Members HarpNinjaMike Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 Any suggestions? iPad, something with Andriod, etc? Really, I am thinking of something to help show the setlist and some lyrics or cheat sheets. It would be sweet to have a PDF or something that was really easy to cycle through. I have no idea the cost and hassle of doing this, but it seems way better than a binder, etc. I am sure I could use it for other music related work (any suggestions on that too)? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 Any suggestions? iPad, something with Andriod, etc?Really, I am thinking of something to help show the setlist and some lyrics or cheat sheets. It would be sweet to have a PDF or something that was really easy to cycle through. I have no idea the cost and hassle of doing this, but it seems way better than a binder, etc. I am sure I could use it for other music related work (any suggestions on that too)? Thanks! I can't speak for music stand holders (since I don't use one). I'll just state my recommendation on the hardware. I hate to sound like a fan boy... unless you love to tweak gear or you are finding a closeout deal of the century (HP recently dropped the price on their 'Touch Smart' from $399-499 to $99-199 to clear inventory... then announced to the world they are out of the tablet business) the one and only tablet to consider is the iPad2. The iPad is the toilet paper of the touchscreen appilance market. There are many ways to wipe your ass, but using toilet paper is the most common. The iPad is really becoming the dominant figure in the tablet market. Android is a wonderful operating system but the iPad has thousands of app developers crawling toward it. You have the issue of someone else's hardware and differen't developers OS and app standards. Even the accessory market will target iPad first and then look toward Android 2nd. I've owned the Xoom (short while) I've bricked a Color Nook and borrowed a friends Galaxy Tab. In every case I end up using my wife's iPad2. I understand if you have trepidation in bringing a $500 touchscreen tablet to a bar gig. But it is certainly my recommendation if you do spend any more than $250. If you want to wait till Xmas...Amazon Kindle has an Android tablet for $200 that is supposed to be an incredible value for the features and performance. In my view (I work in this business) I see only two real players 2-3 years from now... Apple and Amazon. Both have created unique, user friendly devices with an incredible deilvery system for media, app delivery and cloud storage. Acer, HP, Motorola, Blackberry will be pushed out of this business in due time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rodclement Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 WOW I get to post twice in one day! XOOM tablet and a ram mount attahced to my monitor stand...you can get cheap android tablets righ now and lyric pad app costs $5 from the market and works perfectly. Of course my tablet cost more money but i use it for other things as well, and it can run break music, get me internet access for on the minute song requests, etc... Rod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 WOW I get to post twice in one day! XOOM tablet and a ram mount attahced to my monitor stand...you can get cheap android tablets righ now and lyric pad app costs $5 from the market and works perfectly. Of course my tablet cost more money but i use it for other things as well, and it can run break music, get me internet access for on the minute song requests, etc... Rod How does it work out in the bright sun? Does the screen wash out to where you cant see it. We are in the regular rotation on a outdoor street fair gig and I cant even see the LED set up numbers on my keyboard. The sun is brutal down here in south texas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the_big_e Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 Interesting read here about using an ipad for music http://barbarabrundage.com/2011/02/02/the-ipad-for-acoustic-musicians/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HarpNinjaMike Posted October 4, 2011 Author Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 wheresgrant3...So do you think the Android market won't have the music capabilities of the Apple stuff? I took a look at the lyrics app mentioned above and it looked cool. I guess my concern is how much I'll use the tablet in general. I would totally use it for cheat sheet/reference type things, but what else would I find myself wanting? In other words, how are musicians currently using these devices? Would I use it for home recording (I have a Mackie Onyx Blackjack interface and use my laptop currently). I suppose I could use it for live recording with an interface too...I am totally green to this topic, but in my head, it seems like an iPad would be way useful if just for the ability to flip through a PDF of song lyrics and for the Peterson Strobe tuner. Any advice on where to shop for an iPad2 (assuming I should move now rather than wait a few months for an update or something)? Thanks! Originally, my plan was to keep it relatively "cheap" as there is the chance of it getting beat up at gigs, but maybe investing in a iPad is generally worth it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jerry_L Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 Does the IPad2 have the connectivity and processing power to record the gig and function as a lyric display simultaneously? I would be more likely to rely on another piece of hardware for recording. And you're still going to need some type of stand for the tablet PC. I bought a Viewsonic G for this purpose, but haven't used it outside of the studio yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 wheresgrant3...So do you think the Android market won't have the music capabilities of the Apple stuff? I took a look at the lyrics app mentioned above and it looked cool. I guess my concern is how much I'll use the tablet in general. I would totally use it for cheat sheet/reference type things, but what else would I find myself wanting? In other words, how are musicians currently using these devices? Would I use it for home recording (I have a Mackie Onyx Blackjack interface and use my laptop currently). I suppose I could use it for live recording with an interface too...I am totally green to this topic, but in my head, it seems like an iPad would be way useful if just for the ability to flip through a PDF of song lyrics and for the Peterson Strobe tuner. Any advice on where to shop for an iPad2 (assuming I should move now rather than wait a few months for an update or something)?Thanks! Originally, my plan was to keep it relatively "cheap" as there is the chance of it getting beat up at gigs, but maybe investing in a iPad is generally worth it? I'm just saying the iPad is the iPod of the tablet market. Android represents everything else. Look at mp3 players? There iPod and then a cluster of manufacturer mp3 players that knows or remembers the name of.... was there, I think, something called Zune? My bandmate bought an HP TouchPad just as they were discontinued... to his surprise (not mine) there are virtually no useful apps for it. HP enclosed their Honeycomb operating system in a proprietary shell requiring the owner to download proprietary apps. And their are 160 developers working on HP app development... 160,000 working on apple's platform. Netflix isn't even available for the TouchPad, and now that it's been discontinued I doubt anytime soon. I'm not saying buying a touch screen tablet from a manufacturer you know (or don't know) will be a terrible investment. In many cases you'll save money and be able to do the basics (read ebooks, stream movies) but the best apps will come from Apple or possibly Android tablets running open platforms. Still on the music side of things I see the edge going to Apple. This summer had sales estimates of 24 to 1 iPod vs Android tablets (all manufacturers). Again this market in it's infancy stage. Still those figures are crushing. A year from now I see two players: Amazon and Apple. Maybe Microsoft will get their act together with Windows 8... but don't expect that before Fall 2012. Xoom is a great, well designed device by a respected manufacturer. It's also $100 more than the iPad2. I thought long and hard about returning it. It's by far the best Android tablet on the market right now. I just hope Motorola can stay in the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rodclement Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 How does it work out in the bright sun? Does the screen wash out to where you cant see it. We are in the regular rotation on a outdoor street fair gig and I cant even see the LED set up numbers on my keyboard. The sun is brutal down here in south texas. Not the best in direct sunlight, you can invert the screen colors in lyric pad so you get more contrast but still not perfect, it is a screen and suffers from any direct sunlight issues. I have only had issues once but since I use this mostly as a reference for lyrics and not as a read along tool, it moslty doesn't bother me at all. In anything other than direct, high noon sun light, it works flawlesly. The Android market is very good for music aps but they are surely not as refined as the apple apps. For one they are made by all kinds of people and not a corporate development team, so one has to sift through the crap to find the gems. Lyric Pad is a very simple but usefull app for singers since is basically does what it has to, it organizes your lyrics and sorts them either alphabetically or by set.You can also set auto scrolling, highlight chorus and verses, add notes like what key you play the song, or what effect chain you want to applly, etc. The apps I have seen for the ipad that does the same basic thing are much more sofisticateted with more bells and whistles. I have also found some greta guitar tab apps that do the same thing and also help you find tabs on the fly via a web search feature so if you are in a bar and someone requests "that" song and you want to be able to play it, all you have to do is put the name of the song in the search and you get it instantly so you can work on it during the break and deliver in the next set. Other cool/fun features of the tablet are running recorded music during breaks, even with some very functional dj software! Great as a promotinoal tool as well! I go to new venues and bring the tablet, when I get with the manager, I open our website and show videos, pictures, play songs, etc right there withe them like a full on AV presentation! I can also open my calendar and talk dates on the spot! Via an app called pocket cloud, I log into my work computer from anywhere and I can sync my band calendar with my work calendar on the spot, hell I can even run my work computer on the fly from a bar! The latest versions of Android also run flash so all of you tube is open to you, run netflix so you have something to do on roadtrips, fully functional skype, with cameras as of last night, etc. It is stable and works well. What is doesn't do as well as the ipad...it does not have a lot of powerful music editing recording apps, or stage light management tools, or live sound interfaces or guitar effects, etc. Like I said, nothing refined but for an average price of $4 for an app, if not free...I must say that my XOOM has made my investment a pleasure! Rod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SLScott86 Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 I'm just saying the iPad is the iPod of the tablet market. Android represents everything else. Look at mp3 players? There iPod and then a cluster of manufacturer mp3 players that knows or remembers the name of.... was there, I think, something called Zune? My bandmate bought an HP TouchPad just as they were discontinued... to his surprise (not mine) there are virtually no useful apps for it. HP enclosed their Honeycomb operating system in a proprietary shell requiring the owner to download proprietary apps. And their are 160 developers working on HP app development... 160,000 working on apple's platform. Netflix isn't even available for the TouchPad, and now that it's been discontinued I doubt anytime soon. I'm not saying buying a touch screen tablet from a manufacturer you know (or don't know) will be a terrible investment. In many cases you'll save money and be able to do the basics (read ebooks, stream movies) but the best apps will come from Apple or possibly Android tablets running open platforms. Still on the music side of things I see the edge going to Apple. This summer had sales estimates of 24 to 1 iPod vs Android tablets (all manufacturers). Again this market in it's infancy stage. Still those figures are crushing. A year from now I see two players: Amazon and Apple. Maybe Microsoft will get their act together with Windows 8... but don't expect that before Fall 2012. Xoom is a great, well designed device by a respected manufacturer. It's also $100 more than the iPad2. I thought long and hard about returning it. It's by far the best Android tablet on the market right now. I just hope Motorola can stay in the game. If the TouchPad ran Honeycomb, that isn't proprietary at all. That's the tablet-oriented version of Android. The Touchpads were discontinued as an early step of HP exiting the consumer electronics and PC market altogether. The Xoom might be a better device, it probably is, but it won't be because of the app selection. With few exceptions, Android apps are Android apps. I would be absolutely shocked if there aren't apps out there to suit your needs. Edit: I might have misunderstood... Yeah,i definitely did. My bad. I'll hang up and listen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ggm1960 Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 I suspect the ipad will soon be the go to device for this kinda stuff. Recently I got called to do keys on a mid-day outdoor gig with only a weeks notice. That's tough enough but it was mostly old school country and folk type music with a couple John Denver songs thrown in, the kind of stuff I don't generally listen to and I'd never heard a number of the songs. We had one rehearsal and I did my best to put together my own lead sheets from that, youtube and mp3's. I did it on my macbook pro which I took along to the gig. Since I was just playing one keyboard I used my Apex two tier stand, the lower for the keys and the upper for my 'puter which worked great. Fortunately they had a cover for us which kept direct sun from my screen. I'd have been lost without the mac. They changed key on me a couple times which isn't a big deal (got the transpose button handy) as long as I know before they start the song! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 The latest versions of Android also run flash so all of you tube is open to you, run netflix so you have something to do on roadtrips, fully functional skype, with cameras as of last night, etc. It is stable and works well.What is doesn't do as well as the ipad...it does not have a lot of powerful music editing recording apps, or stage light management tools, or live sound interfaces or guitar effects, etc. Like I said, nothing refined but for an average price of $4 for an app, if not free...I must say that my XOOM has made my investment a pleasure!Rod I have to say... I sorta regret returning my Xoom. It is a really great device (faster and powerful) and overall a great design. At the time I bought it I didn't think I'd use it much and I had an opportunity to buy another synth. The only reason I don't see the Xoom being wildly successful is because of the price. Most will lean toward the iPad as a known entity. Otherwise it's a great tablet, and in many ways better than the iPad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kmart Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 BTW, in terms of what other band/music-related uses there are for iPads, just saw an add for this last week:http://www.digitech.com/en/products/ipb-10-programmable-pedalboard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JohnMCA72 Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 At the higher end: http://www.samepagemusic.com/Plan/Splash.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted October 4, 2011 Moderators Share Posted October 4, 2011 So, is there a teleprompter style app for the iPad that shows lyrics in a large font and you can flip pages with a footswitch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rodclement Posted October 4, 2011 Members Share Posted October 4, 2011 So, is there a teleprompter style app for the iPad that shows lyrics in a large font and you can flip pages with a footswitch? Yes, and for the android based tablets as well. The challenges are the size of the screens themselves topping at around 10 inches or so, and the visibility issues in direct sunlight. If Motorola spent even a fraction of it's marketing $$$ promoting the XOOM tablet it would be a great selling device but they choose not to...it's relegated to the universe of thousands of other tablets out there that compete with the ipad...good or bad...I have had my XOOM for a good time now and use it every day either for work or music. Rod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Janx Posted October 5, 2011 Members Share Posted October 5, 2011 I like tech as much as the next guy, but I'd be concerned about too much tech increasing your complexity and chance of failure. things run out of batteries, screen savers kick on at the wrong time, lighting issues. Granted, I would have loved a scrolling sheet music app when I was playing jazz ensemble. It beats trying to flip sheets when you got no pauses or breaks. One trick I saw an old timer do, is tape sheets of paper to his monitor. it either had chord progression to remind him for the song, or first/last word of each verse, to remind him what to sing. Either way, it was inobtrusive, the audience couldn't see it, and it wasn't likely to fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hegmatronicon Posted October 5, 2011 Members Share Posted October 5, 2011 I'd never consider using a tablet on stage. Unless it was in a huge rubber case......too many drunk idiots falling over wedges, bashing into mic stands or trying to get on stage to sing! Not to mention spilling drinks on it! It would get broken in no time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Roy Brooks Posted October 5, 2011 Members Share Posted October 5, 2011 I think the tablet thing would work. But not for me. By the time I play music I am tired of looking at screens. A paper notebook works for me. Or a stack of charts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted October 5, 2011 Members Share Posted October 5, 2011 I think the tablet thing would work. But not for me. By the time I play music I am tired of looking at screens. A paper notebook works for me. Or a stack of charts. There is somthing to be said for keeping things simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sventvkg Posted October 5, 2011 Members Share Posted October 5, 2011 I know a few people using iPads already and I was using my macbook pro for lyrics the last year or so I was gigging on ships a lot. Although the ability to thumb through my lyric book when I'm bored still sparked ideas better and getting to lyrics was still more efficient using my book...Just saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SeniorBlues Posted October 5, 2011 Members Share Posted October 5, 2011 I was using my macbook pro for lyrics the last year . MS Word? Different App? How did you organize set lists . . . and turn pages? I've considered an IPad2 but I don't need it for anything else. I'm more inclined to spring for a Panasonic GH2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Outkaster Posted October 5, 2011 Members Share Posted October 5, 2011 Our horn players were thinking of this instead of binders. They want to transcribe all the charts with Siebelius (spelling) and use the old charts for back ups. I think it is a great Idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted October 5, 2011 Moderators Share Posted October 5, 2011 I'd never consider using a tablet on stage. Unless it was in a huge rubber case......too many drunk idiots falling over wedges, bashing into mic stands or trying to get on stage to sing! Not to mention spilling drinks on it! It would get broken in no time. I would assume your instrument is worth more that a tablet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hegmatronicon Posted October 6, 2011 Members Share Posted October 6, 2011 I would assume your instrument is worth more that a tablet? Yes. And i hold it in my hands.....so it can be moved out of the way when somebody decides to trip over a monitor or fall over and crash into a mic stand and onto my midi controller. I've had 3 seperate midi cables broken this way - and have had to clean the controller to get rid of spilled drink residue many many times. Same with our monitors. I wouldnt leave a guitar strapped to a stand at the front of the stage anymore than an Ipad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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