Originally Posted by AudioTrack
That's a reasonable statement Gordon. Yes, BiaB will deliver fantastic goods but to get great sounding arrangements, sometimes it's a little more than just typing in the chords and pressing play. Your situation was rather unique that you needed to get some output quickly. Of course you can then use BiaB to work with and improve your arrangements.
I think the main differences are that iReal offers far fewer style,. but they're OK and they'll stretch more than 10%, the handling of repeats and codas and the playlist handling. On iReal, pick an approximate style, set the BPM and go. Set lists are easy on iReal, though for sessions and performances I'll usually use MobileSheets, which does similar for PDF lead-sheets. MobileSheets set list handling is better still, I think.

BIAB can be a real pain with setting up a song as I refuses to allow first and second ending or tabs on a single chorus song, which can make the setup frustrating. Then there are very many styles to trawl through just to get something that's OK.

The Jukebox(set list?) plays either alphabetically or random. I can fix that by prefixing each song with, e.g., a number 000, 001, 002, but iReal orders them as I enter them and lets me slide them around to adjust the order. I have to say that with 50+ songs in the set list that's not totally painless, but it's certainly better than having to number or renumber 50+ files. When playing, swipe left to get the next song, tap it, if wanted set the repeats/bpm/key and tab play play.

Some background: although I continue to get better, I'm still struggling a bit with the depression caused by the [redacted] with whom I used to work, and I was beginning to find practising a challenge. The less painful route from the PDF set list I received to iReal made that easier. I practised, rather than giving up. For once in a while now, I enjoyed it rather than procrastinating.

Of course I'm normally using these just as a practice tool, not to produce a performance, but I've now realised just how much for me the process was hurting the purpose.

Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11
BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software.
Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts
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