iGigBook Sheet Music Manager

I’m a new user and find this less than adequate. Too much tinkering and no real help in identifying pdf files of fake books so it becomes little more than an indexing tool but you have to find the files to index which can be frustrating and tedious. I’ll probably give up with it and try forScore as there see to be more readily available standard jazz Real Books. I wrote the first paragraph shortly after initially buying the app. I actually am Les’s satisfied the more I use it. They send you all over the internet cresting yet more passwords to download free products which I was never able to get. The time I’ve spent trying to learn how to use the app would have been much better spent practicing with an old fashioned book. I keep saying it’s got to be easier than this but I just keep getting led in circles getting no where. Consequently I just took a star off my initial rating. If you want to spend hours trying to figure out how to best use this app then go for it. I’m going back to practice! Followup: in all fairness this is a followup to my first review and an improved rating, you’ve got to read tutorials etc. and reach out to tech support if needed. Once I did that I began using it successfully for my practice sessions and gigs. It’s working well and I’ve figured out how to load books and individual lead sheets. It’s not perfect but it’s far better than dragging big fake books to my gigs.

This is 'the' gig app. There is no competition. I couldnt imagine going back to paper....and it also gives a significant advantage over other tablets or laptops that pull up music from pdfs. Once you load in pdf copies of any of the books it has indexed, and it links together all of them for easy mass search feature, or a simple browse. you can get any tune you have can be up in seconds. If you have the pdf in different keys C/Eb/Bb, you can lump them all together to switch quickly, even in the middle of the song. Huge for people doubling on instruments, or trying to play it higher/lower for vocals. The new annotation option is elegant but missing some important things, i expect this to improve quickly. You can highlight, erase, and write in performance notes though very nicely. Music notation stamps are lacking. A bit clunky, but does the job. New linking to iTunes allows for easily incorporating backing tracks to Gigs or practice sessions. Titles must match exactly or igigbook won't find it though. A fuzzy find feature would improve this problem. My first review for this program was many versions ago, and I gave it 3 stars. It has since very well earned its 5 stars for me. The cons are real, and important for some more than others. In the end though, this program has no rival, and it hasn't failed me yet. PROS: A growing list of indexes to popular (and less popular) fake books. THIS IS HUGE and unrivaled. This is why you buy this program. Excellent support for Eb,Bb,and Bass clef versions!!! Quickly create set lists for on gig use. Basic annotation/highlighting that's very easy to use. Fly between different versions of the same song to choose your favorite. A transpose menu lets you switch to a different key of the same song, as long as you own a PDF in the other key. Linked to music for backing tracks in gig or practice Developer is active and fixes errors and bugs quickly when told of them. CONS: Program is a little rough around the edges in silly places, not the streamlined programming you get used to on a Mac, but improving. No decent crop feature. Would be nice when the screen is so small already. Sometimes getting closer is important. No half page turns...booooooo....makes two pagers harder to time.

Purchased this for my new iPad thinking the listed features would be great. Unfortunately, after also purchasing the The New Real Book (digital edition) from Sher Music and following their instructions to setup up the index there was an issue with the indexing. I got on the help forum (old forum tech, Ugg) and got someone explaining how to setup the index and offset a page using a 4 finger tap if it didn’t come up correctly. The 4 finger tap is clunky and does not work if multiple pages are different than their index. I then experienced a week of the worst techsplaining since I tried to install Microsoft office with something like 17 - 3.5” discs in the early 90s.. (# 7 and 12 were corrupted btw)… Anyhow, he kept telling me I did not have the right PDF and their index was fine. I pointed out that I tried their different indexes and non worked. He continued to splain that I did not have the document I thought I had and then locked me out of commenting on the help forum… I can tell you, and him if he’s listening, that I know what I have and have provided many screen shots showing him the difference between what their index shows and the actual doc… ForScore’s Table of Contents “indexed” the document properly but is missing a couple features I was hoping to get from iGigbook. The forum seems to have a lot of people with problems indexing and IMHO their tech is old and prone to indexing problems. It does not read the document to find the songs, it relies on an index they produce and apparently there is not much quality control… I’m left disappointed since I was hopeful it would turn out to be a great tool and will request refund…