Wow, this might be valid for live...

I do a "one man band" show, where I take a computer rig with me, and I've sequenced up a couple hundred cover songs from various genres of music, everything from Sinatra to Sabbath.

I do all the vocals and guitars live, with everything else handled by the sequencer and virtual instruments.

Statistically, the material where I get the best reaction is jazz standards, and my originals that are written in that old "jazz standard" style.

So while some people seem to like the eclectic mix, the vast majority keep asking for "more Sinatra", etc.

I've been thinking of "steering into that curve" and taking gigs where I do ONLY jazz standards and my similarly arranged originals.


Long story short, after plugging my iPad into my PA and running the iReal Book player, I liked what I was hearing. I think this might be a reasonable replacement for my computer rig on some gigs in the future.

I also was really getting a Tony Bennett vibe from the more ballad-type songs, which I really liked. :cool:


I can't wait for per-song bpm support... :blush:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CogCode

I do a "one man band" show ....

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Hello CogCode, thank you for letting us know how you might use iRealbook player and your feedback. It helps us understand how it is being used so we can develop in the right direction. Happy gigging.

I have a few songs worked up now in iReal Book form, various styles and tempos, so I'm going to give this a go at my gig tonight.

If it sound as good as I think it's going to sound in a real venue setting, I'll actively start "moving" my current standards repertoire from the computer to iReal Book for live stuff.

Of course, for now I have to have a cheat-sheet for tempos, etc. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CogCode;

...so I'm going to give this a go at my gig tonight...
Of course, for now I have to have a cheat-sheet for tempos...

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Will be good to hear how it works out for you. Let us know.
If you need to, you could append the tempo to its title.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dflat

Will be good to hear how it works out for you. Let us know.
If you need to, you could append the tempo to its title.

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Yeah, that little trick crossed my mind at the gig tonight. :D


Which went really well, by the way. :cool:

Once the levels were set, the iReal Book player output fit right in with my other jazz standards coming from my computer sequencer.

Yeah, I would have loved some Bill Evans style improv once in a while on piano, but I was able to cover the soloing/fills territory with guitar anyway, so the basic chord comping on piano from the player was fine for my purposes.

A real standout tonight at the gig was the player's walking bass stuff. This had a very natural sound, with that little swingin' "push" that drove the energy level up.

So the verdict is in. The sound quality is good enough that, for pure jazz gigs, I can safely start subbing my iPad and iReal Book's player for my computer rig. As a gigging singer/guitarist, this app is turning out to be a real gem for me. :y:

:D

I've been wondering about this since installing iRealBook and the player component. That's great news. I'm using it at home, alongside sequencers and mp3s, and find it compares more than favourably, but have yet to take it to a gig. Next Tuesday's the first one!

So once your track has an intro, and ending, you still need to input tempo and number of choruses? Is that right? Also I've just installed AmpKit+ and would love the two to work together.

Any chance?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CogCode

...As a gigging singer/guitarist, this app is turning out to be a real gem for me.

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Thanks for the feedback. Great news. We spent a lot of time making it sound as good as we could (with all the variables and complexities involved.) Of course Massimo is a bass player so he wanted it sounding reasonably convincing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gigdiary

...So once your track has an intro, and ending, you still need to input tempo and number of choruses? Is that right? Also I've just installed AmpKit+ and would love the two to work together.

Any chance?

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Yes you need to set tempo or tap to get it (assuming the one it has is not what you want) and number of choruses. Can be done quite quickly though.

As far as I know AmpKit+ does not work with audio from another app as input. We have had another thread here:
http://irealb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=830
relating to this. We will look into this in the future and see if it is possible to sum the audio. Multitasking has just been introduced for iOS (and not yet iPad.) Obviously we also need to make sure the CPU can handle the demands of both.
Meanwhile you could record the audio of iReal book tunes at the correct tempo, key etc. and add it back via iTunes into your music/ipod library, then use guitar amp apps that can play them while adding your guitar effects. Not as spontaneous, but should work.

update Sept 2011
Ampkit v1.2 includes multitasking support so audio is processed the background
http://agilepartners.com/

Thanks, dflat. That is all I really need. As I said I'm new to this and didn't know I could do that. I'll look further.

I played my first iRealBook gig the other day. It works! Really well! And it's real easy to operate on the stand.

I'm a guitarist, and had a gig with a singer who had her own tracks and
rig. I played a few jazz standards before her set. Instead of using my sequenced tracks, it was nice to be able to compile a set from the iRealBook list and choose tempi and number of choruses on the spot. The factory settings sounded fine, although I can see how a quick sound check, and adjustment on the app could be good. Also I have to think about intros and endings. But even without them for jazz standard gigs where you need tracks, the iRealBook player is awesome.

And for once I'm not dreading the Xmas song thing this year. No matter what a singer may choose, and what key etc, this is the easiest way to do it.

Brilliant software, guys!

Hi GigDiary, thanks for your information and feedback. Glad it went well!
Which iOS device do you use?

My previous question about using AmpKit and iRealBook together is now a moot point thanks to another reply on this forum. I wouldn't want them on the same device. I now have a reason to get an iPhone or another iPod. As someone, CogCode I think, said, 'minimalization'.

What a magnificent word for the one man band.

I'm using the iPod, but will, see my next message, now upgrade my phone to an iPhone to complete my 'device rig'.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gigdiary

I'm using the iPod, but will, see my next message, now upgrade my phone to an iPhone to complete my 'device rig'.

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The reason why I ask is that another guitarist said that he thought the ipod too small at the distance he puts his music stand and likes the iPad size better. You obviously cope with the small screen size. Thanks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dflat

The reason why I ask is that another guitarist said that he thought the ipod too small at the distance he puts his music stand and likes the iPad size better. You obviously cope with the small screen size. Thanks.

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I only used the iPod as a player not a chord or sheet music reader. Of course it's too small for that. So now, yes, my new device rig needs all three, iPod, iPhone, as a backup and an iPad for the space to load lead sheets etc.

On the gig the other day, there was no music stand, just a table with the PA amp and mixer, which left little room for anything other than my beer, a Boss Delay and the iPod. I chose tunes I knew. Of course if I were a one man outfit it would be different.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gigdiary

I only used the iPod as a player not a chord or sheet music reader...

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I play guitar also, so will see if I can see my ipod touch iReal book chords rather than the iPad size.
I have been looking at some of the music PDF apps for the iPad to have notation charts, have not made up my mind between forscore, Gigbook, iBooks and unrealbook. Have you decided on one yet?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dflat

I play guitar also, so will see if I can see my ipod touch iReal book chords rather than the iPad size.
I have been looking at some of the music PDF apps for the iPad to have notation charts, have not made up my mind between forscore, Gigbook, iBooks and unrealbook. Have you decided on one yet?

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I wouldn't try to use the iPod for chords, other than a quick skim or refresher before playing the tune. I don't have an iPad yet, but the iRealBook app is giving me good reason to shell out the bucks. As I said before, I'd be happy using the Touch as a player and use the iPad as a pdf reader if needed, for tunes I don't know.

It's still quite a small price considering we've paid out for laptops, and other hardware to do gigs in the past. Of course the iPod or phone will play all your other tracks too.

I've looked at pdf readers on IOS, but until I get an iPad, I can't offer an opinion.

Yeah, the iPad/iPod Touch combo is hitting my "sweet spot" for my gigging rig.

iPad for iReal Book charts and the player, and iPod Touch for my virtual guitar rig.

I've even stripped down the vocal processing. My little Mackie mixer doesn't have an on-board fx section, so I'm using my little TC-Helicon Harmony-G pedal, which has a decent built-in fx section for reverb, etc.

So my whole rig (excluding guitar, mic/stand, powered speakers) now takes up about 2 sq feet of space total. lol


What a wonderful time to be a musician. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dflat

I play guitar also, so will see if I can see my ipod touch iReal book chords rather than the iPad size.
I have been looking at some of the music PDF apps for the iPad to have notation charts, have not made up my mind between forscore, Gigbook, iBooks and unrealbook. Have you decided on one yet?

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There are a couple of interesting options, if you haven't already seen them.

http://www.jimdunlop.com/index.php?p...ts/accessories

http://www.primacoustic.com/telepad.htm


Personally, I'm thinking of getting the IK Multimedia iKlip for my iPad, and the Primacoustic TelePad for my iPod Touch, and mounting them both on my mic stand. :cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CogCode

Personally, I'm thinking of getting the IK Multimedia iKlip for my iPad,

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I looked at the iKlip and Xclip but I have the Apple iPad cover and both seem to accommodate just the ipad and do not allow any covers. I like the Apple cover as it closes to protect the surface and I use it on café tables in Landscape on an angle. It is a tight fit to get it in and out, so would rather have a 'clip' which has a little more room and can secure with levers or something to close up on the size....or maybe just buy another iPad! ;)


http://www.ikmultimedia.com/iklip/features/
http://criskenna.com/xclip.html

I have a buddy that uses Band in a Box for live gigs, playing standards that I've seen in my iRealbook app. I just purchased my app along with the extra rhythm style pack and can see a real potential for this app in live gigs. Another great advantage for me is being able to lay down my own changes under "new song" and play over them. I'm studying Jazz blues progressions and this feature is exactly what I needed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Musicmanstan

I have a buddy that uses Band in a Box for live gigs, playing standards that I've seen in my iRealbook app. I just purchased my app along with the extra rhythm style pack and can see a real potential for this app in live gigs. Another great advantage for me is being able to lay down my own changes under "new song" and play over them. I'm studying Jazz blues progressions and this feature is exactly what I needed.

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Yes, this is exactly right. The iReal Book player has some "BiaB" like capabilities now, in a tiny iOS form-factor.

And I too have taken advantage of the "new song" capability to put in chord progressions for some of my own jazz-vocal originals too. :D

I can see a future version of the jazz styles pack that expands on the piano styles beyond just chord comping, maybe add some guitar styles beyond the gyspy jazz one, and maybe even some strings and horns for "bigger" arrangements. :cool:

http://irealb.com/forums/showthread....=3950#post3950

So I have been doing live gigs with Band in a Box for a few years now, triggering starts, stops, and instrument muting via a midi foot pedal. This app sounds better and seems much more convienient than Band in a Box, and Band in a Box is sometimes clunky and buggy.

I would love to switch to this app for my gigs but currently it seems to lack an important feature, infinite loops. Is there any way to infinitely loop a song? I would like to have an intro, and then for it to infinitely loop, and when I am done I can cut the volume with a volume foot pedal. Ideally a midi foot controller somehow interfaced to the ipod/ipad would be best (to trigger start, stop, go to sections, etc.), but that sounds like something a little far off in the future.

Any way to loop infinitely? Is this something that will be offered in the future? Or can you increase the number of repeats to more than 20 to something larger, like 60 or something -long enough to ensure decent jamming time on a tune? I wouldn't mind waiting longer for the tune to generate if it meant it would play longer...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by acharney

...Or can you increase the number of repeats to more than 20 to something larger, like 60 or something ...

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You could re-chart so you have repeats ||: ...... :||
We allow putting 2x, 3x or 10x etc. at the closing repeat in staff text, and combined with repeating the tune at 20 it should work for you. Chart it so it has to play the repeat bars a number of times before it will finish that chorus, then the Player controls repeat will continue to the second chorus. Even setting it at 4x and 20 it will give you 80 times through. (I have not tested it to see what happens. And it will need to calculate longer when you press Play.)

And you can use the Rehearsal symbol In (for Introduction) at the beginning if you need one before the repeating starts. Tagged with In, it does not repeat the introduction each time through. (Use a rehearsal A at the start of the repeated bars so it knows where the introduction ends.)

See:
http://www.irealb.com/support/manuals/ios-manual/

I just did a four hour solo guitar gig, using this app. I ran my iPad into a channel of my small pa, ran my jazz gtr into my Mac using a gtr track in GB, and it went flawlessly. The customer (restaurant) loved it, it was easy to set up and tear down... Perfect gig.
Paige

Hey just a thought, anyone used Ireal for solo gigs ? If so any setts vs you could suggest?

ADMIN EDIT: moved to this thread. Please continue discussion... very useful for many of us.

http://agilepartners.com/
updated for multitasking (audio processed in the background.)

I know this is an old(er) thread, but it seems to be the one that's most relevant.

I am a jazz sax player with more than 44 years of gigging experience, and in that time have played with practically every imaginable combination large and small, down to guitar/sax duos. 3-4 years ago, I began to experiment with the notion of doing small solo gigs with BIAB, GarageBand loops, etc., but gave it up when I found that it was simply too kludgey to be practical, and it really didn't sound that good.

Since I grabbed iRealB (its predecessor, actually), I have found that it was potentially a better application for making music in a live setting under certain circumstances.

Long story short: after much trepidation, fear of "cheesiness", and soul-searching I took a background-music gig and did it as a solo with iRealB on the iPad. I spent a couple days tweaking changes, and adding intros and endings onto charts found on this forum over the past year or so, and added several of my own to fill out a set list. Then i took a deep breath and tossed my horns, small acoustic amp and iPad into the car, and hit the gig.

Bottom line: people dug it. The only "cheese" anyone noticed was on the hors d'oeuvres table. For me, it was no worse than being in the recording studio weeks after the rhythm section had laid down tracks, and actually was a little more dynamic than that since I could change things on the fly, including repeats, tempos, and keys. Not every tune I thought of would work with this app, since there are many with very set bass lines, drum hits, and other quirks, but for the more or less straight-ahead jazz and Latin stuff, this thing is the bomb, and I have played live with "professionals" who were less together than this rhythm section is.

No, it's not the same as a live jazz performance with the kind of communication and synergy that happens among skilled musicians, and I certainly would not consider doing this in a real concert setting (although I could see creating some clever performance art out of it!). But, for street playing or a little cocktail party or reception gig where you are not the main attraction, it's got some legs, and it was fun to stretch out on a few tunes and play with the time here and there without the fear that the drummer would try to follow and turn the beat around on me.

And just for the record: at this point in my playing life I am not at all interested in what the "jazz police" think about what or how I play; I am happy if the client/listeners are happy and I am having fun, and the JP can stuff it! ;)

Nice work, Massimo. I sure can tell a serious bass player was involved in the making of this picture. Keep up the excellent efforts!

Now, if I can just work out how to get this thing to lay out for a bar or a beat here and there without the drum track...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dflat

I looked at the iKlip and Xclip but I have the Apple iPad cover and both seem to accommodate just the ipad and do not allow any covers. I like the Apple cover as it closes to protect the surface and I use it on café tables in Landscape on an angle. It is a tight fit to get it in and out, so would rather have a 'clip' which has a little more room and can secure with levers or something to close up on the size....or maybe just buy another iPad! ;)


In order to use my ipad (in the cover) on my mic stand, I've found I can "wedge" it between an accessory mic holder like this one: http://www.music123.com/pro-audio/km...rophone-holder and one of the locking handles or knobs on the stand. It's securely (enough) held at a satisfactory viewing angle.
:))BOB

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/iklip/features/
http://criskenna.com/xclip.html

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Sent from my iPad

Hi,

I'm fairly new to this app, but have just started making playlists - for rehearsal at the moment, but I'd like to gig/busk with it in the not too distant future. From what I can tell, the playlists only serve to hold a list - they don't play one track after the other. Is that correct? I'd like to be able to move it from one tune to the next (after a set number of choruses) without manually going back to the phone. Am I missing something?!

I'd also like to know if you can 'set' the number of choruses and tempo in a playlist as distinct from within the general song list. (For example, you have a 'gig tempo' in the playlist that you don't want altered, but when practising you might choose to slow it down, increase the number of choruses, without affecting those elements within the playlist).

If anyone has any experience of this I'd be really grateful.

Thanks

Sequential play:
You are correct. Each song must be initiated separately. For continuous play, you need to make a pre-recorded playback track. for hands-free start/stop and page-turn forward/back consider Air-Turn. You still have to allow time for the player to compose the track each time.
Read this:
http://www.irealb.com/forums/showthr...g-on-play-list

The player (and key) settings can be adjusted and retained separately for a song in the master song index as well as copies in different playlists.
:))BOB

Have you already tried to enance the tracks quality for live gigs? have you used sone kind of software to get a better instrumental sound?

thanks

How to apply a bar break to go to solos? thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrJones

How to apply a bar break to go to solos? thanks

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http://www.irealb.com/forums/showthr...4179#post24179
http://www.irealb.com/forums/showthr...2477#post22477
:))BOB