuition to figure this out". Well... it turns out musician's intuition depends on understanding the context of the meanings of the lyrics, and that is ... hard... for a computer. So... Song Editor is the tool the publishers can use to put this information into the song so that SingAccord users can use it directly.
However, SingAccord needs to be able to stitch the song together correctly when these same people drag sections of songs into order. So it needs meticulous information about pick ups beats, when they change from section to section.
For traditional song forms, the number of pickup beats remains constant throughout the song. However, in modern song forms, the number of pickup beats can change from section to section. While engravers could put double bar lines (or dotted bar lines) in the middle of a measure to indicate a section change,... they just don't. They say things like "musicians can use musician's intuition to figure this out". Well... it turns out musician's intuition depends on understanding the context of the meanings of the lyrics, and that is ... hard... for a computer. So... Song Editor is the tool the publishers can use to put this information into the song so that SingAccord users can use it directly.
How do I get started?
SingAccord Song Editor is free. It requires macOS 12 or later. Download it on the Mac App Store. There is extensive in-app help.