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Fire Tablet for Charts?

Vic Winters

Vic Winters

Apr 20, 2006
4,057
398
Western NY
#1
Do any of you have experience using the recent Kindle Fire tablets? I'm looking to move away from the binder and music stand to something sleeker. I'm not looking to do anything beyond display PDFs of charts I've already created. What have been your experiences with using one in this capacity?
 
#2
I haven't used one for this, though now I am sort of interested, as I don't really want to shell out for an ipad for this (my kid laid claim to my iPad). I will say, the Kindle Fires, in general, are far less robust than an iPad. I got one as a second screen because my kids mostly just use any tablet to stream video. First one we had had a battery go bad after not all that long. Second one got a crack in the screen from a fairly short drop. Based on this, I'd be a little hesitant gigging one, but the price sure is right
 
#3
I own two Amazon Fire tablets of the 8" variety. I don't use them for charts these days, but I have before in an Excel format for a fill in gig. I imagine they'll be fine. I use them with the band that I'm in for simultaneously controlling video cameras, running my Behringer X Air X18 mixer for main/monitor mixes, and a remote control to start/stop recording with Reaper on my laptop. They're definitely not high performance tablets, but they get the job done. Pretty easy to load apk files to load Google Play store and all my necessary apps.
 
#4
So, the thing about Amazon's tablets is that they can only download apps from the Amazon store, so if your app isn't there, you're out of luck unless you're willing to completely replace the OS on the device. So, first, check the apps you want to use to see if they'll work on the Amazon tablet. If so, great device at a great price. If not, it's junk.
 
#5
Tom Lane said:
So, the thing about Amazon's tablets is that they can only download apps from the Amazon store, so if your app isn't there, you're out of luck unless you're willing to completely replace the OS on the device. So, first, check the apps you want to use to see if they'll work on the Amazon tablet. If so, great device at a great price. If not, it's junk.
Click to expand...


No need to completely replace the OS. There's a very easy to follow step by step guide to get Google Play onboard. It took me about 5 minutes per tablet. Within 10 minutes I had Chrome, YouTube, my mixer's app, and my camera's apps all downloaded from Google Play. Despite these tablet's shortcomings, they have good battery life, and can attach to a 5G network which some pricier tablets cannot.
 
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#7
I use the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" tablet both for charts (PDFs) at my regular gig when playing songs not on our regular playlist. (e.g. weddings, special requests for private functions, etc.) And I use the Ultimate Guitar: Chords & Tabs app (Amazon version which is actually better than the Google Play Android version) for an open mic that I host. Allows me to dial up songs that folks want to play that I may not "know". I find it more than adequate for both. And, a HELL of a lot cheaper than any Android, and especially Apple, tablet. If you are just using PDFs, you do not need any special apps. You can create them on your pc and just dump them onto the Kindle Fire. Piece of cake....
 
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#8
HarveySpaceBass said:
I use the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" tablet both for charts (PDFs) at my regular gig when playing songs not on our regular playlist. (e.g. weddings, special requests for private functions, etc.) And I use the Ultimate Guitar: Chords & Tabs app (Amazon version which is actually better than the Google Play Android version) for an open mic that I host. Allows me to dial up songs that folks want to play that I may not "know". I find it more than adequate for both. And, a HELL of a lot cheaper than any Android, and especially Apple, tablet. If you are just using PDFs, you do not need any special apps. You can create them on your pc and just dump them onto the Kindle Fire. Piece of cake....
Click to expand...


Do you use any apps to organize the PDFs? I dug out my old Nexus 7, put in a new battery and I'm currently running Setlist Helper which I really like. It works for now, but ideally, I'd like something with a larger screen.
 
#9
Vic Winters said:
Do you use any apps to organize the PDFs? I dug out my old Nexus 7, put in a new battery and I'm currently running Setlist Helper which I really like. It works for now, but ideally, I'd like something with a larger screen.
Click to expand...

No, I just put them in a folder on there. They are in alphabetical order so not too difficult to dial up when I need them. Plus, Kindle Fire has a "favorites" shortcuts (horizontal scoll) right on the home page. This was unintended but somehow they all ended up there and I can just scroll though them. Again, I rarely use it for PDFs. Amazon doesn't seem to have Setlist Helper. But they do have SongbookPro. Looks similar. I might actually try this out. Thanks for the app suggestion.
 
#10
HarveySpaceBass said:
No, I just put them in a folder on there. They are in alphabetical order so not too difficult to dial up when I need them. Plus, Kindle Fire has a "favorites" shortcuts (horizontal scoll) right on the home page. This was unintended but somehow they all ended up there and I can just scroll though them. Again, I rarely use it for PDFs. Amazon doesn't seem to have Setlist Helper. But they do have SongbookPro. Looks similar. I might actually try this out. Thanks for the app suggestion.
Click to expand...

It has two features (which I'm sure other apps have as well) which I can't imagine being without.
1. Inverting the screen color, which saves your eyes, draws less attention and helps preserve battery life.
2. The ability to make set lists, so you can order the songs however you want and simply swipe to the next one.
 
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