JazzDiscography.com - Discographies prepared with BRIAN

Sessions

The Sessions window has 3 sections: session, performances, and performers. The session sections contains data fields relating to the overall session date. The performer section contains the fields to add performances and data associated with each performance to the session. The performers section contains fields used to add performers to each performance.

While in read mode, only the date field of the session record section can accept data. Entering a valid date in the date field and pressing tab will cause Brian to display the session nearest, but not previous, to that date. The Sessions window illustration, Figure 1, shows the window with the session section in read mode with the performance section on display. Figure 2 shows the Sessions window in read mode with the performers section on display.

Fig. 1 - Sessions window with performances on display.

Fields in sessions section:

Date	The date the session took place.
ca.	Clicking this checkbox will indicate that the date entered for the session in approximate. This checkbox will be used to add a "ca." to the date on reports if a Text Date is not entered. Using the Text Date is recommended over using the Circa checkbox.
Title	Some discographers like to create a title for the session. Often times the title of the album created during the session is used for the session title.
Text Date	This date field will only show up on generated reports. It is used when a session date needs to be identified by a non-standard date such as "late summer" or "first week of March". This field is optional, but if used the Date field must also be filled in for sorting purposes. This is a handy feature if you have several sessions where you don't know the exact date but do know the sequential order. Use the Date field to enter exact dates to create the order and then use the text date field to enter something like "late February". Only the text "late February" will appear on any session reports but the individual sessions will be ordered according to the Date field.
Venue	The studio where the session took place.
City	The city where the studio is located.
Label	The original label for which the session was contracted. Label is a lookup field. When in edit mode the Sessions window will only accept a label name that has been previously entered using the Labels window.
Type	The type of session. This popup can be modified by using the Edit-->Set Popups option. When the window is in read mode, the popup is not operable.
Last Update	This is a read-only field that displays the date/time stamp of the last update to the session record. In addition to updates made via the Session window, this includes any updates made via the Session Sidemen and Add Performances windows.
No Exceptions	If this box is checked, the Session Report will not report on personnel exceptions for this session. Some sessions have exceptions that do not report well using the standard exception layout used by the Session Report program. In this case, it is better to format the exceptions manually in the Session Notes.
Notes only	If this box is checked, the session record will be used as a place holder for general notes and no performances can be entered. Read more about this in the Sessions - Notes Only section.
Flagged	Turning on this checkbox will mark the session as flagged. What it can be flagged for is up to the discographer. It will provide a useful tool to report on sessions for a variety of reasons. Most likely, the flag status can be a way for discographers to mark sessions that need more work. (At this time, the report on flagged sessions does not exist. It is planned in future development.)
No Reports	If this box is checked, the session will not apprear on any of the generated reports.

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Buttons in sessions section:

Left arrow	Use this button to navigate to the previous (in chronological order) session record.
Right arrow	Use this button to navigate to the next (in chronological order) session record.
New Session	Use this button to put the window into a mode that will allow adding a new session. When this button is pressed, all fields will be blanked, and the Edit and Delete buttons will be changed to Save and Cancel respectively and the window will be reduced in size to only show the sessions section. Once the fields are entered, pressing the Save button will commit the new session to the database. Pressing Cancel will revert the window back to the state it had before New was pressed. No changes will be saved.
Edit Session	Use this button to put the window into a mode that will allow modifying a session. When this button is pressed the Edit and Delete buttons will be changed to Save and Cancel respectivelyand the window will be reduced in size to only show the sessions section. Once the fields are modified, pressing the Save button will commit the changes to the database. Pressing Cancel will revert the window back to the state it had before Edit was pressed. No changes will be saved.
Delete Session	Pressing this button will remove the session from the database. This action is unrecoverable.
List Sessions	This button is a dropdown containing various selections for listing sessions. Selecting an item in this list will cause a window to open containing a list of the sessions that fit the criteria of the selection.
Export Session	This button will export the session data into an XML file that can be used to import the data into a different Brian database.
Display Session	This button will pop open a new window displaying all the information regarding the session as displayed in the generated session report.

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Sessions - Edit Mode

Below is a graphic of the Sessions window as it appears when the Edit button is pressed. The window will look the same when the New button is pressed except that all fields will be blank.

Session window when new button is pressed.

Buttons (in edit mode):

Save Session	The Edit button is converted to the Save button when the window is in edit mode. Once the fields are modified, pressing the Save button will commit the changes to the database.
Cancel New/Cancel Edit	The Delete button is converted to the Cancel button when the window is in edit mode. The label will be Cancel New if the New Session button was pressed or Cancel Edit if the Edit Session button was pressed. Pressing Cancel will revert the window back to the state it had before the New Session or Edit Session button was pressed. No changes will be saved.
Left arrow near Labels field	The Labels field becomes a lookup field when the window is in edit mode. Use this button to navigate to the previous (in alphabetical order) label record.
Right arrow near Labels field	The Labels field becomes a lookup field when the window is in edit mode. Use this button to navigate to the next (in alphabetical order) label record.

All other buttons are inactive when the window is in edit mode.

Performances section of Sessions window

Use the Performances section of the Sessions window to add or edit performances. The Session Performances section of the window uses the 2 step edit mode.

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Fields in the Performances section:

Song	Song is a lookup field. Only songs previously entered in the Songs window can be used in this field. Type the leading significant characters of the title and watch as the select list below the Song field will display the entries that match. Select one of these. As each song title is displayed in the field, the writers of the song are also displayed in the composer list-box to the right below the Song field.
Timing	Enter the hours/minutes/seconds timing for the track. These are optional and default to 00 if not entered. On tabbing out of the Song field, the cursor will jump to the minutes portion of the timing field. This is because the hours portion is so seldomly used. But, if hours are needed, use the mouse to click on that field or press the shift key while pressing tab when the text cursor is in the minutes portion of the timing field.
Matrix	The matrix number is a number that is sometimes assigned to a take during a session. Here it is an optional field.
Take	This popup field is used to select the type of take for the performance. This popup can be modified by using the Edit-->Set Popups option.

Buttons:

Buttons become active depending on the state of the window. The Add button is active anytime a valid song is displayed in the Song field. The Remove, Change, and Move buttons are only active when a song is selected in the performances list-box.

Add Performance	Pressing this button will add a performance to the session. Fill in the fields with information on the performance and then click on the ADD button. The song will then be added to the session and appear in the list box.
Remove Performance	Pressing this button will remove the performance selected in the performances list-box from the session. A prompt will appear to verify that the remove is correct. Press REMOVE to confirm or CANCEL to cancel the remove. Only performances that are not linked to any issue can be deleted.
Edit Performance	This button will change data for a performance. To change data for a performance, first select it from the list. This will automatically fill the text fields with information stored for the performance. Change whichever data needs changing - the song title, timing, take type - and then press the change button to apply the changes.
Move Performance	This button will move a performance - and the associated sidemen - to another session. To proceed, first select the performance to be moved in the performances list-box. Then press the Move button. Pressing the button will cause a new list-box window to appear containing an entry for every session in the database. Scroll to the target session for the performance and double click the entry. A prompt window will appear to confirm the move. Press the MOVE button to confirm the move or the CANCEL button to cancel the move. Pressing the Move button will cause the performance to be moved to the session. Along witht the performance, all the sidemen associated with the performance will be added to the target session.

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Changing the order of performances

Performances are listed in the order they are entered. To change the order, click on a performance entry in the list-box and drag it to order placement desired. Brian will automatically renumber the performances to reflect the new order.

Designating performances as part of a medley

To designate two of more performances as sections of a medley, first select the performances. Do by holding down the Command (apple) key (Ctrl key on Windows) and clicking on each performance that is part of the medley. When two or more performances are selected, the Medley button will become visible in the window. Click on the button and all selected performances will be marked with an identical medley indicator.

Removing a medley designation

Clicking on any performance that is designated as part of a medley will cause the Medley button to appear in the window. Press that button and the selected performance will have its medley designation removed.

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Performers section of Sessions window

Fig. 2 - Sessions window with performers on display.

Use the Performers section of the Sessions window to add or remove performers. The Session Performers section of the window uses the 2 step edit mode.

The SESSION PERFORMERS window has 3 list boxes. The left box lists all performers that played on any performance during the session. The upper right box lists only the performers for the performance selected in the performance list box. The lower right box is the select list for the person lookup field.

Fields in the Performers section:

Person	Person is a lookup field. Only persons previously entered in the PERSONNEL window can be used in this field. Type the leading significant characters of the last name of the person and watch as the select list to the right of the field will display entries that match. Select one of these.
Skill	Skill is a display field. If a skill was entered for the person in the PERSONNEL window, it will appear in this field.
Playing	Enter the abbreviation for the instrument played by the person. Only instruments already entered in the INSTRUMENTS window can be entered here. After tabbing out of this field, the popup to the left of this field will change to the corresponding full name for the instrument.
Playing popup	Instead of typing the instrument abbreviation in the Playing field, this popup can be used to select an instrument. When an instrument is selected via the popup, the corresponding abbreviation will appear in the Playing field.

Buttons:

Add Person to Performance	Once a performer is entered in the Person field, use the ADD button to the right of the Person field to add that person to whichever performance is selected in the performance list-box. If a person plays multiple instruments during a performance, then enter the performer twice - once for each instrument. It is not possible to enter a performer twice with the same instrument. Performers can only be added to a performance. The performer is, by default, added to the session only after being added to a performance.
Add Selected>	Once a performer is entered via the Add button to one performance, the Add Selected button is used to add the performer to other performers on the session. First select the performance being added to, then select the performer (or performers - use the Ctrl key in Windows or the Cmd (Apple) key on the Mac) to be added to the performance. Pressing the Add Selected button will add the performers to the performance and to the performance personnel list on the right.
<Remove Sel.	Removing performers from a performance is just like adding. Select the performance and then select the performer(s) to be removed from the Performance list-box. Pressing the Remove Sel. button will remove the performer(s) from the performance and the list. If the person being removed is not on any other performance, his name is removed from the Session Personnel list also.
Add All>>	Using the Add All button will add all performers listed in the Session Personnel list to be added to the performance. This button is only active if the target performance has no personnel added to it. Typically, a discographer will add all the personnel involved in the session to one performance of the session and then use the Add All button to propogate the personnel to the other performances of the session. Then, one can go back and selective remove personnel that may be "sitting out" on one or more performances.
<<Remove All	Using the Remove All button will remove all personnel from the selected performance.
Import	The Import button will retrieve personnel information from a different session and add it to the selected performance. This button will only activate if there are no personnel entries made for the active session. Select any performance from the Performance list-box and press Import. A window containing a list of all sessions will appear. Scroll to the session importing from and double click the entry. This will cause all personnell that are on the importing session to be copied to the selected performance.

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Notes section of Sessions window

Fig. 2 - Sessions window with notes on display.

Fields:

Session notes	This is a free form notes field for the session that can be displayed in reports.
Work notes	This notes field is for private notes regarding the session. This field will not be included in any reports intended for public display. At this time, there is no report in Brian that includes this field, but in the future it may be included in some kind of work report.
Source notes	This notes field is for source notes regarding the session. This field will be included in reports intended for public display.

Buttons:

Edit	Each Notes fields has an associated Edit button. Press the Edit button to bring up a text window that will allow adding or editing the notes. When finished adding or editing the notes, press Save to save the entries to the database.