Songs Reviews

It really is a lovely app and looks great in print preview. But it is so needlessly complicated that if you don't use it for awhile, it's so frustrating to do simple things like edit chords, add a capo (which at least finally functions as expected), etc. But the worst part about it is that by design it rewrites your chords to its own sensibilities (e.g., you can't have a D2... it is immediately converted to add9). And there is NO way to override it. So if you are using chord sheets, but you have band members using lead sheets, you cannot match what they have if you use Songs and Songs disagrees. I had such high hopes for Songs, and that's why I paid the substantial price for it... but if you want to voice chords, you know, YOUR way... it's unusable, and sadly I didn't figure that out before paying for it.

I'm very familiar with this type of app, and I use a different one on stage every week. Song One has a lot of features, but the UI and lack of singular focus make it less stage-friendly than other apps.

The biggest issue I had was the plethora of teensy gray-on-slightly-darker-gray icons -- none of which have tool tips or help text. The whole UI suffers from a lack of contrast. So much gray! Maybe some of that was to ensure that the demo mode was *completely* useless, but I don't want to pay to find out.

For stage use, I want app controls to be clear, obvious, and easy. If I decide to capo, for example, I don't want to mess with the circle of fifths. If I want to start a click, I don't want a microscopic little gray icon that only appears at the very top of the screen.

I do think Song One has promise; but right now the UI is just too fiddly. I think the author needs to decide whether this is a performance tool or a teaching tool, and focus the UI on that. My $0.02.

Wish there was a way to record your voice and instrument. At the very least import/insert voice notes from my recording app (not as a backtrack). Hopefully both. A lot of my melody ideas start with a hum, or voice memo. Having a way to import them or record into Songs itself for reference instead of scrambeling between apps would've made this Song One my actual #1 for songwritting. I can see this being implemented by recording to song sections (Intro, Chorus) or attaching files to them. One could also record and move the recording around freely like in Evernote. Maybe a combination of both. I'd move them to the bottom in a section called references, but other people may want to have them on top of the lyrics.

I’ve only been using Song One for a relatively short time. I tried SongBook Pro first but abandoned it quickly after it lost the links to the backing tracks, twice. Then I switched to OnSong but heard it was not the most reliable and I wasn’t real hip on the monthly subscription fee. Several people on FB recommended it Song One so I checked it out. I’m blown away by all the features it has. Mainly I’m a live performer who uses backing tracks and chord sheets. I’ve found that Songs does that well and supports sets. And customer support is pretty incredible, too. It’s never taken more than a day for them to respond. I highly recommend Songs.

Switched from OnSong because I didn’t want the subscription model, and I’m glad I did. Perfect? No, but there are so many different needs, that’s near impossible. The developer has been super responsive and added a ton of useful features just in the time I’ve had it - not even a year I think. Worth supporting and sticking with.

I think this is a great app. One fantastic feature is the support from the incredibly responsive developer. I’ve emailed him with questions, feature requests, and bugs to which he is very receptive. In addition, he always quickly responds with answers and fixes.

I invested a lot of time looking for a friendly tool to use and I got this one. I had used on my iPad, iPhone but two weeks ago I began using on the MacMini y WOW even easier.
All the tutorials are spectaculars and I really suggest to invest time to read and it doesn’t time too much time but the benefits will be incredible……..Val

Like TuneSmith and Ryme they made are Great, But What is Awesome Is they used a suggestion because the Photos Would not work the Long Hold was made so i could use it to access local photos. I just redid the update Mac to get rid of Windows I could not remove and tried it again and it works perfectly now.

Thank you on all the Great Work.

Really enjoying Songs. Has a ton of features, seamlessly intergrates between my imac and ipad via icloud. Had a minor operator error using the the wrong play mode function and emailed support for help. Fantastic response from Peter , got the issue sorted. Looking forward to getting it all fully set up.
Would definetely recommend Songs. !!

Beautifully designed. Incredibly easy to learn, organize this app in your library, write new this app, and perform in a group with others. Far superior to all other "chordpro" apps available (e.g.OnSong, Sonbook). Developer is amazingly responsive. Whenever I as for a feature he usuuall has it up on Songs store within in a week.

First of all this software will let you chart this app by playing them on your keyboard (Bluetooth midi capable). Easy song importing especially from any text source. Songs also converts pdf files. Songs is one of the most exciting chord charting apps I’ve used to date. Think like this….if you could create a app for charting this app…..this is what you would have come up with.

First of all, Song One works seamlessly across your Apple devices through iCould. That's a must have as far as I'm concerned and I don't see it on a lot of the other apps.

But Songs is also very deep in its feature set. Pretty much everything you need is there. Not always easy to figure out, but they have excellent tutorial videos, and online manual, and great support.

I've looked for an app like this one for a long time. Being a guitar player I needed an app that would allow editing, chord charts and PDF imports. Songs does it all and more. The only upgrade needed for me is the ability for the chord charts to follow the typed in chord symbols in order of chord symbols.

Support has been great so far and always provides links to features and suggestions that help get more out of Songs . Greate job.

After using another software for years, that after making big changes, went totally haywire on me and I ended up losing my entire library of this app--which had taken me years to build, I switched to Song One and never regretted it. It's rock solid stability, incredibly rapid support response, and its worry-free automatic backup of everything to the iCloud make it just a few of the reasons I love Song One and rely on it to manage my repertoire, lyrics, chords and backing tracks.

I felt the need to write a quick follow-up to my initial review, because in just a matter of days, the dev, Peter, has already addressed my major concerns. This is unprecidented, especially among niche music apps (I've lost count of the half-finished abandonware over the years). Not only were my issues addressed with record-setting responsiveness, Peter even followed-up with more specific questions in a clear effort to make Songs the best it can possibly be. So, if you're looking for an app to make professional-looking sone charts, Song One is the preeminent choice!

I started using this on my iPad about 8 months ago and it quickly became my favorite app ever purchased/paid for. It’s truly unbelievable how robust and full-featured this is and now I’m taking it for a spin on macOS.

The main thing I used it for is pretty simple. I have about 500 write-ups of this app in mixed formats, Word, PDF, etc, andI wanted a simple way to create an evening Set List and be able to quickly pull up the documents.

Some of the other cool features are impressive, but I’ve not actually used except for a quick test to see how they work.

Yes Songs has a lot of features and I don't use most of them. But, for what I use it's great! On my macmini I add this app and build setlists. It then transfers them seemlessly to my iPad for the gigs. Since I perform most this app from memory, the set list is the main feature I use. But, when it's a song I don't quite have memorized, I touch the song in the list and there it is. I can swipe to get to the next song. I mainly use PDF's and it's great for that. And when there is a problem, the support has been great with fixes turned around quickly

See my review on the Mac app. Once you learn its workflow you'll appreciate the many functionalities that Songs provides. Nice iCloud integration. Nice MIDI implementation. Lyrics editing is very speedy, especially on the Mac. The developer, Peter, is very responsive and helpful. The price point vs functionality is very reasonable compared to other apps in this market space and NO SUBSCRIPTION FEES!!