SongbookPro Reviews

I’m coming from the free version of Songbook so I paid for this one expecting it to be a lot more refined. I converted all of my songs over to Pro and I immediately ran into some ergonomic issues. There is no way to edit or add chords outside of entering the chord in the song file. Then, the software picks the default chord shape which is sometimes not the chord I want to play. It also does not show all the chords at one time, just a few until it runs out of space. The auto scroll feature starts as soon as you open the file. It should start scrolling on the song start and stop scrolling when the song ends. Sometimes the software will lose the link between the song associated with the display, requiring a re-link. There are perhaps a few others, but these are the ones that stick out the most.

SongbookPro has everything I needed, I love it.
It is extremely useful, I llove the fact that it is only a one time purchase and I love all the features it has. I use it with a page turner pedal and it works wonderfully. I use it for chords and for sheet music as well.
It is versatile and extremely useful.

The only thing I would like to see improve is the customer service. After an iOS update SongbookPro stoped working for me and it kept reverting back to the unpaid version even though I had paid for the full version. That was annoying. I wrote about 5 emails reporting the issue and heard back not once. I was kind of new to SongbookPro so I didn’t know if it was something that would be fixed in an update or not, so that wasn’t a good experience. That’s the only reason I’m not giving it 5 stars.

This is the first time I’m using an app like this and it is great overall. Easy to navigate. Easy to make changes. Easy to annotate. However, and I haven’t seen this issue in any of the other reviews. The eraser doesn’t always work. Most of the time when I make a mistake and go to the eraser, it removes each step backwards, much like the undo command. However, if I want to revisit notes that I made previously, the eraser won’t work. This is very frustrating and I’d like to know the fix for this. When I need to erase old notes to make new ones, I need the eraser to work. I don’t want to lose any of my sets & songs, and I’m concerned I will if I delete SongbookPro and reload it again. Can someone help me with this? Thanks.

Since I purchased this app, I have tried other more complicated apps. SongbookPro is almost perfect for me. The only thing I would request is for the tempo to be sent out thru midi. Currently I have the one midi function in SongbookPro to trigger the correct patch in my Boss looper, but if I use the same patch for other songs with a different tempo, I need to manually adjust the tempo on drum machine on the looper. OnSong sends the tempo by default, but is way more complicated than I need. If the developer could add the tempo out to midi when the song is loaded, that would be really great. For my workflow, this would be perfect…move to next song and the patch changes on the looper and tempo is sent to the looper. Smooth transition into the next song. I am crossing my fingers hoping the developer reads this and could accomplish it.

One of the best features of SongbookPro is the ability to customize the size and color of the parts of the song (chorus, erase etc.) as well as the chords. You can print pdf versions of songs from your library directly from SongbookPro , or quickly share the files with your gig mates if the also have Songbook Pro.

My only (minor) complaint is that Songbook Manager does not display quite the same as SongbookPro . Songbook Manager essentially allows you to use a computer “log in” to your Songbook app and make all edits and changes. It would be good if the fonts and colors displayed the same on the computer as on the iPad. This minor complaint does not take away from the usefulness of Songbook Manager, which I use very often.

Very useful tool. A place to put all your songs and find them easily. Organize as sets and/ or tag for easier searching. The easily adjustable, scroll speed is saved for each song. One-touch key change is great, It even automatically updates the chord charts. Adding songs within SongbookPro , with an online search or your own from the cloud, is a breeze. The only drawback is the in-app editor; it’s a bit limited and cumbersome, but not enough of an issue to down-rate SongbookPro . I use it more for practice than live, but it’s also handy to have at my fingertips for those “I used to know that one” requests.

I searched for awhile for a program that I could navigate with my limited computer knowledge. This one was recommended by a friend, and although I was a bit intimidated at first , I quickly realized I could in fact utilize this program for my needs. Downloading songs , or is it uploading, what ever , was fairly simple. I already had the Ultimate Guitar app, and transferring songs into Songbook Pro was simple to do. Now I have a library of songs that I can use to make Setlist that can be rearranged and shared. A lot of useful features like changing the key, setting the tempo and even changing the font size make this program very user friendly. I love it!

After my initial review and using SongbookPro quite a bit, I like it even more. I have now converted all my songs over to Sunbird Pro or at least most of them that I use regularly.
One other person had written in his review that it would be nice to be able to import multiple songs at a time, And I agree with that.
One other thing that I need help with or maybe I’m not able to do it is being able to organize my Setlist. For some reason it should be a simple thing but I can’t find how to organize the Setlist. When I make them I’d like to be able to move them in order. Maybe there’s a way already but I’m not finding it maybe you can give me a heads up. Thanks

I teach guitar and play professionally. I think I’ve tried all the big sheet music programs out there and I have ditched them all after finding this app! Standout features: No annual subscription, edits updates across devices, handles both pdf and chord pro formats, and has an online web-based editor so I can do the heavy lifting editing from a Mac or PC. Easy to share and find chord charts online. Transpose, auto scroll, Bluetooth page turner sets up easily, what’s not to like?! I have it on my iPhone IPad and MacBook Pro and I couldn’t be happier! You can even attach audio files (only one per song) to the sheet music. I suppose there may be some deeper level features to be added, but for me and my students, it’s the best!

I’ve only just started using SongbookPro but so far I am very impressed. I’ve used other apps similar to this and Songbook Pro does everything I need and more. Features are great, interface is easy and intuitive. Ran into a small bug with the known chords function not working properly. Reported the issue and that same day received a response from the developer Jon that he would be working on it. This bug is minor and in the grand scheme of things does not hinder the usage of SongbookPro too much but it is good to see how responsive they are to issues in the system. Makes me hopeful for the long term use of it as I use my iPad for displaying my music while playing at church and need something that works reliably. I already bought the full version knowing that I’ll easily get my money’s worth out of it. Works with all the major page turner pedals and even has a web interface that you can use from a desktop on the same network to make editing songs much easier. I don’t leave reviews too often but I had to share my experience so far with it

There are lots of apps out there that display sheet music or chord charts, but this one is perfect for me. I love how easy it is to import music or write out my own lead sheets. The ability to change keys on the fly makes accompanying a vocalist much easier than it used to be when I was making my own documents. Making handdrawn notes overlayed on the sheets is hugely helpful. Being able to share sheets in multiple formats with other people I’m playing with is really valuable. Most of all, I just like having a coherent way of organizing and displaying music I’m playing, even when it’s in a variety of formats (pdf sheets and lead sheets with chords). I’ve also really appreciated that there are improvements always being added—one recent update made the handwritten notes way smoother than it used to be, for example—and they seem to be really responsive to input. There are a few suggestions I think I still have, but I know I can submit these. For a few dollars, SongbookPro is a bargain.

I have been a church worship leader for over 20 years and, until recently, relied on paper music for every service. I avoided using digital charts mainly due to the subscription costs involved with most apps. This little app, however, has been a game changer for me. It allows me to upload and organize all of my own charts and easily display music on Sunday mornings. It also allows annotation, the attachment of files, and the UI is pretty user-friendly. I also like that it has cloud storage, although I have not used it that much (yet). There are other features that I cannot comment on since I have not used them, but I love how feature rich this program is at such a reasonable one-time cost. Many thanks to the developer!

We use this to try out new songs and build sets. The internet search for a recorded version and the built in metronome are nice features. The ability to change the key of any piece is terrific. The variety of songs available is impressive, and includes some niche music, however we were surprised to find sone fairly well known songs missing from the library. The offering of multiple versions of the song is interesting, but a better way to identify what is unique about an offered version needs to be developed. The process for setting the metronome for the right tempo should be improved. The process for exporting sets is awkward. Setting the screen scrolling speed feature needs improvement.

I have played in bands for let’s just say 30+ years to be nice. I am old-school, and I have used notebooks with printed out song lists as well as handwritten. this app is the most awesome thing I have seen made available for practicing musicians, gigging musicians, and even professionals! It seems they have thought of pretty much everything when it comes to what you need to make music. Greatly increases the learning process with scrolling pages, lyrics and chord changes at your fingertips. There is a free version of this to download, but I would suggest just to go ahead and get the full-blown, lifetime license for SongbookPro. Doesn’t cost any more than a hamburger anymore! I promise you, you will love it! The most helpful app I’ve seen in a long time!

This is really an awesome app. It is well thought out, well designed, clean, and workflow friendly. One of the coolest aspects of SongbookPro is that it creates, in real time, an HTTP web client on your desktop using a TCP/UDP port. Most editing can be done on your desktop and it automatically communicates with the iPad app. No software is required on your desktop computer other than a browser. Very well done.

Additionally, SongbookPro contains a very accurate parsing engine for Microsoft Word documents. which was important to me seeing as how I have hundreds of them. The documents are parsed to ChordPro and require minimal editing in the (Best in class in my opinion) ChordPro editing widget. Essentially, chords that were entered manually on the line above the lyrics in Microsoft Word were very accurately positioned when the word document was parsed into ChordPro.

SongbookPro has basic MIDI support. I did communicate with the developer who says that more MIDI support is on the way. I am able to send a program change to my beat buddy upon opening the song. I'd like to send a tempo change as well another PC to my Voicelive at that point too, but have not figured out how to do it.

In summary, this is an absolutely awesome app. The ChordPro editor alone is worth the price of admission.

SongbookPro is incredible. Over the course of a few days I eliminated four binders of guitar music collected over 40+ years and provided organization to my music that previously had only been a dream. Songbook Pro is intuitive and easy to learn. The user interface is really slick! One of the best features of SongbookPro is the direct link to Ultimate Guitar which makes loading music simple and straight-forward. Annotation is easy, writing with a finger, or better yet with a stylus. Since music is stored as PDF, backups are easily done with Dropbox and others. Scrolling is easily set up for each song and the setting stays with the song. Music is easily arranged by genre, sorted by title, or sorted by artist. Gig lists are a snap to create and organize. Songbook Pro is simply a great sheet music app, probably the best there is, especially for the price.

I was using a different app for stage prompting, but they changed pricing so I gave this a whirl. Getting the tabs/lyrics into SongbookPro is pretty easy, usually involves a little editing to get all the chords displayed correctly, the editor is decent with a couple of quirks. Setting the scroll time speed is good, but I have a pedal that bluetooths to the iPad to start/stop scrolling, and to page up. Just used it during a 4 hr gig on Saturday, easy to create the set list, was able to easily change the display to make it easier to see in the bright sunlight, and a last second key change was easy to pull off with the pull down menu. I play in several different cover bands, and it’s great to have all those songs loaded in here so I can just add to sets. Beats the old printing it off and dealing with sheets of paper outside in the wind!

I have found SongbookPro to be very helpful in finding and downloading music. Most of the available options work well to get the most out of SongbookPro but like all software there is room for improvement. There is little to no guidance on how to use different portions of SongbookPro - it’s all trial and error. I have read reports from other users that changes are not saved to the cloud so when one spends hours correcting or modifying a song it would be understandably frustrating to lose all of that work. I have not personally experienced this loss of work and hopefully the host of this site has listened to previous reviewers and addressed this downfall. That said, I have found Songbook Pro to be a very helpful addition to my ability to learn and perform music. I would (and have) recommend it to any aspiring musicians! Greg

I have been using this app for about a year and a half now. I have it on my iPhone and am able to think of a song and within moments have the music on my screen. I have this synced with my 10 inch tablet I use for practice and performance. No more turning pages as it scrolls to whatever speed you want. If a new song comes into my brain, I can write it out with chords and easily change the whole key with one touch. I can share with my band members with a touch. I can easily change the graphics on the screen to make it look easy for me to see. I like a black background with white letters and orange chords. This can be easily seen in a darkened room without glare when attached to the mic stand. I can make Setlist at a touch and go from song to song with a swipe on the screen. My phone goes everywhere with me all the time and I always have my complete music with me at all times. Best thing ever!! Dan

This is a great app — fairly simple but totally functional — for a one-time purchase.

Edit: I already had five stars but now I want to add another because I just discovered the Web-editing feature. It’s really well done, and lets you edit/paste/import/clean up charts using an editor on your computer’s browser. Nice!

Pros:

* Smooth transposition * Very smooth pasting — it doesn’t always get everything (like {title: } but it’s pretty darn good. * Beautiful print/pdfs * Automatic backups to Dropbox (and some other services) * It’s got setlists and stuff, although I don’t use those features…

Cons:

* The edit box is super awkward, even with an external keyboard. (Fortunately, I don’t use it much — I edit with other programs first, or paste from the Web.) * Extra ChordPro attributes are omitted from the printouts (like {composer: } for example) * Syncs are in a proprietary format. I would love to have just a directory of .crd files, so I can edit in other places or with a text editor. Those are pretty minor cons, though, and I don’t even take off a star for them.