I received my refurbished MacBook Pro

General discussion about Gig Performer
1

I received my refurbished MacBook Pro and have GP up and running with my gig file - carried over from my Windows laptop - and of course all the VST plugins installed. So, I am very pleased, except…

I did not know MobileSheets is not available for Mac/Intel!! MS has become an essential and much loved component in my setup. I’ve been so impressed with it both in my at-home workflow, as well as live performance use. GP and MS are top notch apps.

I’m struggling to find an acceptable alternative. I’ve been trying forScore, but I can’t get it to work with GP, and think its UI is horrid.

Some things I’ve considered and fiddled with:

  1. Somehow link my Mac to my Windows laptop running MobileSheets
  2. Link my Mac to a Chromebook or Android tablet.
  3. Use forScore - NOPE
  4. Use GP’s Song Lyric/Chordpro feature to display images of my PDF files.
  5. Use Bome MIDI Translator to control some decent PDF viewer

I like the idea of staying within GP land with the Song Lyric/Chordpro feature, but it’s pretty cumbersome to convert all my PDFs, and displaying a two page image correctly takes some fiddling. Might be with the edit, but unlike MobileSheets, frequent updates to a PDF will be painful.

The Bome option is interesting to me if I find the right PDF display app.

I am so, very, very bummed about MobileSheets.

Crackles, and possible switch to a MacBook
2

So you’re not considering using MobileSheets with an iPad?

3

Good question. However, I don’t think I’d be happy with one. I’m used to seeing two pages at a time on my 15.6 portable monitor. I create my own sheet music for every song I have and I’m able to limit each one to two pages - no page turning. An iPad display would be too small or require page turning.

But it’s something I might reluctantly think about if it weren’t for having to spend a bunch more money.

4

If you do try out the GP helper tool that converts pdfs to images, you can also test out my Lyrics/Chords Extension for GP.

I’ve tried to make it easy to view two pages side-by-side. See the ‘Images Demo’ animated gif in the first post of the extension link above.

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5

Hi MojoBass.

I started this discussion and would like to make clear that I’m not condemning Windows based systems as being unfit for gig performer. I’ve had good success with it. But, I do believe my Windows laptop may be somewhat marginal in its specs for GP. So, I’m just on a path toward discovering if an inexpensive, refurbished MacBook Pro is up to the task, and if it can do so without the extensive configuration tweaking Windows may need.

If I had to point to one thing that makes my Windows laptop a bit flaky with GP, it would be RAM. Get lots of RAM. I don’t know how much, but I’d say at least 32 GB. But, it may not be that simple. So far Mac just feels more naturally capable, though I haven’t finalized that opinion.

Cheers.

6

Yes, I have tried the PDF to image converter.

But wow, I just learned of your GP extension like a few hours ago and definitely plan on trying it out. It sounds like just what I need. That’s for mentioning it and thanks did building it. Can’t wait to try it!

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Tried your Lyrics/Chord extension on a converted PDF. I love it. You are my hero!

Thank you.

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