Skrivarna Software

Just in time for Christmas, there is now a new release of the Fakebook Pro music reader app available on Google Play and Amazon : Double tap screen to go to the next song (a single tap still moves to next or previous page). New control to make photo or PDF black & white and increase contrast. Perfect when using the mobile or tablet camera to scan paper music! Metronome tempo now shown in list and music header. New symbols on chord keyboard. Plus, a few important bug fixes for key/pedal mapping and annotations on some devices. Available now! Merry Christmas!

As a gigging musician your hands should be focused on playing music. Not turning pages. While your Fakebook Pro app made it easier to carry your charts and lyrics, you still have to take your hands off of your instrument to change pages. Unless you get a wireless pedal, of course. The Stomp pedal is a rugged, durable, and reliable app controller, making it the obvious choice for professionals and hobbyists alike. Stomp is housed in a solid metal enclosure, rugged enough to be run over by a truck, so it will handle any gig, night after night. Just throw it in your bag or attach it to your pedalboard and go off to the next gig. Stomp uses Bluetooth 4.0 and is tested compatible with the Fakebook Pro app. Check it out at https://codamusictech.com/products/bluetooth-page-turner-music-pedal-for-tablets  .

This months mails highlights some questions about the chord editor and internationalization (i18n): What do the icons Cb and T do? The "Cb" icon enables you to edit the chords (which is the default editing mode), while the "T" icon lets you edit or insert text/lyrics. This text layer is enabled when you import e.g. a chordpro song (with both chords and lyrics), but you can add a text layer to any chord chart. Why does the chord text suddenly get really narrow when editing and yet the rest of the chords are normal size? You are probably trying to squeeze to much chords in on each line. Fakebook Pro will not break lines anywhere, but does its best to honor the 4/6/8 bars per line setting. So, if you don't insert any tabs and bar lines (a bar line will automatically also insert a tab space) or manually break the line with an enter/return, the chord symbols will be scaled to fit. If they are to narrow to read comfortably, change the settings or manually break th...

The Fakebook Pro app runs smoothly on the tablet of our singer. But now I got a problem! However, I now want to use an old Android tablet as a backup at gigs (Android 4.2.2 - Jelly Bean). Installing Fakebook did not cause any problems, however, when I wanted to add my songs, I was not able to find my Google Drive. I have access to the drive at this tablet. Maybe I'm doing something wrong and you can help me? The native file browser support for cloud storage like Google Drive, Dropbox etc wasn't introduced in Android until 5.0, this is why you cannot see it directly from Fakebook Pro. However, if you use the Google Drive app to browse your files and tap a supported format (like a PDF or PDFB script), you should get a question whether to open this in Fakebook Pro. Alternatively, you can tap the "three dots" icon on the file tile and then select "Open with" in the dialog. This should also allow you to select Fakebook Pro. I currently use iKlip Stage, whi...

I've been using Fakebook Pro on a Samsung 12.2-inch tablet for a couple of years now. It has been a godsend!  Thank your for your programming efforts. My database has now reached 4.5 GB in size.  I'm using "Commander One" to copy my manual database backups to my Mac, since "Android File Transfer" on the Mac is limited to 4 GB files. This solution works well, but I'm wondering if Fakebook Pro will reach a limit to the size of the database. If so, can you tell me what that limit is? This is a really interesting question! While I know there are many users out there with database sizes on par with your, my personal song library is not that huge yet. But, the data is stored in an SQLite database and this database has a size limit of 140 TB. The EXT4 file system used on must Android devices has a 16 TB file size limit (older versions had a 2 TB limit). I guess the transfer issue you noticed had to do with the FAT32 limitation (4 GB) of the SD card. On And...

Some questions about how to best use Fakebook Pro for practicing and learning new songs: From the product description on Amazon.com : * "Extremely accurate metronome, stores tempo for each song." Is there actually an audio metronome associated with the app? * "Spotify and YouTube links to reference recordings" Where are those links? Both the metronome and the Spotify/YouTube links are under the Play menu. In either the action bar or in menu, you'll find a Play icon. Press this to get a dialog with an adjustable metronome as well as options to search Spotify or YouTube, or direct links if available. How can I choose a split-screen or double-app option that would allow me to see the chart while also hearing the YouTube audio (or even be able to scroll back in the YouTube video to replay certain parts while viewing the chart)?  From Android Nougat (7.0) and later it is possible to split screen by long-pressing the app switcher button. There's actuall...

Fakebook Pro is importing any PDFs I try to view on my phone e.g. if I try to view a PDF attached to an email.  How do I stop that? This is actually an Android setting, and not controlled by each app: when clicking a PDF file your device has a default for opening it. In this case with the Fakebook Pro app, probably because you choose that default at some point (there is a dialog asking if you want to use the app "once" or "always"). In any case, you should be able to reset this default in the Android Settings app. Open that and look for the "Apps" section, in that section look for Fakebook Pro and  click it. There should then be a "Open by default" subsection, in which you can clear any defaults or selectively set whether to open, not open or ask for an app every time. On some devices (e.g. Samsung), this may look slightly different, but the general idea is the same. On my Samsung G7 Edge there is a "Clear Defaults" button for th...

Download and index two huge song collections! We just added new PDFB script files for 557 Jazz Standards - Swing to Bop and for The Book -- all in all about a thousand songs in jazz, funk, rock and other styles. Check them out at  https://www.skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html . These additions means that there are now 24 books that can be automatically downloaded and indexed to your Fakebook Pro app : - The Real Book, 5th ed, in C, Eb and Bb as well as in Bass clef - The Real Vocal Book - The Real Book vol 2, in C, Eb and in Bass clef - The Real Book vol 3 - The Slickbook 1 - The Slickbook 2 - Django Fakebook - The Creole Jazz Band Fakebook, in C, Eb, Bb and F as well as in Bass clef - The Real Book of Blues - Jazz LTD - Over 500 Tunes the Real Books Missed - The Colorado Cookbook - Tasty Tunes for the Musical Gourmet - The Firehouse Jazz Band - Dixieland Fake Book - The Great Gig Book - Blue Book - 557 Jazz Standards - Swing to Bop - The Book Enjoy!

Some really nice comments (via mail and on Google Play ) this month. Thanks a lot for the feedback, keep it coming! Loves the app and how they can manage the key and sorting playlists. Only one thing that I need in this app is two finger zoom (if it possible in the next update.) Thanks to all developers who made this useful app. Thanks, glad to hear you are happy with the app. Two finger (pinch) zooming as well as three finger scaling of chord fonts is in the app, and now also enhanced by the auto-scaling of fonts (to make sure there are always 4/8 bars per line). Great app! Comes with chord charts, but the real value is that you can import PDF charts and index the songs. Following the add songs, download from internet link has many books to get started. Additionally you can mark up pages, make set lists, etc. Well worth the money. I wrote this song, correcting an unfinished tune in the database. Made it look nice, then when returning to songs after editing, it comes back loo...

Well, what can I say? Fakebook Pro version 3.0 is released and available from Google Play and Amazon. Check it out. Now! Why? Because it features autoscaling chord charts (making sure there are always 4/6/8 bars per row) and an updated playlist editor. And a lot of other small improvements to make your life as a gigging musician easier, That's why!

I happily downloaded and use the Facebook Pro app on an 13inch Android Tablet. It has just the features I want and like and it's a very handy tool for my live performances as a singer/guitarplayer. There are two features I know that are working, but I can't seem to get a constant way of using the following features: When I have my setlist/playlist of songs in front of me, I sometimes try to drag songs to another position. For instance the third song I want to put at the first position. I drag it with my finger or thumb, but this is most of the time not working. The screen usually gives a pop-up screen where I can add or remove the song to/from a playlist. What is the trick here I am missing? I tried positioning my finger/thumb in all kind of ways, but it usually doesn't want to drag a song. There's no "trick" other than to touch-and-hold as close to the "handle" (at the edge) as possible. But I agree that this is not always so easy and the Androi...

I just imported one of my large PDF files (Django Fakebook) and now I have 242 songs called "fakebook_django (###)".  How do I get all 242 named? I have an index file with the names and page numbers.  With unrealbook (my old app), I would load that index file in and it would use that to index/name all the songs. What can I do about that here in Fakebook Pro? Without the ability to mass edit the names, its not helpful for large PDFs. Please have a look at http://skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html (this is the same landing page that you get to through the app when selecting Add new songs - Download from Internet). There you'll find some useful info about the PDFB scripts that Fakebook uses to download and index PDF song collections. The Django book is one of the PDFs that has an index there. I purchased Fakebook Pro to use on an old Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet, hoping to find a use for this old device.  To my surprise, Fakebook Pro is working well on this device.  ...

I do have iReal Pro on my mac (chords). What I miss is to also see the melody, together with the chords, both in a transposable fashion (which iReal Pro provides, but its without the melody). Does your Fakebook Pro app provide that or do you have another offer or hint where to buy something like that? The quick and simple answer to your question in "no, the Fakebok Pro app doesn't transpose melody notes, only chords". But to answer your other question (about other possible app options) and to explain why Fakebook Pro can't do this, I'd like to elaborate a little on music formats. Most music available on-line (free and for purchase) is in PDF format, most often in the form of a scanned page (i.e. an image). Other PDF files may have embedded music fonts or be in vector format, but these can still not be transposed because they contain no explicit musical information. To do that you need to use some of the specialized music file format, which in many cases a...

I want be able to edit/change chords on PDF lead sheets such as the songs in Real Books, Colorado Cookbook, etc. The only way I'm able to do so on my Android tablet is with my finger (extremely difficult). How can I make editing easier? The only editing of PDF files possible in Fakebook Pro is "painting" on top of the image described in the file. This is due to the nature of the PDF format, but most importantly because the books you mention (as well as most other similar music collections) are actually paper scans. That being said, you can simplify and increase the precision of your edits by using a stylus suitable for your tablet, and by zooming in on the part before editing. I do have iReal Pro on my mac (chords). What I miss is to also see the melody, together with the chords, both in a transposable fashion (which iReal Pro provides, but it's without the melody). Does your Fakebook Pro provide that, or do you have another offer or hint where to buy somet...

The latest Fakebook Pro version 2.10, just released to Google Play , has some simple but really useful new features: zoom, pan and font scale. Zoom and pan works just as you'd expect - pinch and swipe with two fingers. This not only means that you can manually crop a page if the automatic import doesn't fit, but also that you can zoom in to make precise annotations or corrections. These gestures are second nature to most smartphone users and will probably be used a lot. But another new gesture deserves special mention - the three-finger-pinch. "Zooming" with three fingers will scale the fonts used in the transposable chord charts and lyrics. This is a convenient way to optimize each chart in a way that hasn't actually been possible before. Some songs has just a single chord per bar and can benefit from using a large font. But other songs has so complex changes that four bars might not fit on a single row, which makes them hard to read. In previous...

Some kind words and a common question to add to the FAQ: I just started working with this app, and Wow! I am a little confused about a 2014 post ( Fakebook - the Real Vocal Book - Part 2 ) I saw on your site. Is this saying there's an easy way to pull in lyrics for those Fakebook and Popbook songs already in app? I'm a singer, and have imported the whole Real Vocal Book, but would really like more songs w lyrics. The post you are referring to mentions the Real Vocal Book (that you have already imported) and the Slickbook 1 and 2 which also contain lyrics for a lot of popular (mostly 80's) songs. There are also lyrics in some of the trad jazz books, but there is no complete collection for all the 1600 songs included by default. As I'm sure you understand, this is mostly due to copyright. If there are publicly available PDF collections with lyrics that you'd like us to help index and publish I'm happy to look into it. Otherwise the easiest way to find ly...

Tomorrow, Wednesday April 5th, the international trade fair for musical instruments, sheet music, music production and marketing will open in Frankfurt. Skrivarna Software will be at Musikmesse , meeting musicians and other developers, discussing Fakebook Pro and other apps. See you there!

On Android N you can run the Fakebook Pro sheet music reader and a music player side by side in split screen. This video shows how to view music and play linked Spotify or YouTube tunes at the same time. Check out more about the Fakebook Pro sheet music reader at www.skrivarna.com and download it from Google Play .

It is easy to load new music to the Fakebook Pro sheet music reader , one file at a time or a complete collection. This video shows how to import multiple songs, all files in a folder, in a few quick steps. Check out more about the Fakebook Pro sheet music reader at www.skrivarna.com and download it from Google Play .

As most Fakebook Pro users are already aware, the PDFB scripts that help download and index sheet music is a really powerful feature. Several new scripts are now available and ready for use at http://www.skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html . Richard Marx The updates are: Slickbook 2  - Classic pop and rock songs, mostly from the 80's, written and performed by Chicago, Toto, Gino Vanelli, Bruce Hornsby. And Richard Marx. A lot of Richard Marx. The Great Gig Book  - Also called the Blue Book, this huge collection has sections for ballads, swing, dixie, polka, samba, rhumba, bossa, tango etc. - over 750 songs, most of them with lyrics. The Creole Jazz Band Fakebook  - Available in C, Bb, Eb, F and bass clef, these books are now updated to version 2.4.