I have never owned a tablet in my life. Plenty of desktops and a laptop, never a tablet. But it appears that the entire reading world has converted. And I never make a major purchase without research and lots of it, especially something that I never bought before. Sooooo…
1. Will I look like a ne’er do well if I don’t have an iPad? Or would a solid Android tablet that doesn’t cost as much still make me acceptable and be as easy to use as iPads seem?
2. Obviously the bigger the screen, the better but how big is too big? Same for RAM and storage space as I can’t imagine there being a need for the.highest speed and storage just to flip thru sheet music and DL some MP3’s sometimes.
3. I have no idea what some decent software for organizing your music and making it easy to find quickly exists. Got suggestions for both Apple and Android?
4. What kind of average battery time can I expect out of one?
I want to do it right the first time, but I don’t like spending more than I need to spend. Thx for any advice you can toss my way!
I started playing at my Church again in September after an 18 month recess due to the Covid-19 situation. I participated in an out door jam a few weeks before and gave my tablet a try since it was easy to scan in. I was going back and forth with paper and tablet and found the tablet worked out well and was a heck of a lot lighter than the paper. This was a planned jam list so it was not a big book of paper and it was still lighter.
So when I rejoined the group I went digital. The first two weeks I bought both paper and tablet but the binder stayed in the bag. Now just the tablet and a second one as backup (never needed)
I use a Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+, a 12.4 inch tablet part of the Samsung Note line, Android. Incredible screen and very bright. I use MobileSheets Pro, an unbelievable app available for Android and Windows, and there is a version for the Onyx Boox E-Ink.
For Fakebooks you can load one pdf. A separate file, an csv file (spreadsheet) lists all the songs and their page numbers. Easy to setup if the csv file already exists at MobileSheets. Tedious if it is not. Always confirm the page numbers to your copy before you load it into MobileSheets.
For Church and rock local jams I load each individual song as a pdf, multiple formats are supported such as jpeg, word files (which are transposable) and some other formats. The jazz jams will likely be in the fakebooks.
It's a bit tedious to load the songs for Church as I made extensive notes on them, so I clean them up, erase some of the annotations to create a clean slate. I then use MobileSheets to annotate my music with multiple colors such as blue for directions, blue boxes around REFRAIN, VERSE, INTO, TAGS etc. I also notate Rhythm with actual note symbols in blue, and "NEXT PAGE" reminders in red, and highlight the Chords in yellow like I did on paper (lots of stuff has capo for the guitar, plus it stands out from the words).
In one page fake book mode and portrait it's very big and easy to read. In landscape mode you can have two pages at a time, and you can size it to minimize any margins and the result is a very readable and useable view. I'm picky about that.
I use a Bluetooth foot pedal to advance pages in a song.
You can sequence the pages, so if it is 3 pages and it repeats you set it up to go pages 1-3 and then 1-3 again, and any notations you made after that on the 2nd page 3 is only on the second p3 so you can make ending notes that don't appear on the 1st page 3. Any notations made initially when it's only 1-3 will be duplicated on the second set, but then separately editable. One song I set up ends on Page 3 back to page one to repeat the intro as an ending. so its 1-5, 1-5, 1-3,1. This way it's only moving forward and not jumping around. This doesn't really apply much to fake books or charts. But if the fake book is 2 pages and you want to do portrait mode you can sequence in a similar way.
In Landscape mode if you are viewing p1&2 and hit next then 2&3 are displayed. So when you start p2 advance and that way the next page is never a surprise.
I have four current purchased fakebooks, plus a number of older versions I found as pdf's. I purchased the Sher New Real Book as a pdf and it works great, the other ones I own I put through my scanner, 400*400 is the best resolution. I just bought the Hal Leonard Real Book V2 Bass on paper and ran it through the scanner, I wish it came as a pdf. The ones where you have access online is not useable, you need the actual pdf file.
You can backup to the device, to your computer via the companion or to various cloud storages.
You can also create and organize set lists, and group by collections, so I have a few "collection" titles, FakeBook, Real Book, Real Book V1, Real Book V2, plus other titles and the final, so I can list in all sorts of ways. The 5th and 6th editions of the real books have their own collection also so I can focus only on the current if need be. The Church stuff is also under a collection, as is the Aebersold books I scanned. Plus you can keep track of keys, authors, composers, genre, and some others, I added tracks for the Aebersold books and also a tempo column. Each "song"" can have multiple collections, set lists, etc
One setlist is a practice setlist for various categories.
You can share the set list listing. You can also connect multiple tablets in an orchestra etc. I just know it's available. Lots of features I did not mention, it does take time to learn how to use them all, stuff I would not have thought of that experienced people suggested.
You can control devices via midi, so if you are a keyboard player, you can change the midi patches automatically for each different song. You can also link audio files as backing tracks or for practice.
Battery life is great, rehearsal (about 3 hours) on time full brightness only gets me down to 80%. You can keep a battery pack with you, I have an adapter and cord in my gig bag.
When I make notes at rehearsal, I clean them up at home because that is me. The cool thing is the stylus (Samsung is known for their stylus, long time Note user) is magnetic and sticks to my music stand, very convenient.
A bit tedious to start but well worth it in the long run. I was convinced very quickly. Of course my office has been paperless for many years now, everything scanned since 2011, and no more printing for the office files since 2015. Now almost all the work is completely digital, received and delivered digitally. I should have done this sooner, but I guess the year and half sabbatical broke the cycle and the inertia.
I can also have multiple versions of the same song in the fakebook. One for my upright teacher to notate, and then the original to mark up for the gig. Separate play list just for my lessons.
The Onyx Boox E-Ink is probably the best battery life, but it is not in color or backlighted. If you use a music stand with a light I guess that make it workable, but for me I need the color. But it is tempting.
Even one fakebook is a pain to carry, now you can carry all your music. Just make backups of the file.
The screen off can be disabled when viewing songs or in performance mode.
I highly recommend it, but it will be an initial effort and learning curve that is worth it in my mind. It is an investment of time and money, just like everything else we use.
I also am very happy with the full Samsung Note Line, this is my second 12.4 note tablet, the other is the NotePro12.4 I think 5 years old and still works, my backup. I used these tablets extensively at work to replace paper using mostly the LectureNotes app. I have used the Samsung note phone since V4. Samsung has perfected the stylus and they work with the Wacom line of stylus since the beginning, same technology. It's like writing on paper, flawless palm rejection from the very beginning and they do not require a battery to work. Although with a battery there are some additional features. I have many normal looking pen stylus making writing just like using a pen. The stylus with the S7+ is the most comfortable built in stylus I every had. For me the extensive customization available in Android allows the tablet and phone to work for me, not the reverse. Plus with Bass callous finger tips the stylus was a must.
You could also get a Raspberry pi, and hook it to a 24" touch screen. That would be cheap and get you a big screen. OR I have heard that you can cast to the bigger screen from your phone or tablet, but that would be display only which would work for a gig.
One last thought, you already look cool because your the bass player! I always thought the tablet looked cool but inertia stopped me. Jump in, the water's great.
Ray
