[Professor P]

Hello !  

I’m just about to make the big move from paper to digital, and I’ve all but decided that MobileSheets will be my software of choice.  

I have downloaded the free version to my mid-size (11” diagonal) IPad and have started playing with it.  I already have many questions. However, before I get to most of them (which I imagine would be better posed one-by-one in separate threads), I have a basic threshold question that will determine my next steps.

That is: since I’m starting from scratch and will be purchasing a separate large-screen device that can display at least an 8 ½ by 11 sheet of music – which OS and general class of device should I opt for?  (separate but related question involves which specific device I should get, but there seem to be threads on that already).  Are there significant differences between the Android, Windows, and IOS versions of MobileSheets?  

At the risk of boring you folks by going on too long, I should probably give you an idea about how I intend to use it.  I am a gigging Blues and R&B musician (keys and harp) who is also “score librarian” for his band. Our legacy chord charts are in all sorts of formats (including Word Docs, which I know MobileSheets won’t read), but I have been migrating everything over to ChordPro.  MobileSheets's ability to read both the .pro and .txt files natively was clearly an important factor in my choosing the product,   Most of the files are kept in various folders on my Windows PC.   My plan with this library is to replace my gig book with the digital device, creating a set list for each gig and turning pages and switching between songs with a foot pedal. 

I am also an aspiring jazz pianist with a very extensive collection of Real/Fake books with lead sheets in PDF format.   Part of my learning process is to actually chart out (in MuseScore) the rooted and rootless voicings (and some transcribed solos) for a bunch of classic rep, with an eye to making making the process automatic over time so that I can just play the LH voicings as I read lead sheets and improvise solos in various jazz scales.  As I work on the chart at the piano with my laptop, I keep it in in MuseScore MSCZ format, but once I am happy with it, it can be output as a PDF on my desktop for printing and putting in my rep book – or – in the future – into MobileSheets and onto my tablet for practice and eventually jam sessions. (doubt I’ll ever get to gigging level in this style).

So, in terms of general file handling - given the central place that my Windows desktop has for storing both “libraries” -  will the MS Companion on PC work equally smoothly with any of the tablet operating systems?  (I also have Dropbox and Google Drive capacity, but obviously the less preliminary file manipulation I need to do, the better). 
 
More generally, are there any relative strengths and weaknesses between the various OS versions of MobileSheets that would have an impact on my work processes and gigging?   I would imagine that these would probably show up in the handling of the ChordPro files rather than the PDFs, but that’s only conjecture on my part.  And finally, given that each OS is linked with a general class of device, is there any general consensus about whether it is better to use a Windows 2-in-1 laptop, a Chromebook, an Android tablet or a large format IPad as my basic MobileSheets device for the kind of applications I am going to be attempting. 

Sorry to have gone on so long…and thank those of you with the patience to have read this…and a SPECIAL thank you to those in MobileSheets community who chose to respond. 

-Paul

[Zubersoft]

There are only minor differences between MobileSheets on each platform, but the significance of those differences depends on how you want to use the app. The main thing is that, on Android, you have the option of managing all your files and folders yourself. On iOS, this is not possible at all (the operating system only grants MobileSheets access to the folder it was assigned). On Windows, you can at least change the storage location, but the file permissions still requires that every file that the app uses is placed under the storage location, so it's still more restrictive than Android. In general, I would recommend Android or iOS. From a hardware perspective, the iPad Pro is hard to beat given the size and aspect ratio, but it is incredibly expensive. With Android e-ink tablets, the BOOX tablets are also 4:3 and are even larger at 13.3", but they are also expensive (and not every user wants e-ink). The Samsung S7+, S8+ and S9+ are all tremendous Android tablets, as is the S8 Ultra/S9 Ultra if you want the largest size possible, but it's also very much a widescreen format. All of the tablets I mentioned come with styluses/pens/pencils that work incredibly well for annotating. 

The companion app can connect to any of the platforms (Android, Windows and iOS) without any issues. So you don't need to have any concerns about that. The companion app is getting a major face lift with the next update as well, as I've ported it over to a cross-platform framework and I'm updating the UI as we speak to use a material design theme.

If I had to pick, I think the Android version is overall the most stable and best-performing with iOS close behind it. The Windows version works perfectly fine, but is held back a little by Microsoft's UWP framework (I'm looking to switch away from this at some point). 

I'm sure others will have their own opinions to share, as my perspective is a little different as the developer of the app.

Mike

[Lester]

Hello Professor P. I have been an OnSong user on an iPad for the last 13 years and this year I have been putting forScore and MobileSheets through their paces so that I can make recommendations for the other musicians in our church as not everyone is an Apple user. I have been so impressed with MobileSheets in 4 months that I have swapped over. I believe you have made the right choice of software.

As for hardware I cannot advise, being an iPad owner, but I am certain that Mike has been and is doing everything possible so that the experience is 99.9% identical whatever your hardware of choice is. I think you will not regret it whatever platform you choose.

One last tip: I have benefitted so much from following this forum; I get to read about something someone else is wanting to do and often I learn something new about the abilities of MusicSheets or I get to read Mike replying to say whether it is possible, whether it is or can be on his list of features to add.

All the best in your musical paperless journey.

[Lawrie]

G'day Prof,

tl;dr: 
If you're going to play outside very much, get an E-Ink device (this pretty much means a Boox Tab-X), otherwise it's dealer's choice.

Long version: 
I only have one observation for you:
About 10 years ago I dipped my toe in the waters of electronic music stands.  What I found was that the platforms available didn't work very well outside (I play in outside venues a lot) because the displays would wash out and often couldn't be seen in bright sunlight.  I simply couldn't make the screen bright enough so I gave up on the idea completely.  Also, the batterys would deplete very quickly with the brightness up as high as it would go.

Recently I discovered the Boox e-Ink series of tablets.  Long story short, I now have a Boox Tab-X and I love it - extraordinary battery life and the brighter the incident light the easier it is to see the screen, AND if I happen to be playing inside in poor light the frontlight works just fine.

Downsides?  It was very expensive (though not as much as an iPad), screen refresh/update is slow and artifacts can sometimes be left behind (a press on the redraw button fixes this but I've never found it to be a problem anyway), and no colour* (which makes some MS features less effective, but not so much as to be a problem if you use the E-Ink version).  No colour also means that most apps on the Play store are pretty useless as they expect colour.  On the upside, this means my device doesn't get co-opted for other activities.


*There are now smaller, Boox colour E-Ink devices available.  Two are 10.3" and one is 7.8", but given your size preferences these are not suitable.  I also haven't physically seen one so I have no idea how good the colour E-Ink displays actually are.

[Professor P]

Thanks, Mike for your comprehensive and almost instantaneous reply.  I will also note that your legendary responsiveness as the developer of the app was a MAJOR selling point for MSP.    Thanks, too, to Lester and Lawrie for their encouragement and advice.   I probably have only one or two outdoor gigs a year, so I'm not sure how critical an issue that would be.  Sitting at the keys, I could always have paper backup if I needed it.  That said, Mike also mentioned the 4:3 aspect ratio of the BOOX, which - like the I-Pad models - makes it particularly efficient for displaying single sheets of music.   I have never explored E-ink, though, so will have to do a little research... 

Happy to be part of the MSP Community !  I'm sure I'll have lots more questions going forward...

-P