Masterwriter Songwriting Software Review

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(More customer reviews)At an ASCAP event two years ago, I heard Chris DuBois from SeaGayle Music rave about MasterWriter: how well it had helped organize him, how thrilled he was with how much it could do. I knew I had to check it out. Not only am I a songwriter, but until recently, my day job was designing software. I was, perhaps understandably, eager and enthusiastic to try out a songwriting application that promised so much.
MasterWriter lets you download a demo, so I did. After testing MasterWriter for several weeks, I came to the conclusion that it is almost a great product.
Unanswered Questions
I didn't learn everything I wanted to about MasterWriter during the demo period, though. My lingering issues were:
- How scalable is the database, from a speed and size perspective? I entered 89 songs and noticed that the data file didn't seem too much larger at 89 than it did at 26. But how about when I have hundreds or even thousands of songs? How much storage will I need to be able to backup the database once there are lots of songs?
- Couldn't test the import and export song feature. I was curious to know how it behaved.
Positive Findings
There was definitely plenty to like about it.
- "Audio" tab with markers and integrated lyrics view is perhaps the best part of the program.
- Separate "Sketch" tab is a great idea.
- Groups, Style, and Status listings are generously designed. 20 user-definable fields each? That's nearly overwhelming, but in a good way.
- Clearly very heavy emphasis on integrating tools such as rhyming dictionary.
- "Publishing" section (under "Song Info" tab) seems like it would be good for writers who co-write with lots of different people.
- "Songuard" tab is a good idea.
So... I Bit The $200 Bullet
I went ahead and purchased MasterWriter last year and have been using it heavily every day since. As for the questions I had from the demo, they're looking more like non-issues: the database size, at over 500 songs, is not really significantly large, and the Import/Export Song feature rarely seems useful.
Remaining Issues & My Suggested Workarounds
I do have other negative findings, though:
- My single-biggest complaint: non-modifiable printed lyrics. It might have been OK not to be able to modify the template if the built-in template were a bit better thought-out. As far as I can tell, there's no way to include contact information for the writers, and what writer wants to leave behind a lyric sheet with no contact information?
Workaround: I get around this by maintaining formal lyric sheets in a word processor template and just copy and paste from MasterWriter. Not exactly a streamlined process, but it works.
- My second-biggest complaint: not enough emphasis on the business side of songwriting. I want the ability to keep track of opportunities I've had with various songs; who's heard which songs, etc -- in a structured, searchable way.
Workaround: I get around this by maintaining a list in the Notes field for each song of the dates and people to whom I've pitched the song. I do the same in my Address Book application: everyone to whom I've pitched material has notes attached on what they've received and when. Again, it's far from streamlined, but it works.
- The Song List view, even with Groups filter, seems a little simplistic for someone with hundreds of songs (or more).
Workaround: I make the best use of Groups I can, but sometimes I need to look through all songs at once, and it can be pretty overwhelming.
- With no visible cue to Save, it's easy to forget. Disappointed that I was able to lose work by letting my computer go to sleep without having saved the changes. Either auto-save or prompt the user to save -- at a minimum, include some visual cue like a button on the screen.
Workaround: I try to remember to save as often as possible.
- Very slow to load and to shut down.
Workaround: I leave it open almost all the time. On the plus side, it doesn't consume an unreasonable amount of resources when it's sitting idle.
- Fixed-width window is annoying. At 1024 x 768, a great deal of the horizontal screen real estate just sits empty to the right of the application window. At 1440 x 900 (which is how my 17" Powerbook is set), the width of the application window appears pathetically small. I would really appreciate the ability to make better use of my screen real estate.
Workaround: None.
- No global preferences. Would like to be able to set a global preference for font in the lyrics, sketches, and other notes areas. Would still like to be able to change the font explicitly for each tab in each song, but also have the option in the global preference to override all fonts. Would like to be able to set a global preference for default writer(s) and publisher(s), and perhaps default Style and Status.
Workaround: It's possible to use "Duplicate" feature (see next comment) but I simply adjust these settings for each song.
- "Duplicate" feature seems wasteful and bloating, similar to "versioning" feature in Word. Is it necessary to create a whole second database record for a new version of the same song? Surely some more space-efficient method can be determined. Moreover, because there are no global preferences for default writers (I co-write 99% of my songs with the same partner and would prefer to have both our names appear as the default writers), it's tempting to use "Duplicate" feature to carry over settings from one song to another song with similar properties. But if you're not using "Duplicate" to create a new version of the same song, the un-editable "Duplicate Of" field (under Song Info > Song Notes) is irritating.
Workaround: Either live with the erroneous information in the "Duplicate Of" field or create a new song every time, even if it means extra steps to set up similar properties.
- Groups, Style, and Status listings are difficult to revise once populated. Need some organizational controls in the Edit window such as Move Up, Move Down, etc.
Workaround: Try to plan them out in advance. I listed mine in a spreadsheet and thought them through carefully before entering them.
- No global search. If you want to search your songs, you have to do a fielded search, such as for a term within the Song Title field. Would be much faster and more foolproof to be able to search across all text fields at once, or optionally limit to one or more fields.
Workaround: None.
Other comments and enhancement ideas:
- It would be so valuable to be able to sort the Song List by something other than title. And to be able to filter by something other than group.
- Along those lines, a search that doesn't require first selecting a field would be a vast improvement. If I'm happy and I'm looking for an existing idea to work on, let me search for the word "happy" wherever it occurs: lyrics, sketches, style, etc.
- "Song Flags" section could stand to be reorganized and renamed to something more intuitive. Basics? General? Not sure what else to suggest, but even as a semi-geeky person, "Song Flags" seems way geeky to me.
- Key, BPM, and 00:00 (running time) all seem to belong somewhere other than "Song Info" > "Song Flags," as each of these could change from one recording to another. These should probably be grouped with the "Audio" tab or under the "Recordings" section of the "Song Info" tab.
- Integrate with an address book? Either tie into an external address list or offer a full-featured contact manager. This would perfectly expand the Writer/Publisher tracking feature, and would address my earlier comment about being able to track who's seen/heard a song; who's holding it, etc. For many years, I used Act! as my primary contact manager because of the sales-oriented nature of the application. I would love to see a much lighter-weight version of Act! designed for songwriters and publishers.
- Offer an Export to Palm OS option? I used to keep all my songs in the default Memo application in my Palm, which meant they were always accessible to me. It would be great to export even just the title and lyrics to a PDB file so they could be read by Palm OS.
It's A Keeper
All in all, this product is indispensible to me, and I think its quirks are worth working around. But if even a few of my issues were addressed, this would be a five-star review.

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