Kindle for words and music

Subject: Kindle for words and music
From: G-Force
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 09:07 AM

Thinking very seriously about buying the new Kindle, for books of course, but also for storing lyrics (Word docs) and tunes (presumably pdfs). It would save lugging great volumes of both about with me. Has anyone bought a Kindle and used it for storing their records? If so would be very grateful for any advice on offer. Am fairly sensible but no-one could ever accuse me of being a computer genius so words of one syllable please! Thanks a lot.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 10:39 AM

I didn't see anything mentioned about being able to listen to music or store it. Mind you that doesn't mean their isn't an application out there that let's you do it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002LVUWFE

I must admit, it does seem a great product for the price.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 10:45 AM

You'd have to save your Word documents as pdfs (and tunes, too), so you'd need to handle everything first in another machine. But given that, it would be a hand way to carry them about.

~ Becky in Long Beach

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: GUEST,VaTam
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 10:53 AM

I have been looking into some sort of device that will store and display my word doc lyrics.

I think Kindle is compatible with WORD. But it is not backlit so not readable in a dark pub without external light.

As to tunes, I believe Kindle acts as reader for books for blind so should have sound capacity. Type of sound files and storage capacity I don't know about.

I am leaning toward Samsung Galaxy tab (someday) as I want kit that does it all. Browse web, act as reader, play with Windows 7 and Microsoft products like Outlok Calendar and my WORD doc lyrics, play my music files, be a camera and even act as a phone if it comes to it.

But I am biding my time on that purchase. SPENSIVE!

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Drumshanty
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 11:06 AM

I saved all my songs as .txt files and they show up grand. I've got the impression that if you want to read Word documents, you have to send them through Amazon's document conversion process, but I could be confused about that.

PDFs show up fine on it, but have proved difficult to search. However, I've no experience of PDFs of tunes.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Silas
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 11:12 AM

I have a Kindle - it does have sound, but I have not yet tried to store word files on it. The real beauty of the kindle is its battery life, I had mine for christmas and have only had to charge it up twice! And I use it every day.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 11:30 AM

Could anybody port an ABC application to it? Something that would both display scores and play sound?

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: G-Force
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 12:39 PM

Oh dear, thank you all for your replies but I've inadvertently given the wrong impression. By records I meant paper records, i.e. words and sheet music. Word files for all those songs I find so difficult to remember these days and the sheet music for tune sessions. I like to share a tune if someone doesn't know the one I'm playing. Sorry!

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Zhenya
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 01:53 PM

I have a Kindle, and I've loaded Word files with lyrics onto it. That works fine, and you can easily search from the home page to get to exactly the song you want. One issue that might come up, though, is with formatting. Depending on the font size used, the lyrics may or may not fit neatly on the page in normal verse form. I believe if you set them up as pdfs, you may be able to work around this, but I don't know if that would bring up other issues, as I don't use the pdfs myself. I've been putting the lyrics on mainly to learn songs and for a quick memory refresh, rather than for active use as I'm singing, so the formatting / font issue hasn't been a big concert for me.

I haven't tried putting sheet music on it, but the screen is fairly small, unless you go for the Kindle DX. Based on other items I've tried, I'm thinking it might be hard to read the music comfortably from the regular size Kindle, even if you use the zoom option. I don't know this for sure though, so perhaps someone who's actually tried this can comment.

In terms of playing music, that's more problematic. The Kindle does have the ability to play MP3s that you load onto it. The problem is, there are almost no controls for the music program. You can start the program, and skip ahead, but you can't go back to a previous track, and you can't select a specific track to listen to. There's nowhere to actually see a list of what tracks you have on there. (As far as I know from my own attempts. Again, maybe someone actively using this feature could supply more information. I just tried it once, and didn't find it to be useful feature, so I never tried again.) Apparently, the intention is just to provide some background music for reading.

I use the Amazon lighted cover, with the light conveniently built in to the corner of the cover, and that works fine when needed. When you don't need a light, it retracts completely into the cover and you don't even know it's there. It works off the Kindle battery, so it doesn't need its own battery, but if used extensively, it will drain the battery somewhat sooner.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 01:58 PM

Hey! Would that stop the need for people to go fumbling about in loose-leaf folders for songs that they don't realy know? Maybe provide tunes for those who cannot realy sing either? Oh, hang on. Maybe that's Karaoke! :-)

DeG

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Zhenya
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 03:09 PM

I forgot to mention this in my reply, but you can also check this site:

Kindle Boards

There's an extensive amount of information there and a very helpful community. If the replies here don't answer all you need to know, try checking there.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Artful Codger
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 06:15 PM

I have a Nook, and here's what I can tell you about trying to use Nooks for this kind of thing:

First, Nooks do support MP3 audio files (and some other audio formats); I presume Kindle does, too. They need to be able to render audiobooks. To hear the sound well, though, you'll probably need an earphone, and expect your battery to drain rather quickly.

The file management is very flat (non-hierarchical) and clubby; if you have a fair number of files, you'll waste lots of time trying to switch between them. It's such a hassle that, rather than exploit the huge storage capacity, I now only put a handful of books and files on the device at a time. The "shelving" capability doesn't help matters greatly.

On the basic Nook, you can only read EPUB, TXT and PDF files. With the higher-priced, Color 3G version you have more format options; the formats are listed on their web pages. Text in the TXT files wraps, so the lines of verses all run together. And I found the text so large (in contrast to normal reading on the device) that very little of the text fits on a single screen.

All accented characters are replaced by question marks. This, to me, is a serious drawback, and prevents me from reading many things I would like to--including many songs.

With PDF files where the text is stored as image scans (such as with most free books from Google Books and similar sites), the Nook can only display an entire page--there is no zoom capability (Kindle, I hear, has a limited zoom feature). This usually renders the text too tiny and indistinct for useful reading. I seem to recall similar problems with PDF files using descriptive graphics rather than images, so I no longer try using PDF files on the Nook at all. If you download EPUB versions instead, you'll get all the OCR errors, and scores will be rendered as gobbledygook.

In short, the Nook is a bad choice if you want to carry around songs. The interface design is criminally deficient for generalized use. While the Kindle's capabilities sound superior in some respects, I doubt it's greatly better. I suspect that the best solution for portable reading of non-proprietary material is an iPad or similar tablet device, which understands the need for intelligent file management and flexible handling of many reading formats--and where the interface design doesn't focus on pushing proprietary ebooks from a single vendor.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Tootler
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 06:18 PM

I have a Kindle and I have song words and music (in staff notation) on it. I converted my original Open Office document to pdf and transferred that to the Kindle. It's OKish. If you view in normal portrait format, the print is too small really. Turn it on it side and set it up as landscape and it is better and the notation is reasonably readable but you need two Kindle pages per document page. I would not work from it, but it is potentially useful as an aide-memoire. The document has an index and you can go to the exact song by selecting the page from 'GoTo' in the menu.

I have not taken it with me to a folk club as I also keep my song words on my Blackberry (using Documents to Go) which is much more convenient for carrying about. Again useful as an aide-memoire.

I have considered sending the original document to Amazon for conversion but have not yet tried that so don't know how effective it would be.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 08:08 AM

I suppose that you could get an i pad - or, alternatively, wait until one of Apple's competitors brings out a cheaper alternative to the i pad. You should be able to store all sorts of different types of files on a tablet PC.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Susan of DT
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 06:10 PM

I have a kindle and sent a copy of the pdf of my songbook to it. While you can adjust the font size on kindle books, you cannot on your documents that you send to it, which makes them rather small for my aged eyes. It does not move around either the pages or the document very well, unless you set up a lot of bookmarks in the document. So I am still carrying around my 350 page book, which I get printed by a print on demand place (lulu.com) in spiral every six or either months as an improved edition. I also have the feeling that having the songs on an electronic device would be even less welcome than a printed book. Maybe I am paranoid.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: GUEST,Andrew F
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 04:11 AM

I bought an Epad Android 2.2 1GHz 4GB Apad Tablet pc zt 180 http://www.epad10.com/ZT180Epad.html which I thought ideal to display a Word document of chords and lyrics with its 10 inch screen. (Document on usb stick) Unfortunately it is VERY slow in opening, scrolling, resizing the document. Once you have the tune displaying it is indeed fine, but too slow to be practical. Anyone know how to make it fast?
Andrew

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Musket
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 04:39 AM

I downloaded my lyrics files as PDFs onto the iPad and iPhone. Whilst I don't take the iPad with me to clubs, (although when doing concerts it is used as an interface between guitar and mixer) I do have the iPhone as it is well, my phone.

I do find that sometimes checking up a lyric before getting up helps these days, (age Mather, age.) As the iPhone is great for that, I suppose the Kindle would be too.

Just out of interest, I downloaded Kindle for iPad and find there are far more books available than through Apple Books, and usually at a better price when they both stock. If I didn't have the iPad, I would buy a Kindle machine and I rate them to be great in every respect.

Thinking on, most phones are capable of downloading and viewing PDFs, so as a memory aid, it beats having paper files collapsing all over the pub floor.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Will Fly
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 05:57 AM

The singer and guitarist in a small jazz group I saw recently had his iPad propped on a music stand and used it for every number throughout the evening. Apparently, he had 1,500 tunes on it. Looked very efficient to me, though I wouldn't use one meself.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 07:41 AM

Could anybody port an ABC application to it? Something that would both display scores and play sound?

It would be more efficient than pdf too but I suspect these ebook readers do much other than read documents?

Does anyone know what these devices offer over tablet PCs which going by Amazon's price of £152 for a Kindle seem to be available at similar prices and are available with operating systems including a Win Version and Linux?

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Silas
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 07:50 AM

Two things they offer - massive batteryu life, I mean weeks here, and the screen is not backlit so can be viewed infull sunlight.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 07:54 AM

Thanks. Both of those are attractive plusses.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: bluesunsets
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 12:46 PM

I use my kindle all the time for this. I have a folder set up with folk music tunes I've downloaded, and one of the nicest features is the ability to go online (via the experimental web browser) and look up the lyrics to any song I'd like. I'm not sure that I'd be ready to use it as a music binder quite yet (size and setup might not be ideal for that), but it's great for folk music sessions. Fits in my purse too, which makes it a lot more convenient than lugging around my entire collection of music books.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 01:02 PM

A netbook with a downloaded copy of digitrad works wveb better, at a similar price with not too big a penalty in size and weight, and with search and tune-playing capaboilities.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: michaelr
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 02:40 PM

Ian Mather - I'm intrigued by this: when doing concerts it is used as an interface between guitar and mixer. Please tell me more about what the iPad does in this setup.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: GUEST,warren fahey
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 05:34 PM

I can speak with some authority on this new area. My latest book - an e-book - was released internationally by Harper Collins last month. It is the first of two volumes of Australian folk songs from convict ballads through to songs about Australian 'Romance' (no sheep involved. The present volumes offer music notation, videos, soundbites for every song plus, where available, the original collected recording (this is amazing)and was developed for iPad via iBook (you will find it as 'Australia: Its Folk Songs & Bush Ballads' or my name. Harper Collins have told me that Amazon is working fast to get their new Kindle (out this year) designed to feature music, video etc - it will do everything for e-books that iPad/iBook can - and, knowing KIndle, it will be comparatively cheaper. That said, I am loving my new iPad! I have Engtina and an autoharp app on it and can happily 'play' my english concertina when traveling. The world is changing rapidly and you might as well hop on.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 05:48 PM

I've just been looking through Wikipedia and see these readers can have their own propriety formats and some like the Kindle azm format use DRM management.

They are not for me then.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Tootler
Date: 01 Jun 11 - 05:51 PM

Since my comments earlier I have transferred a few PDFs to my Kindle. I found that if you increase the font size to at least 16pt (20pt is better) they are quite readable.

I increased the font in my song book to 16pt and have transferred it to my Kindle and it is much better than the 12pt I had originally. I have left the table of contents at 14pt to keep it all on one page even though it is a little on the small side.

Although I have my song book on my Kindle, I have not taken it to a singaround yet. I find my Blackberry much more convenient. I might try setting up a tune book sometime as that could be useful. It all takes time, though.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Musket
Date: 02 Jun 11 - 05:10 AM

Michaelr - intrigued about iPad.

Well, in folk clubs etc, it does nothing, but I do the occasional concert where I get to play some of my own arrangements of songs I write. This would mean including drums, bass, keyboards etc. To get a band together for a gig is fine but expensive and I only really do charity concerts, leaving paid gigs to those who have to make a living out of music.

In the studio, I lay down tracks for these instruments and end up with master files. In recent times, I use Apple's sequencing program called Logic Studio. A cut down version ships with every Mac called Garage Band. If I import the master file into Garage Band and remove the voice and guitar tracks, then move the file across to Garage Band for iPad, it is available.

At this stage, with Apple throttling expandability, I have to connect into the headphone socket to the Mixer. The mixer then has channels for the guitar and microphone. The iPad then starts the songs. Ok, a bit karaoke in one sense, but it is me playing the other instruments, albeit a few months ago..... Interestingly, I wouldn't contemplate doing this in a folk club or venue. Expectations of the listener I suppose.

I may invest in a hoopy new interface that allows the iPad to connect physically to a special mixer and the mixer controls the iPad and vice versa. Lots of dosh though, and I bought new computers for the house only last weekend. Need to invest in beer so it will have to wait.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: michaelr
Date: 02 Jun 11 - 12:31 PM

Thanks Ian, that's a cool use for the iPad.

Subject: RE: Kindle for words and music
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Jun 11 - 05:27 PM

The cheaper version, much cheaper, about $4.95 sells under the name of Kindle Morse.   ;-)