Even Realities G2 for musicians

Most people buy display glasses, use them for a week of notifications and translation, and then leave them in a drawer. If you play music, there is one use that survives the novelty: the words in front of you while your hands stay on the instrument and your eyes stay on the room.

What the G2 is, honestly

A pair of glasses that look like glasses, with a small text display in the lens. One colour, text only, no camera, no video. That sounds limiting until you notice that words are exactly what a performer needs and a picture is not.

They are comfortable enough to wear for a whole set, which is the part that actually decides whether a piece of gear gets used. And because nobody can see the display from the outside, nobody in the room knows you are reading anything.

What it fixes on stage

Every other answer to "I need the words in front of me" puts something between you and the audience. A music stand, a tablet, a phone taped to a mic stand. You look down, the room sees you look down, and the connection you came for goes with it.

• Head up. The line you are singing is in your eyeline, not below your chin.
• Hands free. Nothing to swipe, nothing to stomp, unless you want a pedal.
• No stand. One less thing to carry, set up and knock over.
• Nobody knows. There is no glowing screen on stage with you.

Running a set through the glasses

The software side is QMe Prompter: a plugin on the glasses, your songs on your phone. Once the two are paired:

• The line you are on, and what is coming. The lens shows the current line with the next few under it, so you are never surprised by a verse.
• Chords over the words. Where the chord is played, not in a separate block.
• It moves on its own. Voice Follow listens and keeps pace with you, so a stretched line or a repeated chorus does not throw it. Tempo scroll and a foot pedal are there if you prefer to drive.
• The whole set, not one song. Browse your setlists on the lens, move song to song, with the set cached so a dead venue wifi changes nothing.
• Sections marked. A marker in the gutter tells you a new section has started, so you know where you are without reading a header.

Setting it up, once

1. Put your songs in QMeFree from the App Store. Type them, import ChordPro files or a PDF chart, or pull a Planning Center plan straight in.
2. Install the QMe plugin on the glassesIt is on Even Realities' own app hub, the same place you get any G2 app.
3. Pair from QMeOpen Glasses Mode in QMe and follow the pairing step. Pairing needs QMe Pro, and the 30 day trial covers it.
4. Run one song at home firstPick how it should scroll, sing it through once in the kitchen, and you will know exactly what the gig will feel like.

One thing worth doing before you walk on: put the glasses in Focus mode. Notifications during a song are exactly as distracting as they sound.

What it will not do

• Sheet music. The display is text. If you read dots, this is the wrong tool.
• Long lines without wrapping. There is only so much width, so a very long lyric line wraps to the next.
• Work without your phone. The phone runs the show, the glasses show it.
• Replace a monitor mix or a click. It shows words, that is the job.

Is it worth it

If you play from memory and only lose the odd verse, probably not. If you play long sets, dep gigs, function work, worship, or anything where the material changes every week, it pays for itself the first time you walk on without a stand and still know every word.

Questions G2 owners ask