My Ideas is your personal scratchpad for riffs, melodies, lyric scraps and voice memos. Record a take the moment it comes to you, and The Band Plan files it for you. When an idea is ready, turn it into a song for your setlists.
Sessions organize your ideas for you
You never have to file anything. Every take goes into a session: one per day, created automatically. Instead of scrolling through a flat list of hundreds of "New Idea" takes, you find your work by when you made it, like "that late July session."
- A session day runs from 5 am to 5 am in your local time, so a 2 am take still belongs to the night before.
- Recording from a session page always puts the take in that session.
- Imported voice memos are sorted into sessions by each file's date (see Import voice memos).
Give a session a name (for example, "The first takes of What Was That?") and it becomes even easier to find later.
Get around
- My Ideas (in your profile header, or from your profile page) opens your session cards: one card per session, newest first. Your profile page shows only the latest three, so use My Ideas or View all to see them all.
- Each card shows the date and name, how many audio and video takes it has, its groups, and any songs that came out of it. It plays your starred takes, or the most recent take if nothing is starred yet. Hover over a card for a quick summary. Click Open session to work in it.
- On a session page, the strip of sessions across the top lets you jump straight to any other session. Session Cards takes you back to the full grid of cards.
- Starred sessions shows only sessions that have a starred take.
- All ideas lists every take in one place, with search and filters (see All ideas). By session takes you back to the cards.
Record a take
- Record Idea or Record Video (on My Ideas or in your profile header) opens today's session and starts recording straight away.
- On any session page, use the Record panel on the right: Record audio, Record video or Upload file. Click Stop & save when you're done.
Recordings can be up to 4 hours of audio or 2 hours of video.
Name it by voice
As soon as you stop a take, a Name it box pops up with an 8-second countdown. Click Tap to speak and just say what it is ("slow chorus idea in G", "Dave's riff"), then Done. Your hands can stay on your instrument.
You can also type a name. Tapping the name field stops the clock so you can take your time. On iPad Safari, tap the field and use the microphone on the keyboard instead.
If you let the clock run out, the take keeps a placeholder name like "New Idea 48 - 2:49 AM", and you can name it later.
Name things as you go
Names are what make your ideas easy to find months from now. A few words is enough:
- Takes: what it is ("verse riff, capo 2", "faster version").
- Sessions: what the day was about ("First takes of What Was That?", "Cabin weekend").
- Groups: the song or idea they belong to ("Bridge ideas", "Horny").
Every name field has a mic button, so you can say a name instead of typing it. Unnamed takes show up faded with "Name this take", so they're easy to spot and catch up on later. In All ideas, the Unnamed takes filter lists them all.
Work in a session
- Name the session by clicking "Click to name this session" at the top, or on its session card. The mic button lets you say it instead.
- Name a take by clicking its title, or say it with the mic.
- Add notes (lyrics scraps, capo, try this next…) on each take. Spoken notes are added to the end of what's there.
- Star the takes you like. Stars drive the session card's player and the Starred sessions filter.
- Delete a take with its trash button.
Groups
Groups collect takes that belong together, like different parts or versions of the same idea.
- Drag one ungrouped take onto another to make a group. It's named after the take you dropped onto.
- Or click New group in the Groups panel, then drag takes into it.
- Move a take with Move to group on its card, or drag it into or out of a group. Drag takes within a group to reorder them.
- Click a group's name to rename it. The arrow button jumps to that group in the takes list.
- The trash button deletes a group. Its takes stay in the session, ungrouped.
Groups belong to one session.
Move takes to another session
If a take landed on the wrong day:
- On the take's page, under Recording info, use Move to another session…
- Or in All ideas, tick Select, choose the takes, pick a session (or Today) under Move to session… and click Move.
Moved takes keep their original recording date, and come out of any group they were in.
All ideas
All ideas lists every take. You can:
- Search titles, notes, session names and song titles.
- Filter by media (audio, video, no recording), status (starred, converted to a song, named or unnamed takes) and session.
- Move several takes at once to another session (see above).
The idea page
Click Open on a take to see its page. From here you can:
- Play it or Download it.
- Edit the title and notes.
- Share copies a link anyone can use to listen and download, without an account.
- Amplify makes a louder copy of an audio take as a new take in the same session.
- Compress a WebM video to MP4 with Start Compression, which saves about 75% of its space and lets it play on Safari and iOS. Download the original first if you want to keep it.
- Add a recording to an idea that doesn't have one with Record Audio, Record Video or Upload/Import (a file, or a direct download link up to 500 MB).
- New Idea starts a fresh take in today's session.
Import voice memos
Got a pile of riffs in Voice Memos? Click Import memos on My Ideas.
- Get the files onto a device you can browse from:
- iPhone: in Voice Memos, select the takes, then Share → Save to Files (or AirDrop them to your computer).
- Android: share or copy the memos from your recorder app into a folder you can reach.
- Drop the files (or the whole folder) onto the page. mp3, m4a, wav, aac and more are accepted, up to 500 MB each.
- Choose how to sort them:
- One session per recording day (the default) uses each file's date. That's the date the file was last saved, so copying files in a way that changes their dates will put them all on one day.
- All into today's session
- All into one named session
- Optional:
- Skip titles that already match my songs leaves out memos named after songs you already have in your profile or bands.
- Group similar names puts "Riff 1", "Riff 2" and "Riff Part 3" into a group called "Riff".
- Confirm you have the rights and click Import memos.
Each filename becomes the take's title, so you can rename and group afterwards.
Turn an idea into a song
When an idea is ready, open its page, enter a Song Title (and an artist if it's a cover) and click Create This Song. If you already have a song with a similar title, you're asked whether to create a new song or add this take to the existing one.
The song goes into your song collection and the take becomes its first recording, so you can trim it, normalize it and use it in setlists. The idea stays in its session, marked as converted, with a link to the song.
Delete an idea
Use the trash button on a take, or Delete Idea on its page. This can't be undone. If the idea has become a song, the recording stays with the song.
Band ideas
Bands have their own shared Ideas, organized into sessions the same way. See Band ideas. A take you recorded in a band can be moved here with To my profile.
Your idea recordings count toward your storage.
