[Firemover]

Hello, 

I have a few questions regarding the use of this app for our string quartet (piano quintet)
I bought 5 MS surface pro 8 and are planing touse them instead of paper sheet music. We will probably be using AirTurnDuo500 pedals for scrolling.

All of this are for Windows version of MobileSheets (i don't know if there is any difference from Android)

1st question:  First of all i would like to know what to get. How do i set it up. Do i have to make a MS account on every tablet and buy a seperate copy of MobileSheets for each tablet from MS store? Will they be able to communicate/share setlists or is there any other option

2nd question: Is there allready a way to create setlists for seperate instruments on one tablet and then send the setlist to others. this should be possible. Or do i have to do it on each tablet seperately and Just create each tablet for each instrument and only import music for that instrument.  I presume that I have to make sheet music stored in seperate folders (VL1, VL2, VLA, VLC)

3rd question: One of the quartet members has troubles with eyesight and will probbably use tablet in landscape mode for bigger size of music How is the scrolling or half page flipping working. Is there any mark or line to the area of the page prewious screen was shown? 

Does anyone use it for the same purpose? If so, i would be happy if you can share some advice from experience.

English is not my primary language so I hope I make sense with this questions.

Thanks

[Firemover]

Hello,

I have a few questions regarding MobileSheets for windows.
I have bought 5 windows surface pro 8 to be used with our string quartet(piano quintet) and will be using them to replace our paper sheet music and I am turning to this forum so i can set them up correctly.

• What to buy/install. I suppose i need to create Microsoft account on each seperate device and buy 5 copies of MobileSheets - 1 for each device in the Microsoft market, or is there any other option Master/slave devices, to work properly. The issue is not that i don't want to buy 5 licenses, I just want to do it correctly.
  

• Will I be able to share setlists to other devices if they are standalone versions. 
  Can then make one device as master and send setlists on others? Can it be done so I create setlist and it is arranged for each device based on each particular instrument (1st violin,2nd violin,...). If it can be done I suppose the description of the music must include what instrument plays it, if there is an option to add a description of tablet(instrument) somewhere. If not I suppose, I need to do it manually do it on each device.
  

• One of the members have bad eyesight and will probably use tablet in landscape mode. Is there an option to show just half of page on the screen in landscape and when you press the pedal you get the other half in full screen or is this possible with cropping music to half of a page.
  Or is it scrolled so you can see what part of page was previously visible (maybe marked with a line)
  

If anyone has any experience with any of this I would kindly ask to share it with me.
I hope I made sense with this questions, otherwise pleas ask, so I can explain it better.

Thanks

[Zubersoft]

Hello,

1) You could certainly do that, but I might recommend just purchasing 5 license keys through my FastSpring store (https://zubersoft.onfastspring.com/) as that way you don't have to mess with creating accounts and you can easily move the license keys between devices if needed. 

2) Yes, you can sync libraries over WiFi or to the cloud, or you can export individual setlists as .msf files and import those files on the other devices. You will need to add metadata to describe the instrument. I don't currently support having multiple versions of a single piece, so you will have to have different entries of a piece for each instrument. My goal for later this year is to introduce a versioning feature where you can have multiple versions of a single piece, and each version can have different files, annotations, etc, and you can assign a version to a particular role or instrument. This will make it easier to have a central library that is shared among multiple musicians.

3) Yes, by default, MobileSheets will split pages into two halves in landscape mode. You will need to enable the option to "Turn half pages in landscape" though. There is an option where you can adjust the position of each half page while using that feature.

If you need any additional information, I'll be happy to provide it.

Mike

[mdavej]

I've used Mobile Sheets for a long time with my saxophone quartet. This is what has worked best for me.

- Each member has his/her own license and library of music, independent of mine aside from the names of the songs
- All song pdfs are stored on a shared cloud drive for easy imports/updates from which each member is responsible for downloading into his/her own Mobile Sheets
- All the songs for the quartet belong to certain Collections (Sax Quartet, Sax Quartet Wedding, Sax Quartet Holiday, etc.)
- The leader (me) builds set lists by filtering by collection and selecting each song from the list. Even for a 3 hour set with ~40 tunes, this only takes a few minutes to build
- Each member builds his/her own set list manually from my master list. I don't attempt to share or copy this list since the songs files are all different besides the name since I keep each part as a separate pdf

Bottom line, the only shared resource is our cloud drive with the individual pdfs. Everything else is managed individually by each member.

This works best for me and my bandmates because each of us is in several different groups with different song libraries and have our own preferences for organizing and viewing songs and set lists.

For your member with bad eyesight, I don't think a single landscape page will be optimal. That will only show a few lines and will require constant page turns. I recommend normal portrait mode, half page turns and reading glasses.

[Oz Cello]

I've been using MobileSheets for my string quartet for a few years now. We mainly use it for gigs where we're playing background music but we have occasionally used it for performances (and later this year we're planning a performance of the Brahms Piano Quintet).

I bought four tablets and bought four MS licences under the same account. The tablets are Boox e-Ink tablets so the licences were for the e-Ink Android version of the app.

To use the tablets at a gig we connect them using the app's leader/follower function via bluetooth. That allows me to choose a song or a setlist on my tablet so that it automatically loads on the other tablets. With Mike's help I worked out a way of setting the libraries up so that when I load the cello part on my tablet the appropriate part comes up on the other tablets. It was a bit of a workaround method but it works well. The workaround should become unnecessary when Mike finishes the versioning update but it was essential for us - there are quite a few violinists and violists who could be using the other tablets and I needed to set them up so that they could use them without needing to know anything about the app. With new players I show them how to turn on the tablet, how to open the app, and how to connect their tablet to mine, and I connect their pedal if they have one. Once that's all done the players just have to turn their own pages. Everything else is controlled from my app.

If your group always has the same 4/5 members and does concert performances (i.e. only needs a small number of pieces at a time) and the members aren't too tech-naive then it's probably easiest to let them each control their own tablet - control the settings, backup their libraries, create the setlists, decide how they want to handle page turns/repeats etc for themselves. It is certainly possible for you to control all of that yourself though.

The thread where Mike helped me set up the tablets for quartet use is here I think but let me know if I can help with that at all. Setting the libraries up so that you can control the other tablets from yours takes a little bit more work for you but is much easier if you set it up that way from the start.

Guy

[Firemover]

I've used Mobile Sheets for a long time with my saxophone quartet. This is what has worked best for me.

- Each member has his/her own license and library of music, independent of mine aside from the names of the songs
- All song pdfs are stored on a shared cloud drive for easy imports/updates from which each member is responsible for downloading into his/her own Mobile Sheets
- All the songs for the quartet belong to certain Collections (Sax Quartet, Sax Quartet Wedding, Sax Quartet Holiday, etc.)
- The leader (me) builds set lists by filtering by collection and selecting each song from the list. Even for a 3 hour set with ~40 tunes, this only takes a few minutes to build
- Each member builds his/her own set list manually from my master list. I don't attempt to share or copy this list since the songs files are all different besides the name since I keep each part as a separate pdf

Bottom line, the only shared resource is our cloud drive with the individual pdfs. Everything else is managed individually by each member.

This works best for me and my bandmates because each of us is in several different groups with different song libraries and have our own preferences for organizing and viewing songs and set lists.

For your member with bad eyesight, I don't think a single landscape page will be optimal. That will only show a few lines and will require constant page turns. I recommend normal portrait mode, half page turns and reading glasses.

Thank you for your insight. We allready have cloud with all the music, now that full digitalisation is happening I just need a bit of organising. WIll take your settings into consideration.

Regarding bad eyesight - she now needs to enlarge normal sheet music from a4 format to 117% of it, so she can read it good. It is some eye condition that is passed genetically, not normal badsightness. So puting it in landscape would enlarge it a bit mor if I was thinking it right.

[Firemover]

Hello,

1) You could certainly do that, but I might recommend just purchasing 5 license keys through my FastSpring store (https://zubersoft.onfastspring.com/) as that way you don't have to mess with creating accounts and you can easily move the license keys between devices if needed. 

How is the fastspring license transferable - by disabling it on old device and enabling it on other device? Can you please explain a bit more.
As for now if I buy it on MS store - it stays with my MS account I suppose. Isn't that easier - or is it device bound ?

2) Yes, you can sync libraries over WiFi or to the cloud, or you can export individual setlists as .msf files and import those files on the other devices. You will need to add metadata to describe the instrument. I don't currently support having multiple versions of a single piece, so you will have to have different entries of a piece for each instrument. My goal for later this year is to introduce a versioning feature where you can have multiple versions of a single piece, and each version can have different files, annotations, etc, and you can assign a version to a particular role or instrument. This will make it easier to have a central library that is shared among multiple musicians.

That will be awesome!

3) Yes, by default, MobileSheets will split pages into two halves in landscape mode. You will need to enable the option to "Turn half pages in landscape" though. There is an option where you can adjust the position of each half page while using that feature.

So if i understand correctly: If you set it like that, you can see only half of page at a time and when u press pedal for next page it shows only the other half - that would be great for her.

If you need any additional information, I'll be happy to provide it.

Mike

Thank you for your answers. Sorry for answering like this, but I rarely post on forums so i dont really know how quoting works.

[Firemover]

I've been using MobileSheets for my string quartet for a few years now. We mainly use it for gigs where we're playing background music but we have occasionally used it for performances (and later this year we're planning a performance of the Brahms Piano Quintet).

I bought four tablets and bought four MS licences under the same account. The tablets are Boox e-Ink tablets so the licences were for the e-Ink Android version of the app.

How do you do that / what account are they linked to?

To use the tablets at a gig we connect them using the app's leader/follower function via bluetooth. That allows me to choose a song or a setlist on my tablet so that it automatically loads on the other tablets. With Mike's help I worked out a way of setting the libraries up so that when I load the cello part on my tablet the appropriate part comes up on the other tablets. It was a bit of a workaround method but it works well. The workaround should become unnecessary when Mike finishes the versioning update but it was essential for us - there are quite a few violinists and violists who could be using the other tablets and I needed to set them up so that they could use them without needing to know anything about the app. With new players I show them how to turn on the tablet, how to open the app, and how to connect their tablet to mine, and I connect their pedal if they have one. Once that's all done the players just have to turn their own pages. Everything else is controlled from my app.

If your group always has the same 4/5 members and does concert performances (i.e. only needs a small number of pieces at a time) and the members aren't too tech-naive then it's probably easiest to let them each control their own tablet - control the settings, backup their libraries, create the setlists, decide how they want to handle page turns/repeats etc for themselves. It is certainly possible for you to control all of that yourself though.

The thread where Mike helped me set up the tablets for quartet use is here I think but let me know if I can help with that at all. Setting the libraries up so that you can control the other tablets from yours takes a little bit more work for you but is much easier if you set it up that way from the start.

Will check into that tomorrow, thanks for your insight.
I am pretty fammiliar arround computers so  I will defenetely try to set it up something like that. Maybe next update will allready have something like that in it.
I know it is easier to let them controll their own devices, but there is one more also that I have bought tablets. It is that I can keep them if there comes to any quarrels in quartet and I have all the music allready prepared for newcomer. It is 1 male and 3 female members, so we allready had some unnecessary dramma that has settled, but you never know...



Guy

We are a quartet with regular members for 5 years now allready, so we rarely get somene to substitute. We do some classical concerts every year, but play at gigs as background music aswell and now have a setlist that can go well into 6 hours of playing (mainly not classical music). But that takes 4 binders for every player so I've said enough is enough and invested in tablets.
Thank you for your answer.

[Oz Cello]

With the e-Ink version of the app you can only purchase it from Mike's website. When you buy it you get an installation file and a licence key. The tablets are all linked to my gmail account but the app only works because each tablet has its own licence key for the app - if I'd installed it through google play then that would all work differently (the app would be activated through the google play store) but because it comes from Mike's website, the account that's used isn't very relevant.

Because you have windows tablets you'll need the windows version but I think it works much the same way. You can buy it through Mike's website and you get an installation file and a licence key. The licence key only works on one device at a time so you'll need 4/5 of them. If you decide you'd like to move the licensing from one tablet to another then you can deactivate it on the old tablet and then activate it on the new tablet using the licence key from the old one. If you do it that way then I imagine the account you use for the tablet doesn't matter - what matters is that the app on each tablet has a valid licence key.

[Zubersoft]

Firemover,

Yes, if you purchase under a Microsoft Account, the purchase is tied to that account, but you will need 4-5 accounts then to purchase one copy per musician. Or you can purchase 5 license keys - it's really up to you which you prefer. A license can be freed in the app under Settings->About->View License->Uninstall if you want to use that key on another device.

Yes, you have understood correctly about the half page display mode in landscape with half page turns. 

Mike

[mdavej]

...puting it in landscape would enlarge it a bit mor if I was thinking it right.

It would, but I think you'll find that seeing only 3 or so lines at a time will create even more problems. In any case, you'll quickly see whether it will work or not the first time you try it.

[Firemover]

Yeah .. I am now waiting for tablets to be delivered before proceeding further. Otherwise maybe extreme cropping wil probably work in portrait mode aswell