What's up? Looking forward to 2018!

With most of the Christmas gigs done, it is time to plan for next year's app development. New Year's resolutions? Well, I can promise that there are some nice upgrades already in testing -- the icon above may offer a sneak peek...
Stay tuned for more info; here, on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Mail of the month - November - Music, editing and iOS

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 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 currently can't do this, this depends on the music format. Most music available on-line (free and for purchase) are in PDF format, 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 are proprietary (e.g. the major Mac/Windows notation and DAW applications). There are open formats as well, most importantly MusicXML, but Fakebook Pro does not yet support that (although that is on the to-do list).

I'm a singer-songwriter and I'm just in the process of switching over from using paper charts to using an iPad. I've been researching sheet music readers, and it sounds like Fakebook Pro is probably the best out there. But of course you don't make it for iOS. What a shame. Do you have any plans to make your product available for iPad users?

Right now we have no plans to port Fakebook Pro to iOS, sorry about that. The reason is that there are already so many similar apps for iPads and we don't have the resources to support both platform in a good way. Hope you will find a suitable app for your iPad.

How do I find the user guide?

There is no user guide (in the form of a PDF manual or similar), but I’m here to help and there is plenty of information in the FAQ at http://www.skrivarna.com/search/label/FAQ

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Zoom In On Fakebook Pro 2.10

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 versions of Fakebook Pro, where font scale has been a global setting, this has been a problem. But now, with a simple three-finger-pinch, you can adapt the font size to each individual song. Check it out!

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Mail of the month - May - Lyrics

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 lyrics seems to be to search for ChordPro files. These are easy to import to Fakeook Pro, though some may require cleaning up and slight adjustments afterwards, depending on which application was used to save the song. There's a link (on www.skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html ) to an old archive called Olga, which has a lot of ChordPro songs, but I know that many users find the songs they need through other sources.

Recently I picked up a VERY last minute gig. The artist primarily performs lots of pop covers of a wide variety of artists. I bought the app just before the gig started. On a break I fumbled through and found a song the leader suggested. Without this app it would have been a train wreck. Thanks to this app, I hit the changes on the spot. It paid for itself immediately. Now I'm taking time to get to know app. I love that you can tranpose. A ton of tunes for a buck. Awesome. It beats fumbling through or having to write out (hopefully correct changes) of a unknown tune on the fly.

This has so many tunes. You can transpose them into any key, the chords are pretty good, and you can set it to override the power saying setting. This app is worth the cost!

I absolutely will never be without tis app!....unless they come out with a new version.lol Much easier to travel with than a copy of the real book and a metronome.😆

1600 transposable songs will get you through most gigs. Fortunately they have most of the rest of the real books but they aren't transposable. For modern stuff, check their web site. Give 'em credit, this app just keeps improving itself and isn't $15. A lot more transposable charts that aren't on the original download. Help desk on this one is killer! They actually e mail back.

And, just to show some balance in the reviews:

Worst interface ever, this app is really useless,  ...

in a nutshell hated it, very amateurish.

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Skrivarna Software at Musikmesse Frankfurt

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!

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Video - Split Screen with Fakebook Pro and Music Player

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.

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Video - Import Multiple Music Files to Fakebook Pro

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.

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Great Gig Book, Slickbook 2 and new Creole scripts

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.  

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Video - How To Backup And Restore Your Fakebook Music

It is easy to load and create new music and song lists in the Fakebook Pro sheet music reader. But you should also make sure to backup your work; this video shows you how.
Better safe than sorry!
Check out more about the Fakebook Pro sheet music reader at www.skrivarna.com and download it from Google Play.

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Video - How To Import PDF Music To Fakebook Pro

It is easy to load new music from PDF files to the Fakebook Pro sheet music reader. This video shows how to import music from Dropbox (and other cloud storage) as well as from the tablet or phone.
Check out more about the Fakebook Pro sheet music reader at www.skrivarna.com and download it from Google Play.

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Faster PDF import and better Dropbox, Google Drive integration

Soon to be released (currently in beta testing), the Fakebook Pro 2.9 will allow for faster import of new songs. By analysing thousands of PDF pages, measuring and optimizing the parsers and automatic cropping algorithm, the import process is now much more efficient. Depending on device and PDF quality, the waiting times may be cut in half.

Also in the upcoming version is a new file selection dialog (available from Android 5 and up). This offers seamless integration and direct access to remote storage, like Dropbox folders, OneDrive and Google Drive. Instead of having to open an external app and import files from there, any cloud service integrated with the Android storage subsystem can now be accessed from Fakebook Pro.

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By popular demand!

The new Fakebook Pro features new list-filtered find, more detailed search results, tap to page and support for some older devices. Thanks to all users suggesting these improvements, keep 'em coming.

Fakebook Pro 2.8.0, available now from Google Play!

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Mail of the Month - December - More Fakebook Import Questions

From the December mails, here's some questions regarding importing and PDF files. Happy new year - and have fun playing!

I have Fakebook Pro but can't find a way to import my PDF files.

If you have PDF files with individual songs you can just put them on your device (phone/tablet) and then import them through the Fakebook menu -> Add new songs -> Import local file.

If you have collections (e.g. books with a lot of songs stored as a single PDF) I really recommend looking at http://www.skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html and http://www.skrivarna.com/2014/02/automatic-indexing-of-pdf-real-books.html for hints on how to create indexes for such collections.

I am trying to download load pdf files for volumes of songs from
http://lewessaturdayfolkclub.org/LAFC/LFTunes.html. I have them on my
computer but I have to load them individually into your app. I don't
know how to work with the scripts you describe so please advise if there
is a better way for me.

As the songs on that site are stored in individual PDF files (i.e. they are not collected as pages in a PDF book), you'll have to import them one by one. If you put them all on your device (phone/tablet) internal storage, you can then add them via the menu -> Add new songs -> Import local file.
In an upcoming version we will add the possibility to add multiple files at the same time, e.g. to import a complete folder of PDFs, but that feature is not yet ready for release.

Hello, I would like to find out how many PDFs are included in this app.
I am looking for lyrics and chords for many popular songs.
Also, do you have a pop fake book?

There are actually no PDFs included in the Fakebook Pro purchase. For copyright reasons only chord charts are preloaded, but there are over such 1200 jazz standards and 400 pop charts in the app. However, it is very easy to download and import PDFs and some books have scripts for automatic naming and indexing (which really helps). Have a look at http://www.skrivarna.com/p/fakebook.html to see what's available.
For pop songs I'd say you should look at the script for the Slickbook PDF, otherwise most pop tunes and lyrics are available in Chordpro format (also supported by Fakebook Pro).

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The Firehouse Jazz Band - Dixieland Fakebook Script

One of the most popular and useful collections of trad jazz and Dixieland songs is now available on the Fakebook Pro download page. The Firehouse Jazz Band PDFB script will automatically index and import this book with over 500 tunes.

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