Skrivarna Software

Mail of the Month - November

Another month with a lot of great feedback. Thanks, keep it coming! This time the focus will be on Fakebook, highlighting some of the new features and the road map ahead:

Thanks for the great fakebook app - very handy and easy to use. Any plans to add backing tracks/chords similar to ireal?

Some kind of play-along/backing/band-in-the-box feature is definitely on the list. However, something good enough to be useful would require huge efforts (probably one of the reasons iReal Pro costs 6 times as much as Fakebook...). So, at the moment the focus is to provide functionality currently not in iReal Pro or any of the other competitors. That means we'll be adding file formats and features useful for live performances.

But I'm sure we will come back to the question of playback, so stay tuned.

I'm struggling to import 2 page charts into The Fakebook app. I've tried naming them Songtitle P1 and Songtitle P2 but they don't necessarily always follow each other when swiping to the next page.These are my Sibelius Lead Sheet arrangements imported as jpg files into Fakebook. Is there a merge page or add page function or other possibilities that I'm not aware of to enable me to do this.

Sorry to say, there's currently no method for merging imported image pages. This is likely a feature that will be added soon, as it is so useful also for the PDF import. So for the moment you are doing the right thing, naming the pages to be sorted correctly in the "All songs" mode. Setting up your own song lists the pages can be sorted any way you like.

As for the page turning problems, previous Fakebook versions have had a proprietary mechanism for swiping that worked fine in most cases, but was erratic on some devices. This is now replaced with the standard Android swipe.

While evaluating your product, it became evident that your files actually do not contain lyric content -- which is the main reason I was excited to purchase it. On your Google Play product window this was not an explicit warning to me.

Sorry to hear that the Fakebook app didn't meet your expectations. I will clarify the Google Play description, the text on our website details the lyrics support and we have no intention to hide this.

The reason for not including lyrics in the app purchase is due to copyright. The lyrics are protected and cannot be sold in a product at this price, i.e. the same reason as for not including melodies. Only the chord progressions can be legally distributed this way.

I have purchased Fake Book from you for Android and it states that it will run on all my devices...I have it downloaded on my phone but I can not find the way to get in on my I Pad which is where I really need it...Would you please instruct me how to do so..

Currently Fakebook is Android only, there is no iOS version. So when Google Play states that an app works on "all your devices", it actually means "all your Android devices". Maybe you should contact Google and let them know that there are users with both Android and Apple products, they seem to ignore that fact...

Anyway, if this means you cannot use the Fakebook app in the way you intended, we're happy to offer you a refund. Just let me know - we only want completely satisfied customers.

20131015

2 comments

Mail of the Month - October

Do you have plans to make this fake book app available for the Microsoft Surface? Please make it available!!

After some investigation to see what different possibilities there are for supporting the Microsoft mobile OSs, we are not likely to port Fakebook (or any of our other apps). And if we were, iOS would still have the highest priority. Right now just keeping the Android versions up-to-date is more than enough to do...

Of course, things may change depending on market trends and what musicians like you and me requests. But at the moment there are no such plans. Sorry!

I am loving this app! I use it all the time. I see the new update says you have now added lyrics, which is the icing on the cake, but I don't know how to make them visible...please advise....thanks again for a great app......

As you have noticed, the latest version of Fakebook can include and show song lyrics thanks to the new ChordPro support (the iReal b and ABC formats don't carry lyrics).

So, write your charts in the ChordPro format or search the Internet and add songs to Fakebook (through Menu->Import->Internet). The page that opens has a link to the famous On Line Guitar Archive (OLGA), but there are a lot of other song libraries and search engines for ChordPro.

However, like the original Real Books and fakebooks, there are no lyrics in the 1200 included jazz standards.You have to find (or write) and import them yourself, as lyrics and melodies are protected by copyright and cannot be published legally in an app at this price.

20131008

2 comments

Fakebook - the Real Vocal Book

Nah, maybe not comparable to a real Vocal Book. Not yet. But a lot of musicians wanted to use their beloved Fakebook app also for lyrics. With the new support for importing ChordPro files, this is finally supported.

The ChordPro file format is simple and designed to store lyrics together with the chords. Searching the Internet you can find huge collections of songs in the ChordPro format, both free and for sale. The files may have different extensions -- .chordpro, .chopro, .cho, .crd and .pro are most common.

Most Fakebook features works exactly the same with ChordPro files as with the built-in jazz standards, the iReal b and ABC imports. Most important is the possibility to transpose -- it makes it soo much easier for vocalists.

The Fakebook 1.1.0, available now in Google Play and Amazon.

20131005

7 comments

.Fakebook, FAQ

Feature Check - Your Guide in the Music Reader Jungle

Trying to figure out which music reader app is best for you? Not easy, not easy at all...

The table below was created to help with the Fakebook app development, keeping track of the features of similar apps and providing some guidance on what users expect. Of course, the list of features is not comprehensive, but the choice reflects what we think is important. Look at it as a "road map" for future Fakebook versions if you like.

But we also imagine a comparison of music apps could be useful for our potential customers, providing some guidance in the music reader jungle. Hopefully you will find that Fakebook fits your needs -- if you choose someone else we are still happy to to have been able to help.

Good luck. And don't forget to have fun making music!

https://sites.google.com/site/skrivarna/feature_comparison.pdf

Click the image to download the full table in PDF format.

To the best of our knowledge, the information in the table is correct at the date of publishing. If you think something is wrong, missing or misleading, please don't hesitate to let us know at software@skrivarna.com. Thanks!

(Updated: 2016-08-07)

20130725

2 comments

Finally: Fakebook Playlists!

OK, I know it is late and that this feature should have been finalized a long time ago. However, none of the previous implementation attempts have felt quite right - adding, reordering and switching between playlists never felt natural. I'd like to keep Fakebook simple and intuitive, and the way to do that was stay true to the Android way of handling playlists, e.g. as implemented in the Music Play app and others.

But a lot of users also told me they have missed the browse and filter dialog which I removed (and replaced by the search bar) some months ago. Adding playlist management, all-songs browsing and filtering to the same view seemed like the way to go.

So, finally, here it is: The Fakebook app 1.0.0. Including browsing, song filtering and a great playlist manager. Still keeping the new search bar in the main view, for quick and easy access to all songs. The app is available now at Google Play and soon at Amazon.

Please try it out and let me know what you think. Any ideas for further improvements are appreciated, as are bug reports. This is version 1.0.0 after all...

Mail of the Month - July

I really like the fact that you have put all the changes together. I have an iPhone and Galaxy that I switch between regularly when battery dies and was wondering if I download could I use on both of my phones. Currently I do not have ireal book on my Samsung.
So, basically this program is the same as irealb but for android and it has all of the changes to all of the real book songs or is it just a chord chart with all of the songs loaded?
- Sent from my iPhone

No, there is no relation between iRealb and Fakebook, the apps have different developers and different features. The most important difference is that Fakebook lacks the playback ("auto accompaniment"), so if you really need this please go for iRealb.

But Fakebook will import songs in iRealbook and iRealb formats, and already have "The Real Book 1200 songs" playlist pre-loaded, so if you need a low cost alternative the Fakebook app may suit your needs.

20130720

PageFlip support confirmed

Hot on the heels of AirTurn pedal support, now PageFlip Cicada can be added to the list of useful Fakebook accessories. Check it out at www.pageflip.com.

As noted earlier, foot pedals like these will come really handy (...) as soon as the play list feature is finally released. Now in testing, it will hopefully reach Google Play and Amazon by next week!

20130630

.Fakebook, FAQ, MailOfTheMonth, Rude

Mail of the Month - June

I bought your rudiments and love it.
I also bought the real book but am concerned about copyrights. Do you pay royalties for the use? If not, could I get a refund?
Thanks for what you do and your time.

Thanks for your kind words and for your concerns about song copyrights. As stated on the Skrivarna/Fakebook web page, I strongly support musicians and composers rights to get paid!

Rest assure that the Fakebook app is completely legal. It contains only the chord progressions of songs, and the chords are not subject to copyright (I'm not sure what the correct legalese English term is, but the Swedish equivalent is something like "artistic height"). That is also why the most common complaint from Fakebook users is - and will continue to be - the lack of melody line and lyrics. Those are protected by copyright and will never be part of the app.

20130531

Mail of the Month - May

Well, well, what can I say... The latest release of the Fakebook app was not the immediate success I hoped for. The new menu and action bar search really stirred up some feelings; here are just a few examples of mails to the Skrivarna Software support:

I bought your app the Fake Book/Real Book(for android os) last year.
Being a professional musician in New Orleans, it is an important tool for my work. However, the most recent UPDATE has a major flaw. What happened to the INDEX?? I no longer see a function to view the index of song titles.
I can no longer browse the list of titles?? Very lame!

I bought this app a couple of months ago and was very happy with it - just what I wanted and great value.
However, after the last update that changed the search function, the search does not work properly on my phone so I can't use it. Please fix this, or change it back! It worked perfectly before (when the search function was on the menu at the bottom, not at the top if the page).
I really liked this app and I want to use it again - very handy for gigging as well.
Please fix this fast!

As for the initial question about the redesign, I will not make any excuses, but I can at least offer an explanation to what happened in the last update:

The previous menu system was getting old and didn't work properly on newer phones, and furthermore some users were confused by the lack of action bar etc (as this is an important part of most modern Android apps). So I had to do some redesign, but unfortunately didn't fully understand the usefulness of the index dialogue. I thought a more accessible search function would be better, but you are not the first users telling me how wrong I were...

So, I will keep the new search but also re-implement an index. It might take a little while (as I have a day job as well), but if this is not acceptable to you I will be happy to refund you whatever you paid for the app. Just let me know.

And again, thanks a lot for the feedback!

20130415

Fakebook featured at Droidcon Berlin!

Just learned that the Fakebook app was featured at the Droidcon conference in Berlin. It was Matthias Krebs, founder of the DigiEnsemble, that talked about Mobile Music Making and Musical Apps on Android. One of the apps he highlighted, and the only dedicated sheet music reader, was Fakebook.

Thanks Matthias!

20130409

AirTurn support added

The Fakebook app is now the first Skrivarna product compatible with the excellent AirTurn wireless Bluetooth foot pedal controller. Check it out at www.airturn.com.

But this is just a start. As play list support is added to the Skrivarna apps, AirTurn integration will be even more useful. A great tool for live performances and seamless practice sessions! Soon in a Google Play store close to you.

20130318