Real Book Software

**Jabberwocky** · 01-14-2012, 02:17 AM

I think I like Rainbow Village a whole lot more so don't mind my virtual presence in your town, FatJeff. I promise I won't scare away the cats.

**FatJeff** · 01-14-2012, 06:35 PM

Nice to have a neighbor. Let's see if we can get everyone here to come visit.

**Kojo27** · 01-19-2012, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by P. Stimson

....Frankly two dissatisfied customers out of thousands doesn't really show up as far as I'm concerned.

Mr. Stimson, when two (I think it's several now, at least three or four) customers taken from the small population of this Internet jazz guitar forum have all had bad experiences, that "shows up" big time. Figure the odds. And by the way, I doubt there have been "thousands" sold at this early point. A thousand, maybe. Doubtful. Those numbers (thousands) take word of mouth - it's the only way, unless they're marketing in a way I cannot fathom. And I just don't think word of mouth is going to bless them.

The person in charge of running this enterprise seems to have very little business sense, common sense, call it what you will. IMO, he and his product are fated for the crapper, and that's as it should be.

Kj

TH · 01-24-2012, 06:45 AM

Originally Posted by Jazzman301

My wife recently bought me the real book software book 1 and 2 and frankly I am less than impressed with the following:

A. The fact it took my computer over 2 hours to install(I have a gen2 i7 procesor and 6g of ram)

B. I can't locate the midi files I read about online

C. It seems a challenge to navigate around

D. the price for what you get. I would rather have the real book CD I had a few years ago that had 12 or so real books in .pdf format.

E. It seems a challenge to navtigate....

I have yet to register it and have a solid mind to return it and get my $200+ back. Anyone else have experience with this cat or his software?

'Mike

There's a new thread on this topic so all of you that weighed in on this product pro and con might want to re-voice your opinions on that thread-just so we have one place with all our comments...

https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/recor...-not-good.html

Or not.
David

**guitarplayer007** · 01-26-2012, 09:20 AM

Thats exactly what happened with me, it's obvious that the scam is to have you give up on installation. I hope they get this SOB and fine him big time!

**sriracha** · 03-06-2012, 10:07 AM

Hi Folks,

So I'll start this off by saying, yes, I've just registered, and yes this is my first post.

After many, many years away from guitar, I started playing again last year and have been shedding like crazy. I have several of the original Real Books, very tattered and beat up from 1981 when I got to school in Boston.

I played tenor sax and guitar while at school.

My son started playing alto 2 years ago, and having been a catalyst to getting back into it, I started digging around only to realize I didn't have an E flat RealBook, so while searching online I found they are now legit, and put out by Hal Leonard, which is cool. Then I found this software online.

So I bought it.

My experience is varied, but I'll give you my impressions so far after having it for a week.

I bought the software from their awful website [that thing is like a ginzu commercial gone bad], got an invoice and was charged, then never heard a thing from them after. When it had been a week, I sent them an email asking what was up, etc. and also stumbled over this forums threads on the subject.

I was pretty much ready to throw in the towel after reading all the bad experiences and call the credit card company. I actually had my wife check to make sure the charge had been processed. Of course, the software arrived the next day. That was 10 days after the purchase.

Installation:

(So one note: I'm a mac user - I have no idea how the experience on a PC might vary.)

So I was pretty much assuming that the installation would be a nightmare. Right out of the box, all the URL's the referenced 404'd on me. Except the registration one. lol...I guess that and the order one are the only active links.

Since all the doc links that the instructions said I had to follow where borked, I decided to follow the docs that were on the distribution.

Long story short, other than taking a long time, which was consistent with other products with a huge amount of samples like Superior Drummer, etc., it installed just fine.

The program is a filemaker pro database, and the ui is pretty awful, but it was sufficient. I won't bother to list the flaws - I'm a GUI software programmer: suffice to say the GUI is abysmal.

But, it's useable once you get over that suck factor.

All I wanted was to have access to the charts, be able to print the out and access the midi files.

The latter was fairly lame in that there's no access from within the GUI that I could find, but the files are in the application's folder buried in the Materials/Bonus Gift Files/Jazz Standards Midifiles/.

So, while there were hiccups along the way, this really wasn't too bad of an experience.

I wanted to share because you so often read these reports of negative experiences and throw up your hands and pass on things. For me, this was worth the $99.

It might be helpful for others to know if the problem installs were on PC vs Mac.

---------------

As for me, I'm looking forward to relearning a lot from this community. I was never great at jazz, to be honest, but I did love it.

Here's one jazz fusion influenced thing I've done in the past year:

Song For A Friend

Thanks,

- bill

**FatJeff** · 03-06-2012, 10:13 AM

Doesn't seem like a risk I'm willing to take for the price. I'd rather do business with a reputable company like Sher or Hal Leonard and buy actual books than chance it.

**jdazey** · 05-03-2012, 10:24 PM

Hi Sriracha,

Thanks for sharing your experience. It sounds like you were after something pretty specific and had the skills and patience to make it happen; the grief and $200 were worth it to you. Nonetheless, you don't make it sound pretty, and, given the reports of other forum members, I'll pass.

Joe

**sriracha** · 05-03-2012, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by jdazey

Hi Sriracha,

Thanks for sharing your experience. It sounds like you were after something pretty specific and had the skills and patience to make it happen; the grief and $200 were worth it to you. Nonetheless, you don't make it sound pretty, and, given the reports of other forum members, I'll pass.

Joe

I hear you - but I would also point out that the cost wasn't $200 - it was $99 - for $99 bucks, it was worth it.

I mean, the ui is still awful, but I can get over that. I have the midi files and can work arrangements out for my son from them, and that's huge.

Again, I'm on a mac: the experiences I've seen that were negative were from PC users. My son's sax instructor also bought the software (another Mac user) - and he's still talking to me.

I'm not trying to evangelize - just saying that while it's got warts, it's been a success on my part with little hassle.

Now, if I'd had a problem, I can't say what the experience would be like - I never did hear back from them on the mails I sent.

**flugel** · 05-13-2012, 10:18 PM

Originally Posted by 82Benedetto

I use something called "The iRealbook" which is an app I grabbed from the itunes app store. I think it was 20 bucks. Simple and does the trick!!

Interesting, thanks.-

**Kojo27** · 05-14-2012, 01:43 AM

Don't for get www.wikifonia.org - may you live twice longer than I do, and may I never die.

kojo

**guitarplayer007** · 05-14-2012, 08:12 AM

Its a joke, i purchased it a few yrs ago and it took forever to try and install, and the owners get pissed if you ask to many question...Buy a " Real Book " instead

**coomilus** · 07-13-2012, 12:44 AM

Originally Posted by SMH

I am currently going through the worst software purchase in my 20 years of computing. Do yourselves a favor an NEVER purchase this product. The installation process, the tight controls on the product, the registration process... every aspect and detail of this product and transaction has been the worst sofware experience of my life. It has been, and continues to be a complete nightmare. It has been a month long ordeal and the product is still not up and running. And what consideration have I got for my $100 and grief? Absolutely NOTHING. I should have expected it just from the cheesy look of the web site. I reached to far and really got burned on this one. I would advise anyone to walk away from this. If you don't - and take a chance on this - I hope you have a better outcome than I have.

I've just had a similar experience to you with this software. Wish I'd read this forum before I blew my money on the program. I couldn't get the registration to work after hours of trying everything I can think of and what was suggested by the 'support' (ironic quotes) at real book software. It's ended up with them blaming Apple for the problem, ignoring my requests for a re-fund, and finally a very childish responses to my request for a response to my request for a re-fund. Oh well, live and learn!

**guitarplayer007** · 07-30-2012, 03:33 PM

I can't believe their still selling this POS

**sriracha** · 07-30-2012, 11:09 PM

Well, I'm sorry folks have had an issue with this. I've watched negative upon negative experience shared here, and it was these same experiences that made me wary, but I'd already bought before I saw them.

I can only say that while it took a long time to install, I really don't see how you can knock the product for the install time: Superior Drummer takes almost as long. The install is a function of your system, not the product.

Issues with the installation and support, however, are the products fault.

I had a slight install issue but found it easy to get by, but that's perhaps a function of experience in software development.

It's too bad that they don't address the installation issues folks seem to have: the product is quite usable once you get to the point of actually using it.

But, like I said, I never received a response to any communications with them other than to receive the product after purchasing, and honestly, had I seen the negative posts first I probably wouldn't have looked at it.

**rockcarr** · 10-03-2012, 09:33 AM

Hello everybody,Rocky saying hi to you all,I'm very interested in Jazz guitar music,so I wonder,if you can give a hint on how to start (easily)with Jazz on The Guitar,Giving you all thanks in advance,from the sunny island of ARUBA.

**docbop** · 10-03-2012, 09:46 AM

Originally Posted by flugel

Interesting, thanks.-

They got in trouble for the name so its now called iRealb and I have the original on my old iPhone and it was real nice app. I recently went to a jam session and all the guys were reading from electronic fakebooks. I talked to the KB player who ran the jam and he said they have iRealb on iPad or Android tablet. They like the transpose feature and how they can make playlists of tunes.

I just got a copy of it for my mac over the weekend and has basic playback tracks for practicing and a feature to change keys every time through for extra challenge. So for $20 its a lot of application.

**Jonzo** · 10-05-2012, 02:22 PM

One note about iReal Book. It is a great program, but it is not a real Real Book, because it does not include the melodies.

**sriracha** · 10-05-2012, 02:26 PM

Yeah - I recall that now you mention it. I knew there was a reason I didn't just go that route. My son's in his third year of sax now and I've made up arrangements of "Four" and "Ornithology" for him so far using the midi files and the scanned Eb Realbook stuff in this. I have to check and see if it has "Joy Spring" - I always loved playing that on guitar and think he'd have a blast with it. Again, nothing to do with these people, just willing to hack through some issues to get what I wanted out of it. YMMV.

**memo** · 03-06-2013, 03:28 PM

I just wanted to use this program and have recently tried to reinstall it due to computer malfunction, what a waste of time, no help whatsoever and my god the pentagon requires less documentation. What a colossal pain in the ass and could be so good to have all those songs' chords entered and ready to play. I talked to the owner "Sher" years ago asking him to provide a fake book for use on my band in a box and he said he was trying to get that project going. JUST LET YOUR CUSTOMERS USE IT!!!!

Originally Posted by SMH

I am currently going through the worst software purchase in my 20 years of computing. Do yourselves a favor an NEVER purchase this product. The installation process, the tight controls on the product, the registration process... every aspect and detail of this product and transaction has been the worst sofware experience of my life. It has been, and continues to be a complete nightmare. It has been a month long ordeal and the product is still not up and running. And what consideration have I got for my $100 and grief? Absolutely NOTHING. I should have expected it just from the cheesy look of the web site. I reached to far and really got burned on this one. I would advise anyone to walk away from this. If you don't - and take a chance on this - I hope you have a better outcome than I have.

**vicmon** · 08-24-2013, 07:54 PM

To be fair to Realbook, yes, their software has a number of glitches however if and when you get past them the program does have a good amount of credible music and I am sufficiently satisfied with the product.

**count0** · 08-24-2013, 10:13 PM

Just my 2 cents...

I own the actual books themselves, and I also wanted to have a digital copy. So I downloaded the PDFs which were available at certain unnamed sites free of charge.

Why on earth anyone would want to install software on their machine to view a few images is beyond me. I'm more than satisfied with typing in a page number and hitting "enter" in a pdf viewer.

**vicmon** · 08-26-2013, 10:50 AM

I'm not sure what count0 bought but the package I bought contains a very large library of tunes, mostly Jazz.
When clicking on a tune, the selection that pops up enables both a performance of the tune, usually by the original Artist.
For me, I can play the selection thru my sound system and have the means of recording same with Logic, playing against the tune and everything else that Logic software is capable of. I can also click on and print out the Music sheet of this selection.
Being a Senior Citizen this gives me "someone to play with" without leaving my home.
I did have problems, initially, getting the software to perform but their on-line support did work me through it.
Bottom Line, the program works for me, albeit someone quirky to install.