PraiseAV Help

Media and slides

Music and audio

PraiseAV can play music through the computer’s sound output, usually a cable to the sound desk.

Music and audio, in the right-hand column

Walk-in music

  1. Put your music in the Media tab, in Music and Audio (click + Add videos, pictures or music).
  2. Click Music and Audio, then ▶ Play all. The tracks play one after another.

Or click one track and ▶ Play now.

Controlling it

Open Music and audio in the right-hand column:

The top line always says what’s playing and how long is left.

Spotify (or another music app)

Many churches play a Spotify playlist before and after the service, and for quiet moments during it. Keep using Spotify: PraiseAV works it for you, so nobody has to switch away during a service.

  1. Open Spotify on the PraiseAV computer and start a playlist (for example “Pre-service”). Spotify can sit behind PraiseAV, or be minimised.
  2. In PraiseAV, the ♪ music strip in the top bar shows the song that’s playing, with ❚❚ (pause), ▶ (play) and Fade out (or Fade in) always to hand.
  3. Click the song for all the controls:
    • Fade out: turns it down gently, then pauses. Use it as the service begins, or after a reflective moment.
    • ▶ Fade in: starts quietly and comes up gently.
    • ❚❚ Pause and ▶ Play: straight away.
    • Next song ▶▶: skips to the next one.
    • The Spotify volume slider changes only Spotify, not PraiseAV’s videos or the rest of the computer.

Background music also says where the sound is going: this computer’s speakers, a USB sound box (usually the sound desk), or a screen. If it’s going to a screen (a projector or a monitor, whose speakers are often off), it warns you in orange. Choose where it should go in Sound goes to. That moves all this computer’s sound, PraiseAV’s videos too, so it’s the one place to set it.

PraiseAV also fades it out by itself:

Untick either one in Background music if you don’t want it.

It works with other music apps too (for example a playlist in a web browser), but Spotify is the one it looks for first.

Music licences: Spotify’s own terms are for personal listening. Playing recorded music in church can need a music licence (rules for worship differ from events and cafés, and from country to country). Ask your denomination or your CCLI or music licence provider.

Music in the service

Drag a music file from the Media tab into the service, for example a track for the offering. It shows with a Music label. Click it and press the big ▶ Play button. The screens don’t change, so you can play music under a slide.

Backing tracks and videos

If the band is away, a song can have a backing track (an MP3, say) or a video (a worship video of a band playing) that plays when the song goes on screen.

  1. Add the music or video in the Media tab.
  2. In the Songs tab, choose the song and click Edit song.
  3. Under Backing track or video, choose the file. Save.

When the song goes on screen, the track or video starts from the beginning. A video plays behind the words, with its sound, so everyone can sing along, like a karaoke video. When you move on to the next item, it stops.

For a video there’s a quicker way: in the Media tab, click the video, then Sing along with a song… and choose the song. See Media.

A week when the band plays it live? Above the song’s slides, untick Play the backing track (or Play the backing video). The song is then just the words, moved with Next as usual. It only changes that service.

The words can also move on by themselves in time with the track or video: see Timed words.

The sound

Music plays through Windows’ default sound output. To choose which (say, the headphone socket to the sound desk, or the HDMI to the projector), click the speaker icon by the clock at the bottom right of Windows.

Videos’ sound comes from the congregation screen’s window, through the same output.