# Tablets on stage



## allthumbs56

More and more I'm noticing performers with tablets clipped to their mic stands and I'm thinking that my old lyric book is getting a little "old school" and maybe it's time for improvement.

Anyone here with any experience on these devices, what do you like and why? Can they do more than just hold a setlist or a lyric?


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## Jim DaddyO

Oh man! they don't make a tablet with a screen large enough to hold the font I would need to read it (unless I paused playing to scroll)....lol. Sometimes, smaller technology is not better!


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## Beatles

I use an Ipad. I downloaded an app called "OnSong" that I use all the time. It was about 4 or 5 bucks. The features that it has are exactly what I wanted. You can search, preview, download and store your songs in folders that you can set up. You can create set lists, email them, edit the songs, change the key signature, change fonts, and on an on. The fonts can easily be enlarged, and the lyrics are not hard to read at all, and I wear glasses. The app is extremely intuitive. What I really love is there are no more binders, loose papers laying around, no more printing off a song to put it in a binder, everything is in one compact device.. I would strongly recommend it.


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## hollowbody

I've been hemming and hawing for a while about an iPad. I've heard of LOTS of great apps for musicians for making chord charts, lyric sheets, set lists, recording, etc etc etc. 

My one hold-up at the moment is whether I would prefer an iPad mini (smaller, cheaper, easier to cart around, but potentially too small), or regular iPad (bigger, easier to do stuff like recording etc because of screen size, more expensive). Maybe I'll put it on my Xmas wishlist


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## bw66

One of my bandmates picked up an iPad holder that clips to a mic stand for use at a party where we were playing a lot of tunes that we didn't know terribly well. It worked great. There was a table of contents and you could access lyrics to a couple of dozen pre-loaded tunes that we had chosen for their easily predictable chord progressions.


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## Milkman

Beatles said:


> I use an Ipad. I downloaded an app called "OnSong" that I use all the time. It was about 4 or 5 bucks. The features that it has are exactly what I wanted. You can search, preview, download and store your songs in folders that you can set up. You can create set lists, email them, edit the songs, change the key signature, change fonts, and on an on. The fonts can easily be enlarged, and the lyrics are not hard to read at all, and I wear glasses. The app is extremely intuitive. What I really love is there are no more binders, loose papers laying around, no more printing off a song to put it in a binder, everything is in one compact device.. I would strongly recommend it.


Thanks for the tip. I just bought it. It was $9.99 but if it's helpful it's worth it.

I need a teleprompter app, LOL.


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## lchender

If necessary, you can enlarge the text very large on an ipad. If you have multipage charts, you can easily use a bluetooth footpedal to flip pages. 

An ipad chartbook is super handy for other reasons too. Its great for using wifi to look up the lyrics of those requests that you know the chords to, but can't quite remember all of the lyrics. It has helped my tipjar on solo gigs a few times.


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## Shark

hollowbody said:


> I've been hemming and hawing for a while about an iPad. I've heard of LOTS of great apps for musicians for making chord charts, lyric sheets, set lists, recording, etc etc etc.
> 
> My one hold-up at the moment is whether I would prefer an iPad mini (smaller, cheaper, easier to cart around, but potentially too small), or regular iPad (bigger, easier to do stuff like recording etc because of screen size, more expensive). Maybe I'll put it on my Xmas wishlist


I recommend the regular size iPad, rather than the mini. I found the mini too small for me--and my eyes are fine in that respect. It's especially small-feeling if you want to watch movies. It felt more like a glorified phone screen to me.


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## Beatles

Milkman said:


> Thanks for the tip. I just bought it. It was $9.99 but if it's helpful it's worth it.
> 
> I need a teleprompter app, LOL.


Ten bucks well spent. You'll wonder how you ever got along without it. I'd be interested to know what you think once you've had a chance to get familiar with it.


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## -ST-

I'm using a Microsoft Surface (have both RT and Pro). I'm using OneNote as the repository for lyrics and charts. It's not a dedicated music application but it works fine for me for what I need. I tend to use the Surface Pro when I'm creating or adding content. It's great to use the pen to mark up charts or write lyrics. If you've never tried writing with an active digitizer it's worth a trip to a store to try writing on a Surface Pro. It's great for drawing and I use it that way too, (if you know a Wacom Cintiq imagine having a portable one). OneNote synchronizes content seamlessly across multiple devices. This means that I can write/work on any of my devices and have everything on all of them. 

I have computers in the studio (tablet), office (desktop), casual work space (table), and the tablets with me wherever else I may go. I can work on any of them and pick up an resume what I'm doing one any of the others. Been working this way for year. Works for me.

I was working with a band a couple of days ago. The keyboardist had all his charts in an iPad using OnSong. Very impressive. I was looking at iPads today. The people in the store know that I use the Surface. We went over pros and cons (and OnSong looks very good). But for what I'm doing (specifically, writing and marking up charts) and several other things related to other kinds of content, they suggested that I wait for the next generation of iPad.


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## -ST-

Hi Jim DaddyO,



Jim DaddyO said:


> Oh man! they don't make a tablet with a screen large enough to hold the font I would need to read it (unless I paused playing to scroll)....lol. Sometimes, smaller technology is not better!


With these small devices it's fairly easy to mount them on your microphone stand. You can have them much closer than would be possible with a binder full of charts. For me that means that even these small screens can contain lots of text and still be legible.


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## shoretyus

Pretty tempting to try and mount a 17" screen to a music stand


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## allthumbs56

Wow - great help guys. It looks like Ipad and Onsong are the winning combination.

Thing is, I've not got any Apple stuff at the moment - my lyrics are all in Word on my PC (Windows 7). Will the Ipad work with my other devices (ie. can I transfer a Word document - or maybe I don't need to?) or is very stand-alone and it will do all that I want all by it's lonesome? Where do you get lyric/chord info for Onsong to use and can you load your own material?

Is Apple really the only choice - no Android fans?

I'm stoked about this idea!


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## Hamstrung

Neat stuff! While searching Youtube to see how OnSong looked/worked I came upon the video below. It might be better for those with poorer eyesight...

[video=youtube;FZQiWZdvmRc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZQiWZdvmRc[/video]


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## Beatles

Yes, you can use your word documents......

From the Onsong help function:

Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is one of the most popular word processing applications available. You may have many chord charts available in that format. OnSong can read, view and convert both the older DOC file format as well as the newer DOCX format.

To get your chord/lyrics from the net, click on "songs" in the upper left hand corner. When you get the drop down menu, the is a + sign at the bottom which means add songs. Click on that an your next menu will give you the import from option. If you click on Internet, you can search for the song that you want. You can preview your song before you download it.


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## Jim DaddyO

No budget for Apple products here (not a fan either). I have a laptop and a desktop (that are both due for replacement) and what I would spend on an iPad I would rather put into another guitar. I just added another couple of pages to my binder...lol. I ought to get (or make) a decent music stand. The monitor thing is neat, I don't play out a lot so a bit of overkill. Oh, I use open office too, not Microsoft (again, budget)


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## Thornton Davis

I'm old school and have always been of the opinion that I wanted to memorize everything except for set lists. Earlier this year I join a band where each member has their own iPad mounted on their mic stand. I already had an iPad so I downloaded the OnSong which they were using onto it. We can create one set list and share it amongst ourselves which is cool as it includes lyrics, sets, special notations. However, we recently changed over to Set List Maker with was $2.99 + an additional $2.99 for the server version, now we keep our sets and master list on our server and any time any of us make a change to it, a new copy including the changes is directly sent to each of our iPads, so we're always all up to date. 

For anyone using a Line 6 StageSource PA system (as we do), our M20D mixer creates its own Wi-Fi network that allows each of our iPads to connect to it. The system as artificial intelligence in it and knows what speakers are connected for both FOH and Monitors. Each of us have StageScape (a free Line 6 app) on our iPads which allows us to individually adjust our monitor mixes for every instrument and mic that's connected to the mixer. No more need for a soundman telling him to turn up or down instruments/mics in the monitor mix as we can easily do it ourselves. My mix can be very different than the mix the guitar player standing beside me has setup in his monitor. For FOH mixes, the board has a USB input where we connect a 64 Gb flash drive. We play 2-3 songs live during sound check which are recorded directly from the mixer onto the drive. We then take one of our iPads and go stand out front to listen to the playback. While play back happens we can adjust the mix for each instrument/mic remotely from the iPad as we move around the room listening to the acoustics and making the appropriate adjustments. Once we have our mix set, it's saved and can be recalled anytime, which is awesome when we go back to play a room again because the sound check is not required.

TD


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## Jim DaddyO

Thornton Davis said:


> I'm old school and have always been of the opinion that I wanted to memorize everything except for set lists. Earlier this year I join a band where each member has their own iPad mounted on their mic stand. I already had an iPad so I downloaded the OnSong which they were using onto it. We can create one set list and share it amongst ourselves which is cool as it includes lyrics, sets, special notations. However, we recently changed over to Set List Maker with was $2.99 + an additional $2.99 for the server version, now we keep our sets and master list on our server and any time any of us make a change to it, a new copy including the changes is directly sent to each of our iPads, so we're always all up to date.
> 
> For anyone using a Line 6 StageSource PA system (as we do), our M20D mixer creates its own Wi-Fi network that allows each of our iPads to connect to it. The system as artificial intelligence in it and knows what speakers are connected for both ROH and Monitors. Each of us have StageScape (a free Line 6 app) on our iPads which allows us to individually adjust our monitor mixes for every instrument and mic that's connected to the mixer. No more need for a soundman telling him to turn up or down instruments/mics in the monitor mix as we can easily do it ourselves. My mix can be very different than the mix the guitar player standing beside me has setup in his monitor. For FOH mixes, the board has a USB input where we connect a 64 Gb flash drive. We play 2-3 songs live during sound check which are recorded directly from the mixer onto the drive. We then take one of our iPads and go stand out front to listen to the playback. While play back happens we can adjust the mix for each instrument/mic remotely from the iPad as we move around the room listening to the acoustics and making the appropriate adjustments. Once we have our mix set, it's saved and can be recalled anytime, which is awesome when we go back to play a room again because the sound check is not required.
> 
> TD



That's too cool!


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## allthumbs56

Thornton Davis said:


> I'm old school and have always been of the opinion that I wanted to memorize everything except for set lists. Earlier this year I join a band where each member has their own iPad mounted on their mic stand. I already had an iPad so I downloaded the OnSong which they were using onto it. We can create one set list and share it amongst ourselves which is cool as it includes lyrics, sets, special notations. However, we recently changed over to Set List Maker with was $2.99 + an additional $2.99 for the server version, now we keep our sets and master list on our server and any time any of us make a change to it, a new copy including the changes is directly sent to each of our iPads, so we're always all up to date.
> 
> For anyone using a Line 6 StageSource PA system (as we do), our M20D mixer creates its own Wi-Fi network that allows each of our iPads to connect to it. The system as artificial intelligence in it and knows what speakers are connected for both ROH and Monitors. Each of us have StageScape (a free Line 6 app) on our iPads which allows us to individually adjust our monitor mixes for every instrument and mic that's connected to the mixer. No more need for a soundman telling him to turn up or down instruments/mics in the monitor mix as we can easily do it ourselves. My mix can be very different than the mix the guitar player standing beside me has setup in his monitor. For FOH mixes, the board has a USB input where we connect a 64 Gb flash drive. We play 2-3 songs live during sound check which are recorded directly from the mixer onto the drive. We then take one of our iPads and go stand out front to listen to the playback. While play back happens we can adjust the mix for each instrument/mic remotely from the iPad as we move around the room listening to the acoustics and making the appropriate adjustments. Once we have our mix set, it's saved and can be recalled anytime, which is awesome when we go back to play a room again because the sound check is not required.
> 
> TD


Wow .................. just to be clear though when you say "we" - you mean that there are still musicians there ..... for now at least anyway :rockon2:


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## hollowbody

Thornton Davis said:


> I'm old school and have always been of the opinion that I wanted to memorize everything except for set lists. Earlier this year I join a band where each member has their own iPad mounted on their mic stand. I already had an iPad so I downloaded the OnSong which they were using onto it. We can create one set list and share it amongst ourselves which is cool as it includes lyrics, sets, special notations. However, we recently changed over to Set List Maker with was $2.99 + an additional $2.99 for the server version, now we keep our sets and master list on our server and any time any of us make a change to it, a new copy including the changes is directly sent to each of our iPads, so we're always all up to date.
> 
> For anyone using a Line 6 StageSource PA system (as we do), our M20D mixer creates its own Wi-Fi network that allows each of our iPads to connect to it. The system as artificial intelligence in it and knows what speakers are connected for both ROH and Monitors. Each of us have StageScape (a free Line 6 app) on our iPads which allows us to individually adjust our monitor mixes for every instrument and mic that's connected to the mixer. No more need for a soundman telling him to turn up or down instruments/mics in the monitor mix as we can easily do it ourselves. My mix can be very different than the mix the guitar player standing beside me has setup in his monitor. For FOH mixes, the board has a USB input where we connect a 64 Gb flash drive. We play 2-3 songs live during sound check which are recorded directly from the mixer onto the drive. We then take one of our iPads and go stand out front to listen to the playback. While play back happens we can adjust the mix for each instrument/mic remotely from the iPad as we move around the room listening to the acoustics and making the appropriate adjustments. Once we have our mix set, it's saved and can be recalled anytime, which is awesome when we go back to play a room again because the sound check is not required.
> 
> TD


Ditto. I don't like seeing lyrics sheets etc on stage. For me the iPad is a tool I'd want for rehearsals and recording. I think part of being a gigging musician is having your shit together. It's one thing if you're doing a solo acoustic thing and people are making requests, etc, but if someone's paying me to play as a band, I like to put on as pro a show as possible, from equipment to look to stage presence to preparedness.


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## Thornton Davis

allthumbs56 said:


> Wow .................. just to be clear though when you say "we" - you mean that there are still musicians there ..... for now at least anyway :rockon2:


Well there are four musicians in this band. Our two guitar players each use a Roland GR-55 with Fender/Roland G5 Strat setup. Sounds like there's 6 of us and sometimes even more than that.

TD


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## shoretyus

That setup sounds amazing. Automatic set list changes ..wow....I always seem to have pages of old setlists laying around. Of course they never got played that way


Thornton Davis said:


> Well there are four musicians in this band. Our two guitar players each use a Roland GR-55 with Fender/Roland G5 Strat setup. Sounds like there's 6 of us and sometimes even more than that.
> 
> TD


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## allthumbs56

hollowbody said:


> Ditto. I don't like seeing lyrics sheets etc on stage. For me the iPad is a tool I'd want for rehearsals and recording. I think part of being a gigging musician is having your shit together. It's one thing if you're doing a solo acoustic thing and people are making requests, etc, but if someone's paying me to play as a band, I like to put on as pro a show as possible, from equipment to look to stage presence to preparedness.


I agree - in the band I never use a music stand - everybody is expected to know their parts. My interest is for acoustic solo work or the few duos I play with on occasion - these are tough because you only do a particular song maybe once a year or so.


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## bleedingfingers

I use my ipad to do my own monitor mix on several different digital mixing consoles .
I also use Jamup for practising and learning songs .
A lot of the guys I play with use them for there charts lyrics and set lists.
I will probably start doing this as well .
I could use the Jamup as an amp Through my in ears control my monitor mix have my charts and lyrics running all at the same time .
BUT I will always take the paper with me as backup and a Di.
Ipads are awesome tools especially for freelance players gigging with different people all the time .
B


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## RobQ

I use an iPad.

I create charts in iRealB and then throw them into set lists in SetListMaker. Sync with band mates so we all are working off the same set list and can edit in real time. Beats books of charts and handwritten set lists any day.


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## Guest

I keep my iPad out in rehearsal but rarely on stage and when I do I keep it back by my rack, mostly of of site. At rehearsal I'll use it for charts and I have an Apogee One I picked up in a sweet sale at GC for $150 that I use with it to record rehearsal, take levels and what not. I'll also run tracks of it if we need to hear something to study it. I have an older iPad -- I think it's Gen 3 -- not sure. Dual core, but not retina display. Works great.

For charts I'm using OnSong. It's not a great app, but it's workable. I'm open to some suggestions here.

For dissecting tracks I use Capo with a line out to our board.

For recording I use Garage Band.

I'm thinking a Mini with Retina and LTE support would be a nice upgrade to it. I don't really need that big a screen and the addition of LTE would make it even more useful. I get by with some spotty wifi from the tacquiera down the street that juuuust reaches the rehearsal room. Would be cool to have proper LTE speed available any time, any where.

I'm looking forward to Axe-Edit from Fractal Audio being an iPad app -- it's in the plans. Then my iPad will also be a bigger interface to my Axe-Fx II.


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## Guitar101

Jim DaddyO said:


> No budget for Apple products here (not a fan either). I have a laptop and a desktop (that are both due for replacement) and what I would spend on an iPad I would rather put into another guitar. I just added another couple of pages to my binder...lol. I ought to get (or make) a decent music stand. The monitor thing is neat, I don't play out a lot so a bit of overkill. Oh, I use open office too, not Microsoft (again, budget)


This ON Stage stand from Best Buy is heavy enough to hold my notebook computer. For $30 with free shipping, it's worth a look.

*On-Stage Conductor Music Stand (SM7211B)*


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## marcos

I'm still¨old school¨with my lyric book and all on stage. Dont think I want to go to a Ipad yet as I have way too much going on when playing live.


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## Big_Daddy

RobQ said:


> I use an iPad.
> 
> I create charts in iRealB and then throw them into set lists in SetListMaker. Sync with band mates so we all are working off the same set list and can edit in real time. Beats books of charts and handwritten set lists any day.


For some reason, I have been credited with a Dislike for this post. Don't know how it happened, but it wasn't intentional. My apologies.

BD


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## jimsz

Lots of guys have iPads. Any good software for the Androids?


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## zontar

Jim DaddyO said:


> what I would spend on an iPad I would rather put into another guitar.


I keep thinking this every time I have to spend more than a few dollars on anything.


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## cwkane

jimsz said:


> Lots of guys have iPads. Any good software for the Androids?


 
I use an ASUS tablet and an app called Songbook by Linkesoft. It is very similar to onsong. has a scroll feature as well as import. It uses chordpro files and text files. If you download from chordie in chordpro format it is seamless. I don't think i'll ever go back to a bulky binder. no need for a light as the app has background color changes so you can use white font with black background................. Love it.


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## jimsz

cwkane said:


> I use an ASUS tablet and an app called Songbook by Linkesoft. It is very similar to onsong. has a scroll feature as well as import. It uses chordpro files and text files. If you download from chordie in chordpro format it is seamless. I don't think i'll ever go back to a bulky binder. no need for a light as the app has background color changes so you can use white font with black background................. Love it.


Also have an ASUS tablet, will give Songbook a try when I figure out how to pay for apps, thanks. I also noticed another one that appears to be popular, Guitar Tapp.


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## allthumbs56

Just curious ....... which Asus tablets do you guys have. I've taken a look at the MeMo 10 and the newer FHD 10. I wanted to get the FHD but was concerned about the screen brightness (reviews call it a bit "dimmer" than other tablets but fine unless you're in direct sunlight. I've also looked at the Samsung Tab2 which seems to be a fair value.

Do I really need a high-res display to see lyrics from a few feet away?


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## jimsz

allthumbs56 said:


> Just curious ....... which Asus tablets do you guys have. I've taken a look at the MeMo 10 and the newer FHD 10. I wanted to get the FHD but was concerned about the screen brightness (reviews call it a bit "dimmer" than other tablets but fine unless you're in direct sunlight. I've also looked at the Samsung Tab2 which seems to be a fair value.
> 
> Do I really need a high-res display to see lyrics from a few feet away?


I have the ASUS Tranformer TF300T. Has worked flawlessly since the day I got it. 

Probably no need for high-res display just to see lyrics a few feet away, most any tablet will accommodate.


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## cwkane

I also have the transformer. Songbook by Linkesoft has a companion program so you can do all your editing on you computer then up to the app on your tablet. I have been using the two flawlessly. I had guitar tapp and a few others none function as well as songbook IMHO.


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## jimsz

cwkane said:


> I also have the transformer. Songbook by Linkesoft has a companion program so you can do all your editing on you computer then up to the app on your tablet. I have been using the two flawlessly. I had guitar tapp and a few others none function as well as songbook IMHO.


Thanks for that. Will get Songbook, sounds like the right choice. Cheers. :smile-new:


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## cwkane

NP, hope you enjoy it as much as I am. Let me know when your set up and I could send you a bunch of tunes already formatted. IM for my email.


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