Sheet music apps

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Paul Brainard
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Post by Paul Brainard » Mon Jan 28, 2019 3:58 pm

I do a lot of arraging & I've been trying to get my players to bring tablets/ipads/laptops so I can stop wasting paper and make sure everyone is on the current version of their parts. A lot of folks are using Forescore, which can bring PDF's over from Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. But the problem I've been running into is that since it actually downloads the parts to the user's device, you end up running into the same problem of people not all being on the current version (if you are still in the process of making revisions, which I constantly am. . .) Or, not even having new arrangements that have been added to the collection recently. Seems to me much easier to just use the regular Dropbox/Google drive apps and open the PDF's directly from there - but then of course you don't have the annotations, cropping, set lists, etc. that Forescore affords (of course, those often become inapplicable once a part has been updated. . ) And Forescore users seem to be really intent on doing it all in that program. . .

My question is, does anyone have a suggestion for a music sharing/reading app that will dynamically load PDF's from a cloud location? I would think by now there must be some kind of more centrally-managed solution out there. . . otherwise, much of the benefit of not having to print parts is lost getting everybody online and up-to-date at the beginning of every rehearsal or gig!


Bill Stevens
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Post by Bill Stevens » Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:07 pm

Check out Newzik. It has a function for collaboration as long as everyone is on the same WiFi network

I have been trying out Newzik but I haven't done the collaboration yet.

Check out my comments on the app here:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=16572&p=65511&hilit=newzik#p65511

::: Bill
Version 26.3 / 27.4 / Mac OS 10.15.5 Catalina
Finale user since the beginning of time.

Bill Reed
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Post by Bill Reed » Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:20 pm

Here's a review of various options:

https://www.scoringnotes.com/reviews/th ... st-people/
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Bill Stevens
Posts: 662
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 1:37 pm
Finale Version: Using 26, testing 27
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Post by Bill Stevens » Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:27 pm

I just realized that I have Newzik on my iPad and my iPhone, so I gave collaboration a little test.

I have about two minutes experience on this, so I may be mistaken about some things.

First of all, collaboration refers to set lists, not individual files. If you e-mail a setlist collaboration to someone they then open it on their device, and your annotations show up. Likewise, if you change the set list or add annotations, the recipient gets a notification and they close the file and re-open it to see the changes. Or if the recipient doesn't have the piece open, when it is opened changes will be there. So it is not exactly on-the-fly, but fairly slick.

I wrote above that collaborators had to be on the same WiFi network but I don't think that's true.

::: Bill
Version 26.3 / 27.4 / Mac OS 10.15.5 Catalina
Finale user since the beginning of time.

Paul Brainard
Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2017 2:07 pm
Finale Version: 26.3.1.520(.642 Mac)
Operating System: Windows

Post by Paul Brainard » Mon Jan 28, 2019 5:06 pm

Thanks for the input (the Scoringnotes review is great!) Sounds like newzik would almost do what I'm talking about - maybe if everyone was working out of the same cloud account. . . all of these apps (understandably) pretty much come at it from the individual player's perspecitve. Lots of features for organizing, annotating, practicing parts. . . but from an conducter/arranger's perspective, the most important thing (to me anyway) is to make sure everyone has the current part, without printing & sorting a ream of paper every time. Really just the native file-browsing & PDF-reading capabilities of the cloud apps do most of it (other than preventing the screen from dimming!)

Maybe there is a simple PDF binder app that can organize and automatically sync files & I can get people to use that for rehearsals, then let them know before a gig when everything is finalized & they can drag it in to Forescore etc. at that point. Of course, typically I'm still monkeying with things right up to the last minute. . .

Bill Stevens
Posts: 662
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 1:37 pm
Finale Version: Using 26, testing 27
Operating System: Mac

Post by Bill Stevens » Mon Feb 18, 2019 1:11 pm

In a post a few weeks ago I wrote that when collaborating, to see annotations a user has to close and re-open the file. An e-mail from Newzik today indicates that this has been improved in the most recent version. (See below)

The new version also has a new "jump" feature that manages things like repeats, jumps to coda, and cuts.

Bill

"For those who work on Collaborative Setlists, you won't need to close/reopen your Piece anymore to update the annotations: just click on the new icon at the top left of your screen (circled arrow) to make the new annotations appear.

This new feature shall make the annotation process in a collaborative environment more smooth and clear."
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robertstiffler
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Post by robertstiffler » Mon Feb 18, 2019 2:37 pm

Finale Folks:
I have same problem of latest revision of music for my players.
I do the following to help.
1. On my Finale sheets I post the "File Name" and "File Date" in the upper right corner of each page of a song I am updating. I also include the revision level of that song in the file name. i.e... "OldBlackMagicRev3" is the file name for my 3rd release (revision) of "That Old Black Magic".

This sounds simple, but it has save me lots of time and discussion in rehearsals.

Regards
Bob Stiffler

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