Song Steps

Song steps let you divide a song into sections — Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, Outro — each with its own MIDI settings, tempo, backing track, and MIDI clip. During performance, you navigate through steps within a song, and everything switches automatically.

This is especially useful for keyboard players who need different patches per section, or for bands that use backing tracks and click tracks with section-specific automation.

Where Steps Live

Open a song in the editor and go to the Song Automations tab. Every song starts with a single step, so there is nothing to switch on — a one-step song simply behaves like a song without sections. Add a second step and per-section automation starts working.

The tab shows a step strip across the top — one chip per step with its tempo and MIDI count at a glance — and an inspector below it for the selected step. Changes save automatically.

Creating Steps

Tap Add Step at the end of the strip and choose:

• Create New Step — Define a new section from scratch
• Reuse an existing step — Add a step you already created again (the same step can appear multiple times in the sequence)

Each step has a name (e.g., “Verse 1”, “Chorus”) and a position in the sequence. The ⋮ menu on a chip renames, moves (Move Earlier / Move Later), duplicates, removes, or deletes it; with a mouse you can also drag chips to reorder.

Note

Reusing steps is useful for repeating sections. If your song goes Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus, create one “Verse” step and one “Chorus” step, then add each twice. They share the same MIDI settings and tempo, so changes apply everywhere.

Step Settings

Each step can be configured independently:

Patches

Assign different MIDI program changes per step in the Patches section of the inspector (shown when Show MIDI Controls is on in Settings > Personal > MIDI). When you advance to a step, each device receives its own program change — your keyboard loads a different patch, your guitar rig switches presets, all at once.

Tempo

Set a per-step tempo (BPM). If left empty, the step uses the song’s tempo. For gradual tempo changes, set a transition duration — the tempo ramps smoothly instead of jumping. Measure the ramp in seconds or in bars, so it resolves musically against the time signature and tempo.

For example: a bridge that drops from 130 BPM to 110 BPM over 4 bars.

MIDI Clips

Upload a .mid file per step. Configure whether it auto-plays when the step starts or waits for manual trigger, and set loop behavior (single shot, 2x, 4x, 8x, or infinite loop). You can also target a specific MIDI device for clip playback.

Backing Tracks

Upload audio backing tracks per step with the same auto-trigger and loop options as MIDI clips, plus per-step tempo and pitch — slow a section down or shift its key without touching the rest of the song. See Backing Tracks.

Auto-Advance

Enable auto-advance to progress to the next step automatically after a set number of measures. This requires the click track to be running so the app knows where you are in the bar. A higher-pitched count-in tick sounds on the beats before the change — turn it off with Count-In Click in Settings > Personal > Audio.

Configure:

• Duration (measures) — How many bars before advancing
• Transition timing — When to trigger the switch:
  • Immediate — Jump right away
  • On measure boundary — Wait for the next downbeat
  • On beat boundary — Wait for the next beat

TTS Announcements

When using auto-advance with a click track, Gigmeister can announce the upcoming step name through text-to-speech in your earpiece. Per step, you can override this to always announce, never announce, or follow the global setting.

Navigating Steps During Performance

In performance mode, the song’s steps appear as a strip in the song view, with the current step highlighted.

Touch / Mouse: Tap a step card to jump to it.

Keyboard shortcuts:

• Left/Right arrows — Previous/next step
• Spacebar — Next step
• Home — Jump to first step
• A — Toggle auto-advance

Foot pedal: Map the “Next Step” action in the Controls section of the Devices tab. When you’re on the last step, “Next Step” advances to the next song.

Example

A song with steps might look like this:

Step	Tempo	MIDI (Keys)	MIDI (Guitar)	Measures	Auto-advance
Intro	120	Synth Pad	Clean	4	Yes
Verse 1	120	Rhodes	Clean	8	Yes
Chorus	125	Piano + Strings	Overdrive	8	Yes
Verse 2	120	Rhodes	Clean	8	Yes
Chorus	125	Piano + Strings	Overdrive	8	Yes
Bridge	110	Organ	Tremolo	4	Yes
Outro	120	Synth Pad	Clean	8	No

With auto-advance enabled and a click track running, the band plays through the song and every patch change, tempo shift, and backing track trigger happens automatically.