Jump to content
Why become a member? Ɨ

Turn The Page


hiram.k.hackenbacker
 Share

Recommended Posts

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

Donā€™t slateĀ me; just hear me out first....then slate me.

After last months ā€˜learn a whole set in 8 days for a dep gigā€™ saga, Iā€™veĀ 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, Iā€™ve probably only played a handfulĀ 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 Iā€™m learning another different set and the other bits Iā€™m doing, my head feels like itā€™s about to go pop and Iā€™ve decided Iā€™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 myĀ device. There seems to be quite a few on the market, but you canā€™t beat a Basschat recommendation.

Commence slating.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Paul S said:

Warren, I have an Air Turn Ped Pro that I use with Setlist Maker on my Android tablet.Ā  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 doĀ work with iPad. I need a few other bits from them anyway, so I can get freeĀ shipping too. Am I right in saying it has a rechargeable cell? If so, what life do you get from it?

Edited by hiram.k.hackenbacker
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 doĀ work with iPad. I need a few other bits from them anyway, so I can get freeĀ 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.Ā  I've spent longer programming it than using it!Ā  It seems to do the job.Ā  With Setlist Maker I have it so one footswitch moves onto the next song, the other to scroll through the notes.Ā  I can't see me getting much use out of it - seemed like a good idea at the time :)Ā You are welcome to borrow it and, if it does what you are looking for, I'd sell it to you for not much.Ā  Although I suspect you've already pulled the trigger :)Ā 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Paul S said:

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

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 9thĀ šŸ˜‚).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 9thĀ šŸ˜‚).

9th.Ā Ā šŸ˜

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

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Paul S said:

9th.Ā Ā šŸ˜

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

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

PMā€™d šŸ‘

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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!Ā https://www.thomann.de/gb/airturn_bt200s_2.htm

Ā 

F5903EDD-9C02-4D03-AABB-D8E8389B33BB.thumb.jpeg.8e4ec55ff705d26ca1ba98622e780785.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That AirTurn looks pretty cool. Iā€™ve got one with bells and whistles but actually only do basic page turningĀ andĀ I mustĀ admit that,Ā much as it works fine with soft touch pedals, the feel of a stomp box switch would beĀ more reassuring.

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

Ā 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 issueĀ 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.

Ā Iā€™d still be using it now if it hadnā€™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.Ā 

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 lifeĀ 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.Ā 

I had been tempted by this page turner which looked really cool:Ā https://www.codamusictech.com/products/bluetooth-page-turner-music-pedal-for-tabletsĀ but they didnā€™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) -Ā decision made!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 9thĀ šŸ˜‚).

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

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 youā€™ve got it paired itā€™s pretty effortless and when setting up the only potential hassle is making sure itā€™s in the right mode so the buttons do the right command. However, itā€™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 Iā€™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. Iā€™ll have a think on it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@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.Ā 

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.Ā Ā 

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...

Ā 

[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

Ā 

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:

92E136BF-948C-4E11-ACE5-2591A084C8E7.thumb.jpeg.d00fb597250c9c43feaaa33865afd5fc.jpeg

Text display drop down:

69B7F97A-4470-4B77-8B6E-ABD500557F44.thumb.jpeg.e2b83f42bfac608627a6b6522c22d7a9.jpeg

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

8F71381A-264A-4013-AA25-7BBA2BECB31A.thumb.jpeg.130adb9707b95b798c7b22f84456cd8a.jpeg

F6FC70C1-D824-42F1-BA57-A2910D430ADD.thumb.jpeg.c9aafcbbbb968f9a56570ca03ca41d2d.jpeg

Ā 

Edited by TrevorR
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, thanks for your efforts. Iā€™ll definitely take a closer look at the settings on MobileSheets.

Youā€˜re right, of course, at present Iā€˜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.Ā 

Thanks again,

Paul.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

TheĀ 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.Ā 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. @TrevorRĀ or anyone else have any thoughts about dealing with multiĀ sheet charts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
Ɨ
Ɨ
  • Create New...