OnSong and ForScore

Edgeguy

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I did not want to hijack a thread so I thought I would start a new one.

People have be recommending Onsong or ForScore apple apps to store your sheet music that you have.

What is the difference between the apps beside the price?

Does either have a scan feature in them? I have a separate scan app so this might not be critical.

Can you organize the music per instrument and then alphabetically?

Also, I only have 16GB ipad. Is there a storage device that I can connect by wire or bluetooth that the app can access the music from instead of loading it all on my ipad?

Thanks
 
I starting using both ForScore and OnSong a few weeks ago. I make my own music sheets with a graphics layout program on my Mac so that I can design them exactly as I like, then export them as PDF to use on the iPad (with a foot pedal). Because scrolling on an iPad is infinite (for all intents and purposes), I extend out all the repeats in the music to make it easier for me to play (I don't read music very well at all).

I create one long page that OnSong handles very well, showing the full width as soon as you launch. ForScore does not handle long sheets well at all, it starts out with the entire length of the sheet showning, then I have to carefully resize it to fit the width properly. ForScore's scrolling was difficult, I found I had to create sheets in my design program the exact size of the iPad screen and add many more pages so ForScore could scroll the pages efficiently.

OnSong does not do markup/annotation on PDFs, ForSCore does, a very nice feature to have. OnSong has a create music sheet function, but it's proprietary and not very detailed.

I recently got a scanning app, but you have to be so careful shooting the piece of paper, I decided I'm going to use my flatbed scanner and Mac to prep all the sheets, then send them to the iPad.

At the moment neither is ideal, but I'm hoping with the rumor that Apple is going to make a 12.9" iPad next year (which I believe is specifically geared towards musicians and artists), that ForScore and OnSong will step up and make music reading on the iPad that much better.
 
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Do any of you use these programs with the iPad mini? I have a regular iPad for work, but I'm thinking I'd like to be one for personal use. The mini is such a nice size, but I don't want to get it if it won't work well with apps like these. Any advice?
 
I've been using ForScore for years, primarily to scan in large theatre scores and then read them in the pit.

As mentioned, the ability to mark up the score in whatever color you want (and also to "erase" measures when cuts are notated) is ideal for a working musician. You can create hot links so if you're skipping a very large portion of the music, you tap on the link and easily move. I've had no issue at all importing my own scores into ForScore, either scanned or created from a program like Notion. Everything has scaled very well, and you have the option of cropping the pages as well to make them as big as possible.

ForScore also has a free app that will allow you to take a photo of a piece of music and directly import it into ForScore. I've used this a couple of times and while it isn't perfect, it's an incredibly nice feature to have.

You'd have to contact the ForScore folk and see if it will work with an iPad Mini, but I don't see why it wouldn't? They'd no for sure, and the few times I've contacted them, they've been quick to respond and easy to work with.
 
For me, with Forscore, the ipad mini would be too small to read.
Downloading music from the internet, if it's not in PDF format, I can open it in Pages then 'open in another app', it prompts you to choose a format, select PDF, you will then be asked to 'Choose App' select Forscore and it gets imported into Forscore as a PDF.
You can also link a score to an MP3 in itunes allowing you to play with it whilst having the music displayed.
hth
h
 
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For me, with Forscore, the ipad mini would be too small to read.
Downloading music from the internet, if it's not in PDF format, I can open it in pages then open in another app, it prompts you to choose a format, select PDF, you will then be asked to 'Choose App' select Forscore and it gets imported into Forscore as a PDF.
You can also link a score to an MP3 in itunes allowing you to play with it whilst having the music displayed.
hth
h

Thank you. Sorry for sidetracking the thread a bit.
 
I submitted a feature request to OnSong to allow PDF markup and they replied that it's coming in v2.
 
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