Refrain

An instrument for leading worship in a room that has no budget, no booth, and nobody to call.

Support

Something is wrong and it is Sunday

Start here. These are the four things that go wrong most, in the order they usually happen.

The Stage is empty and I have songs

Refrain reads charts from a folder you choose, and it does not choose one for you. Open Backstage, then Song Catalog, and point it at the folder your charts are actually in.

If the songs are there but the Stage is still empty, you have opened a set without loading it. Opening a set shows you what is in it. Loading it puts those songs on the Stage.

The Apple TV cannot find my iPad

Both devices have to be on the same Wi-Fi network. A guest network and a main network in the same building count as two networks, and this is the usual cause.

Refrain also needs Local Network permission on the iPad. If you said no the first time it asked, turn it on in the iPad's Settings, under Refrain.

The foot pedal does nothing

Pair the pedal in the iPad's own Bluetooth settings first, not in Refrain. Once iOS knows about it, open Backstage, then Rig, and Refrain will show you what it is receiving when you press.

If it moves the wrong way, that is worth reporting rather than working around. Tell us the make and model and we will add it.

The song is in the wrong key

Tap the song title at the top of the chart. Key, capo and tempo are all there.

A capo is personal to your device and is never sent to anyone following you. The key is shared, because everyone should be playing in the same one.

Still stuck

Write to a person

curb47@gmail.com

Refrain is made by one person, so a reply may take a day. It helps enormously if you include:

  • What device you were using, and what it was doing
  • Whether it happened in Practice or during a live set
  • The chart itself, if a song is what went wrong

Two things worth knowing

What Refrain does not do

It does not supply songs. Refrain reads chart files you already have, from a folder you already keep. It does not host songs, sell them, index them, or share them with anyone. What you do about licensing the songs your church sings is between you and your publisher, exactly as it was before.

It does not collect anything about you. There is no account, no sign in, and no analytics. The full detail is on the privacy page.