Musician looking for a bass player/orchestra...

[thesoundsmith]

Hi, all. I currently use an iPod Touch to play custom audio backing tracks to support live performance. It works well for the purpose, but there are several problems, which can readily be solved by a bigger screen. Thus, I am interested in an iPad, even though I find it missing a LOT of what I want in such a device (camera on-board, built-in support to stand upright, for starters.) But I have PDF files of my Real Books, and I could save many pounds of carrying (plus have an active search function) by displaying them here.

So my questions to the group at large are:

What's the best PDF reader with (emphasis on graphic quality?)
What are the chances Apple will include a camera in the next hardware update?
Apple is going to be pushing the USB audio input hard for awhile. What can I expect from it? And when?

How do I get it to stand on end in PORTRAIT mode (for reading charts) while still using the audio output? (Ultimate goal - play an audio track while reading the PDF chart it goes with...)

Other than that, I am happy to answer questions about music performance with these beasts...

 

[Adcox]

The best PDF reader in my opinion is one called GoodReader. Purchase that app. then purchase this iPad mic. stand accessory and your in business!
criskenna.com

 

[thesoundsmith]

Thanks, Adcox. I already use GoodReader, it's a bit clumsy, but does the job adequately. That is a very cool iPad mic stand, but I just set it on the piano with a photo stand, works great.

What I am really waiting for, is the OS update for multitasking, so I can play the song with one app (PlayOnCue) and read the sheet with another (GR, for now)...

I miss a simple way to lay out the page 2-up in landscape, if GR has this option I have not found it. But for most of the time, I can do just what I need, though I spent a LONG time creating a composite, searchable index of the 29 fakebooks (thank goodness I know Excel, the Great Gig Book index is totally screwy...)

 

[thesoundsmith]

AND, for what it's worth for ANY MUSICIAN reading this - if you don't hve it, run out and get iRealBook. It's 9.99, but you will want to add the $5.99 Jazz Styles pack.

What you get - an app that displays chord changes for over 900 songs, instantly transposable to any key - and now with the new 3.0 update, it also can play the tracks with piano, bass and drums. I can now play any swing tune and many of the Latin pieces (no waltzes or rock yet) live at my piano bar gig and have a not-great, but way better than none rhythm section (I turn off the piano and cut the drums WAY back, they're too busy, but it sure is COOL!)

Perfect for any musician that wants to practice improv, pick a piece and style, tell it how many choruses and go for it...

(I'm proseletyzing because users can add their own songs and share, so the more users, the more free tunes.

 

[Adcox]

GoodReader just came out with a major update last night. You can now make annotations including notes, highlights, markups and even drawings. That's really going to help! Making corrections to charts at rehearsal is something that couldn't be done until now. I don't think our group has played a chart yet that hasn't had some sort of change made to it.

Ahh... I understand what you mean by multitasking now. That will be nice. I think I read that the iPad will get multitasking sometime in November.

If your songs are mp3's or if you can change them to mp3's you can play them with the iPad's iPod player while reading your charts using GoodReader or any other PDF reader. Unfortunately the iPad's iPod player is the only thing that will multitask at this time.

November can't come fast enough!

 

[donnacm]

OK-- I am wanting to do the same thing!!! Any progress. I have a small gig tomorrow and put my backing tracks in the IPAD... concerned about hitting a button by mistake to start etc.... But I think I am going to just do play list and not have to stop? Will try in morning.... Just download REALBOOK.... excited to try that out. I ended up making some of my own backing tracks but takes forever!

D

 

[donsch1]

Hi, most of the items in this list are last year, and the iPad 2 in now available, it looks like it would do a good job for backing tracks, (although still has no input for external drives to increase the capacity). t I also want to be able to view charts whilst playing tracks. Anyone had any experience on this?? any info would be appreciated.

 

[jazzranch]

stoopid OCD workaround

Hi. Just saw your various posts re using ipad for live performances. I use GB to compose backing tracks (laborious but less hassle than negotiating with my fellow knotheaded musicians). I tend to forget lyrics especially at the beginning of a set when I'm a little nervous. I definitely empathize with the multi-tasking dilemma. Two possible options (still in the arm-waving stage of development): 1. create a slide show of lyrics that changes slides at appropriate intervals, using your backing track as background music. 2. (the one I'm going to explore): give each song in the backing track a unique album name (perhaps the name of the song) and create "album art" that has clues to charts or lyrics. It would show on your ipad as the music plays and would change as each song changes. In either case it really helps to be absolutely out of your mind with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Cheers and good luck!

 

[jazzranch]

works, sorta

tried the album artwork idea per previous post. works more or less on my iphone. iphone has tiny screen compared to ipad but still useable for backing tracks and lyric/chart prompter. here's how:

create your lyrics or chart notes in a word processor like Word.
use 48 point type in something easy to read. Arial works great. Separate verses with smaller empty line in 9 pt font to save space.
Change your document settings so document is 11x11 inches.
Change borders to .25 all four sides.

STRIP CONTENT DOWN TO ESSENTIALS. I just use keywords and rhymes as memory device.

cut and paste the text into an image editor like Photoshop or (on Mac) Acorn. Save as jpeg.

Open your backing track in itunes, select Get Info, select Artwork, click Add at bottom of window and select your jpeg file.

That's it...

I stuck fuzzy velcro on the back of my itouch leather case and put sticky velcro on the mic stand. buy a long stereo male to double rca male output, plug into the pa and push go.

oh yeah, you can have different artwork for every song, so no need to give each song a unique album name. Have fun!

 

[donsch1]

Thanks Jazzranch much food for thought there, I had actually given up on the ipad (shock horror) and I am using a 12" laptop. Sounds like your ideas would work on that as well. will give it a go and see what happens..... obsessive compulsive stuff for sure. I may wait for the ipad 3?

 

[jazzranch]

you're welcome

it actually works pretty well on my tiny iphone (I mistakenly called it an itouch in the post). Should work great on ipad with the larger screen. Btw, when does the 3 come out? Any rumored improvements?