Turn The Page

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

Now that I have the attention of at least half a dozen Rush fans (😂)....

Don’t slate me; just hear me out first....then slate me.

After last months ‘learn a whole set in 8 days for a dep gig’ saga, I’ve signed up to help out a fellow Basschatter with a gig for his tribute band next month. Whilst I am familiar with about 75% of the set to listen to, I’ve probably only played a handful of the songs before and only two or three of them recently. Due to commitments with my own two bands, a large charity event for which I’m learning another different set and the other bits I’m doing, my head feels like it’s about to go pop and I’ve decided I’m going to write everything out for this one.

To that end, I have nearly finished writing out the whole set and some of the songs stretch to three of four pages. When I do read to play, I use On Song on an iPad Pro but have never used anything more than basic notes on a single A4. Can anyone recommend a good page turner that will definitely work with that app and my device. There seems to be quite a few on the market, but you can’t beat a Basschat recommendation.

Commence slating.

[missis sumner]

I thought you were talking about this:

http://www.openculture.com/2016/04/hear-oscar-wildes-the-happy-prince-performed-by-orson-welles-bing-crosby-on-christmas-eve-1944.html

[steantval]

I thought this thread was going to be about either Bob Seger or Metallica.

[gt4ever]

I use my nose to turn the page if its more than one, I'm so professional lol

[Paul S]

Warren, I have an Air Turn Ped Pro that I use with Setlist Maker on my Android tablet.  No idea if it will work with your gear - I think it would - but you are most welcome to use it to find out.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

1 hour ago, Paul S said:

Warren, I have an Air Turn Ped Pro that I use with Setlist Maker on my Android tablet.  No idea if it will work with your gear - I think it would - but you are most welcome to use it to find out.

Funny enough Paul, I was just looking at one of those on Thomann. They have a B-Stock one a bit cheaper than usual, so may get that as the blurb says they do work with iPad. I need a few other bits from them anyway, so I can get free shipping too. Am I right in saying it has a rechargeable cell? If so, what life do you get from it?

Edited September 10, 2019 by hiram.k.hackenbacker

[Twigman]

I can't read so just commit everything to memory

[Paul S]

3 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Funny enough Paul, I was just looking at one of those on Thomann. They have a B-Stock one a bit cheaper than usual, so may get that as the blurb says they do work with iPad. I need a few other bits from them anyway, so I can get free shipping too. Am I right in saying it has a rechargeable cell? If so, what life do you get from it?

To be perfectly honest I have only used it once at a gig.  I've spent longer programming it than using it!  It seems to do the job.  With Setlist Maker I have it so one footswitch moves onto the next song, the other to scroll through the notes.  I can't see me getting much use out of it - seemed like a good idea at the time  You are welcome to borrow it and, if it does what you are looking for, I'd sell it to you for not much.  Although I suspect you've already pulled the trigger  

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

1 hour ago, Paul S said:

To be perfectly honest I have only used it once at a gig.  I've spent longer programming it than using it!  It seems to do the job.  With Setlist Maker I have it so one footswitch moves onto the next song, the other to scroll through the notes.  I can't see me getting much use out of it - seemed like a good idea at the time  You are welcome to borrow it and, if it does what you are looking for, I'd sell it to you for not much.  Although I suspect you've already pulled the trigger  

No, I haven't bought one yet. It would be good to know that it does the job and if you really don't need it, I would be happy to buy it mate. When are you next at Mushroom? (don't say the 9th 😂).

[Muppet]

Our lead guitarist/singer uses the Blue Turn from IK Multimedia. It's small, easy to use and will work with On Song.

https://www.andertons.co.uk/recording/studio-outboard/studio-outboard-accessories/ik-multimedia-irig-blue-turn-bluetooth-page-turner

[Paul S]

1 hour ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

No, I haven't bought one yet. It would be good to know that it does the job and if you really don't need it, I would be happy to buy it mate. When are you next at Mushroom? (don't say the 9th 😂).

9th.  😁

I could pop it over on 15th or, if you would like to fiddle with it before then, I could drop it round to you at home if you PM me your address. 

All I have to do is find the box and instructions, which are somewhere in the loft........ 

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

1 hour ago, Paul S said:

9th.  😁

I could pop it over on 15th or, if you would like to fiddle with it before then, I could drop it round to you at home if you PM me your address. 

All I have to do is find the box and instructions, which are somewhere in the loft........ 

PM’d 👍

[SICbass]

I use the PageFlip Firefly with an Android tablet and Mobile Sheets Pro. It’s super reliable but pricey.

https://m.thomann.de/gb/pageflip_firefly.htm

 

 

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

7 hours ago, Twigman said:

I can't read so just commit everything to memory

Me too normally, but I’ve maxed out my RAM playing new stuff for dep gigs.

[TrevorR]

I use an AirTurn pedal. The BT200/S2 is small, neat and works really ell. I prefer the feel of the conventional stomp box switched rather than the soft touch pedals on some of their other models (which also work perfectly, though). These are going for about 60 quid on Thomann which seems pretty good value to me! https://www.thomann.de/gb/airturn_bt200s_2.htm

 

[SICbass]

That AirTurn looks pretty cool. I’ve got one with bells and whistles but actually only do basic page turning and I must admit that, much as it works fine with soft touch pedals, the feel of a stomp box switch would be more reassuring.

I paid the extra after hearing horror stories about reliability. Has the AirTurn been safe so far?

 

[TrevorR]

I first got an AirTurn several years ago the soft pedal Duo model. 2013? Maybe 2014? Took a bit of setting up at first as it was early Blu implementation plus the only vis aid was an led that flashed red/green - I am, of course, red green colour blind so that was a pain. The key was ensuring that it was in the right mode. From then it did many years of sterling, no problem service apart from the odd Bluetooth disconnection/reconnection issue when I closed the iPad during use or wandered out of range. Just needed reconnecting the Bluetooth and I put that down to normal usage/user error.

 I’d still be using it now if it hadn’t had a mishap that damaged the connections. I could have fixed it/got replacement bits and carried on with it but it would have been hassle and cost as much as the BT unit which had just come out. 

Just checked, got the BT just over a year ago. It was easier to set up, and uses Bluetooth 4, (so is even more stable). Feels nice and firm under the feet with the conventional switches, small footprint, good battery life and does everything I need for chart navigation with OnSong - Fwd/Back, Top/Bottom of song, Next/Previous song. Charges (or runs on power) with a USB charger (I have one which powers both iPad and BT for gigs. Very happy with it. 

I had been tempted by this page turner which looked really cool: https://www.codamusictech.com/products/bluetooth-page-turner-music-pedal-for-tablets but they didn’t supply to the UK then. I was wondering if I could finagle it via some American chums or something but then the BT came out and it seemed to give exactly the same functionality at half the cost (and hassle) - decision made!

[TrevorR]

21 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

No, I haven't bought one yet. It would be good to know that it does the job and if you really don't need it, I would be happy to buy it mate. When are you next at Mushroom? (don't say the 9th 😂).

Being able to scroll hands free really is great with OnSong - so much more convenient and your hands never leave the bass. Once you’ve got it paired it’s pretty effortless and when setting up the only potential hassle is making sure it’s in the right mode so the buttons do the right command. However, it’s easy with the manual - all of which are downloadable from the AirTurn website...

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

34 minutes ago, TrevorR said:

Being able to scroll hands free really is great with OnSong - so much more convenient and your hands never leave the bass. Once you’ve got it paired it’s pretty effortless and when setting up the only potential hassle is making sure it’s in the right mode so the buttons do the right command. However, it’s easy with the manual - all of which are downloadable from the AirTurn website...

Thanks for the advice Trevor. I have to say, the more I hear about the BT200, the more I’m thinking that may be the way to go. I have a nice little gap on my pedal board at the moment which that would slide into nicely. The added bonus of it being fairly rugged under my clumsy feet also appeals. I’ll have a think on it.

[SICbass]

Interesting stuff @TrevorR.

At the risk of derailing the thread, I'm interested in scrolling because my, supposedly, 13" tablet is a cheat. It's not proper 13" like the iPad Pro. It's more long and narrow which leads to the Mobile Sheets Pro App. cropping charts to make them as small as on a 10" screen which, for my old eyes, rather defeats the object. However, when I lay it landscape-wise the pages are full A4 but you can only see half a sheet at a time.

I wanted to scroll that way, but colleagues have warned me off doing that, having experienced 'jumps' intead of smooth scrolling which can leave you "off-page". Any tips for that?

My PageFlip offers the function but I haven't gotten it to work so far.

[TrevorR]

@SICbass, not used MobileSheets much - other than a trial version on my phone which I downloaded to test for a chum who only has an Android tablet.

I'm presuming that you're using PDFs for your chord sheets rather than one of the native, transposable formats? The problem with a PDF is that in this context it's a pretty dumb medium - it's a photo with pretensions of grandeur. The only option is to increase the page magnification and you're at the mercy of where the app lands you on a page when you scroll. 

With OnSong I transferred ALL of my charts into OnSong and ChordPro transposable format - it was a pain but doing it a chunk at a time it got done over a few weeks of here and there . It really opens up the functionality. You can not only do the transposing stuff but change font sizes while maintaining song flow or add highlight colours to chords etc.

Once I got the transposable format rules it was a straightforward (if a bit laborious) to do. Basically you insert the chord in square brackets in the lyric line where it is supposed to be. The programme then links that chord to the next letter and displays it above it.  

So in the photos below the display you see is produced by the following text in the file - if that makes sense - pretty straightforward format but to get the full functionality you doo need to convert or re-do your charts. It's worth it though IMHO...

 

[Bm7]The One who made the [F#m]blind to see
Is [G2]moving here in front of me, moving here in front of me

 

In the chorus, the word with the A chord above the "c" of "miracles" would be notated as "... mira[A]cles ..." It allows you to be very specific/precise with chord placement.

13 font:

Text display drop down:

Font size increased to 18 (and highlights added in second photo):

 

Edited September 11, 2019 by TrevorR

[TrevorR]

Just looking at Mobile Sheets advanced options... even more flexibility to format like you like it IF you’re using a transposable file format!

[SICbass]

Wow, thanks for your efforts. I’ll definitely take a closer look at the settings on MobileSheets.

You‘re right, of course, at present I‘ve got everything as PDFs. Part of the reason for that being that they come from a variety of sources. Handwritten/scanned in, MuseScore saved as PDFs and PDFs donated by/cadged from mates. 

Thanks again,

Paul.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

Question....Up until recently, I've managed to condense everything I've needed to read onto a single A4 sheet/single PDF per song.

The set I'm learning right now has some songs in it that are 4/5 pages long and a lot that are more than one A4 sheet. My usual approach to using On Song is to scan the A4 sheets into DropBox and then import the scanned images into On Song from DropBox. I'm not sure this method will work well with multiple page tunes. @TrevorR or anyone else have any thoughts about dealing with multi sheet charts.

[TrevorR]

Scan the A4 pages as a 4 page document rather than as separate files. OnSong will read it that way and treat it as one song you can scroll up and down through. Quite simple...