I personally use the Noteshelf app, which is kind of limited in this regard since it's a general pdf editing app rather than an app specifically meant for music. However, I've had no problems with it. I just put my pdfs on Google Drive, then from the Drive app on my iPad, I export them directly to Noteshelf, without using Files or anything like that. Inside of Noteshelf itself, you can organise pdfs into general folders, then create groups inside them. You could create a folder for a composer, then group all their pieces you have music for together, for example. Just thought I'd share my little tidbit.
Great review. I am a non tec old man. All my music is on paper in boxes. Will that thing take a picture of music and file it away somewhere? What about rehearsals where you make changes with a a pencil? Thanks.
I use an app on my phone (camera is better than my iPad) called SwiftScan Pro. But ForScore has a built in scanning feature as well - Upper right hand icon with the little bag, then Add Scores -> Scan. As for notes I use the apple pencil and it works great. You can add “stamps” for common symbols like accidentals, dynamics, etc. and also lines like cresc/decresc. symbols. You can also write in by hand of course, and also with text input, and a lot more too. You can use any stylus with it but the apple pencil is the best but also most expensive option.
I've used ForScore for years so I've had all the time to create labels/tags and update the names/composer of each pdf I've put in the app. You can batch edit, so that might help organize by composer or label easier. I have my page turn animations turned off, that might help with the lag. Its also less distracting.
I have a NAS in my apartment, and thankfully the Files app can read SMB (Windows) shared folders, so the process of copying all my music over to the iPad was relatively painless. May be something worth considering if you have lots of files or media that you wish to access from multiple devices. EDIT: Why not set up an SMB share on your desktop computer? Then any file you copy into the share will be accessible on your iPad (or any other device that has SMB support).
Nice review! I am using a Google Pixel Slate and the files management is much more intuitive/flexible. I have a number of colleagues that use Microsoft Surface that is probably even more intuitive. I am very interested in your new mouthpiece! Have you ever tried the Griego Hecht and/or Markey series? How do they compare to the Greg Blacks?
ForScore makes things more bearable, but yes, wrestling with the iPad OS is certainly a pain. God forbid someone sends you a file format that isn't compatible with ForScore. Until getting my iPad, the only Apple product I had ever owned was my old 6th generation iPod, which died back in...2012? I really don't like how rigid their user interface is compared to Windows. No idea why your files are loading so slow. I have a less powerful model that I bought refurbished in 2017, and I constantly use it at home when I'm not at my desk for things besides music: streaming videos, reading the news, etc. The longest it ever takes to load a pdf is still under 2 seconds.
im kind of confused as to why you cant use folders.. like.. literally just create a folder in the files app & go ahead, its right there (i also store all of my files on my ipad for similar reasons, tho i use my ipad for vastly different things)
Honestly this is a forScore problem, not iPad. You can have folders in the files app but forScore for some reason doesn’t let you. ForScore should just allow you to use folders
Oh boy this sounds like a nightmare. I am a lifelong Apple user so I am deeply ingrained in their ‘ecosystem’. Apple famously makes it unnecessarily difficult to interact with their ecosystem from outside (via Android or Windows devices) so I can imagine the file system must be a pain to work with coming from Windows. I tried putting iTunes for Windows on my work PC and it was absolute trash so I feel for you there. Apple basically abandoned the Windows version (and the Mac version has been replaced/split into three programs now which are all more bearable). I bought a 2020 iPad Pro 12.9 and it’s been working great - no issues whatsoever with the device and it “just works” with all my other devices. I had very little to no PDFs of music coming into this so for me it’s been a lot of scanning with a scanner app on my phone, which then syncs to a folder on iCloud, which I then import into ForScore so that it is saved locally. I agree that it’s kind of useless to have ForScore files be cloud only as you are screwed without internet. In your case, with an existing file system involving folders, it sounds way harder to translate to ForScore’s weird Library/Tag/Label system. Since I was starting from nothing I have been inputting these things as I go and it’s ok. I can’t imagine the task of tagging/labeling 15k PDFs at once though. A couple of tips that might help - if you go into the Files app on the iPad you can access removable storage so if Google Drive is a pain you could use a flash drive with the iPad and transfer PDFs to ForScore that way. Once you have your folder-based files on a drive you can, within ForScore, Import one folder at a time, select the newly imported files and mass-edit all of them at once. So for example if you put in a bunch of Mahler 2 PDFs, you could tag them all at once as, for example: Composer - Gustav Mahler, Tags - Tenor Trombone, Bass Trombone, Tuba / Labels - Orchestra Parts. Then if you want to edit individually you can but at least this way each thing will be labeled mostly correctly for the searching within ForScore to be usable. I also know someone who ignores all of this tagging stuff and just uses the Setlist feature in ForScore which lets you create setlist folders to organize setlists (within the setlist menu, go to Edit -> then the new folder icon with the little + in it). That way you can sort of emulate a folder-based sorting system. Though I am not sure how well this would work in practice. Either way it’s a lot of initial time investment. I think in your case it is a lot of adapting from an existing organization and entering new organization stuff. For me it’s a lot of scanning and labeling from scratch. Both uniquely painful, lol. Overall, like you said, the convenience of tons and tons of paper all in one place is very nice. The device is certainly overkill for a PDF reader but I also use mine to draw (Procreate app is great with the apple pencil), streaming, some word processing, etc. The apple pencil is really useful for ForScore too for annotations on music. I think Apple should produce an iPad dedicated to music, though I don;t know how large the market would be. Something that comes in 12.9” and maybe even a 14-15” model too, has maybe an iPhone chip rather than M1 or the bionic chips which are overkill, no need for the 120Hz display for viewing a static image as well. Really just a stripped down, big display with good brightness is all we need. Honestly the iPad pro is overkill for literally everything because it’s gimped by iPadOS being very limited.
Long stroy short: there are not serious problems with the iPad. There may be serious problems with YOUR iPad, but not with iPads generally. As to file transfer and organisation, it appears to be a problem of not having the correct information at your disposal as to how file transfer is done and how organisation is done, since folders ARE available IF you're using the "correct" iOS version. As I have to often remind my wife, the accomplisheed pianist, you might -want- your computer or your iPad to act one way and that way may even make more sense to you, but if it wasn't designed to work that way, but rather another, you have to learn THAT way of doing things. Not the way you want it to or are used to doing it elsewhere. Same for Windows. Same for Linux. Same for MacOS, Same for Mac iOS. What this shows is, that no matter how "computer savvy" one is, Apples are no more or less "intuitive" than any other OS or environment. If you are familiar with one, that doesn't mean all others "make sense". It doesn't work that way. BTW - i'll never be the bass trombonist you are although I work at it and have my own opinions based upon my experiences (for example, I LOVE my dependent Yamaha Xeno 822g with my Wedge 108 Gen 2 mouthpiece - i'm sure you're snickering....). But I am a Apple Certified System Administrator and worked IT for 14 years before retiring at 2 different Universities doing mostly Mac, but also Windows and some Linux. I always found Macs waaaaaaay easier to get around, but never bought the idea they were easier or more intuitive. Just different than other OSs.
@@AidanRitchie - Thats why I gave you the links - some of which let you choose the iOS version you're wrorking with. I can't know that and the method does differ according to iOS version - much like differences between XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 11. But besides that, have you ruled out a problem with your particular iPad? Others have chiomed in to say they don't have these problems with their iPads.
Sorry if this comment is a duplicate (can’t see where my first post went!) - have you tried Apples “Files” app? Upload files to iCloud from you PC, then download onto your iPad and organise then in folders. Not an Apple fanboy, I understand how frustrating Apple files/folders are to Windows users :-)
Yes, I tried the icloud route. Still ran into the folders problem, much less than icloud only has 2gb of space for me I think? In any case it was a huge bottleneck.
I personally use the Noteshelf app, which is kind of limited in this regard since it's a general pdf editing app rather than an app specifically meant for music. However, I've had no problems with it. I just put my pdfs on Google Drive, then from the Drive app on my iPad, I export them directly to Noteshelf, without using Files or anything like that. Inside of Noteshelf itself, you can organise pdfs into general folders, then create groups inside them. You could create a folder for a composer, then group all their pieces you have music for together, for example. Just thought I'd share my little tidbit.
geez you sound so good, i binged all your intros just to hear your tone
Haha thanks! Always trying to get better.
Great review. I am a non tec old man. All my music is on paper in boxes. Will that thing take a picture of music and file it away somewhere? What about rehearsals where you make changes with a a pencil? Thanks.
I use an app on my phone (camera is better than my iPad) called SwiftScan Pro. But ForScore has a built in scanning feature as well - Upper right hand icon with the little bag, then Add Scores -> Scan. As for notes I use the apple pencil and it works great. You can add “stamps” for common symbols like accidentals, dynamics, etc. and also lines like cresc/decresc. symbols. You can also write in by hand of course, and also with text input, and a lot more too. You can use any stylus with it but the apple pencil is the best but also most expensive option.
I've used ForScore for years so I've had all the time to create labels/tags and update the names/composer of each pdf I've put in the app. You can batch edit, so that might help organize by composer or label easier.
I have my page turn animations turned off, that might help with the lag. Its also less distracting.
nice one burgerbob22, dope shirt
I have a NAS in my apartment, and thankfully the Files app can read SMB (Windows) shared folders, so the process of copying all my music over to the iPad was relatively painless. May be something worth considering if you have lots of files or media that you wish to access from multiple devices.
EDIT: Why not set up an SMB share on your desktop computer? Then any file you copy into the share will be accessible on your iPad (or any other device that has SMB support).
Are they copied onto the ipad? I've also not heard of this SMB share!
Nice review! I am using a Google Pixel Slate and the files management is much more intuitive/flexible. I have a number of colleagues that use Microsoft Surface that is probably even more intuitive.
I am very interested in your new mouthpiece!
Have you ever tried the Griego Hecht and/or Markey series? How do they compare to the Greg Blacks?
This is a Markey 85! I love it.
ForScore makes things more bearable, but yes, wrestling with the iPad OS is certainly a pain. God forbid someone sends you a file format that isn't compatible with ForScore. Until getting my iPad, the only Apple product I had ever owned was my old 6th generation iPod, which died back in...2012? I really don't like how rigid their user interface is compared to Windows.
No idea why your files are loading so slow. I have a less powerful model that I bought refurbished in 2017, and I constantly use it at home when I'm not at my desk for things besides music: streaming videos, reading the news, etc. The longest it ever takes to load a pdf is still under 2 seconds.
Yeah, I have a feeling it's something to do with the refurbishment... maybe some lower end parts replaced or another issue. Who knows!
im kind of confused as to why you cant use folders.. like.. literally just create a folder in the files app & go ahead, its right there (i also store all of my files on my ipad for similar reasons, tho i use my ipad for vastly different things)
Yes, but ForScore won't read from a folder. Trust me, I tried! There's also no way to import things in an existing folder.
Honestly this is a forScore problem, not iPad. You can have folders in the files app but forScore for some reason doesn’t let you. ForScore should just allow you to use folders
Yes, that is most of the problem.
Oh boy this sounds like a nightmare.
I am a lifelong Apple user so I am deeply ingrained in their ‘ecosystem’. Apple famously makes it unnecessarily difficult to interact with their ecosystem from outside (via Android or Windows devices) so I can imagine the file system must be a pain to work with coming from Windows.
I tried putting iTunes for Windows on my work PC and it was absolute trash so I feel for you there. Apple basically abandoned the Windows version (and the Mac version has been replaced/split into three programs now which are all more bearable).
I bought a 2020 iPad Pro 12.9 and it’s been working great - no issues whatsoever with the device and it “just works” with all my other devices. I had very little to no PDFs of music coming into this so for me it’s been a lot of scanning with a scanner app on my phone, which then syncs to a folder on iCloud, which I then import into ForScore so that it is saved locally. I agree that it’s kind of useless to have ForScore files be cloud only as you are screwed without internet.
In your case, with an existing file system involving folders, it sounds way harder to translate to ForScore’s weird Library/Tag/Label system. Since I was starting from nothing I have been inputting these things as I go and it’s ok. I can’t imagine the task of tagging/labeling 15k PDFs at once though.
A couple of tips that might help - if you go into the Files app on the iPad you can access removable storage so if Google Drive is a pain you could use a flash drive with the iPad and transfer PDFs to ForScore that way.
Once you have your folder-based files on a drive you can, within ForScore, Import one folder at a time, select the newly imported files and mass-edit all of them at once. So for example if you put in a bunch of Mahler 2 PDFs, you could tag them all at once as, for example: Composer - Gustav Mahler, Tags - Tenor Trombone, Bass Trombone, Tuba / Labels - Orchestra Parts. Then if you want to edit individually you can but at least this way each thing will be labeled mostly correctly for the searching within ForScore to be usable.
I also know someone who ignores all of this tagging stuff and just uses the Setlist feature in ForScore which lets you create setlist folders to organize setlists (within the setlist menu, go to Edit -> then the new folder icon with the little + in it). That way you can sort of emulate a folder-based sorting system. Though I am not sure how well this would work in practice.
Either way it’s a lot of initial time investment. I think in your case it is a lot of adapting from an existing organization and entering new organization stuff. For me it’s a lot of scanning and labeling from scratch. Both uniquely painful, lol.
Overall, like you said, the convenience of tons and tons of paper all in one place is very nice. The device is certainly overkill for a PDF reader but I also use mine to draw (Procreate app is great with the apple pencil), streaming, some word processing, etc. The apple pencil is really useful for ForScore too for annotations on music. I think Apple should produce an iPad dedicated to music, though I don;t know how large the market would be. Something that comes in 12.9” and maybe even a 14-15” model too, has maybe an iPhone chip rather than M1 or the bionic chips which are overkill, no need for the 120Hz display for viewing a static image as well. Really just a stripped down, big display with good brightness is all we need. Honestly the iPad pro is overkill for literally everything because it’s gimped by iPadOS being very limited.
Did you look into getting a surface pro be getting any ipad?
Nah. They just don't meet the requirements for me- battery life, price, etc. I'm a windows dude but that is also super overkill for a music reader!
Long stroy short: there are not serious problems with the iPad. There may be serious problems with YOUR iPad, but not with iPads generally. As to file transfer and organisation, it appears to be a problem of not having the correct information at your disposal as to how file transfer is done and how organisation is done, since folders ARE available IF you're using the "correct" iOS version. As I have to often remind my wife, the accomplisheed pianist, you might -want- your computer or your iPad to act one way and that way may even make more sense to you, but if it wasn't designed to work that way, but rather another, you have to learn THAT way of doing things. Not the way you want it to or are used to doing it elsewhere. Same for Windows. Same for Linux. Same for MacOS, Same for Mac iOS.
What this shows is, that no matter how "computer savvy" one is, Apples are no more or less "intuitive" than any other OS or environment. If you are familiar with one, that doesn't mean all others "make sense". It doesn't work that way.
BTW - i'll never be the bass trombonist you are although I work at it and have my own opinions based upon my experiences (for example, I LOVE my dependent Yamaha Xeno 822g with my Wedge 108 Gen 2 mouthpiece - i'm sure you're snickering....). But I am a Apple Certified System Administrator and worked IT for 14 years before retiring at 2 different Universities doing mostly Mac, but also Windows and some Linux. I always found Macs waaaaaaay easier to get around, but never bought the idea they were easier or more intuitive. Just different than other OSs.
Well, feel free to let me know how to import folders... I haven't found a single way that's compatible with ForScore!
@@AidanRitchie - Thats why I gave you the links - some of which let you choose the iOS version you're wrorking with. I can't know that and the method does differ according to iOS version - much like differences between XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 11.
But besides that, have you ruled out a problem with your particular iPad? Others have chiomed in to say they don't have these problems with their iPads.
Perfect
Sorry if this comment is a duplicate (can’t see where my first post went!) - have you tried Apples “Files” app? Upload files to iCloud from you PC, then download onto your iPad and organise then in folders. Not an Apple fanboy, I understand how frustrating Apple files/folders are to Windows users :-)
Yes, I tried the icloud route. Still ran into the folders problem, much less than icloud only has 2gb of space for me I think? In any case it was a huge bottleneck.