ABC Navigator, or what?

[Terry McGee]

Too late, Cathy, I've committed to ABC Navigator. Indeed, I've been in communication with the author (JP Martin) and am putting together a user guide as I go, which will be made available when finished. It's proving a fascinating voyage of discovery - the thing is loaded with features - and where I have seen criticisms of some aspects of it, it always seems that the criticism in unfounded - it's just the lack of a guide that is letting it down.

It's ability to handle very large files effortlessly, the fully integrated midi functions and the set lists and ability to export midi files of sets (for band members that don't have an ABC program) are very attractive features.

Terry

[Cathy Wilde]

Well, that's good news -- I'm glad it's working out for you, Terry. And your efforts will definitely benefit those who follow. Thank you, and maybe they should call the guide you come up with "ABC Pathfinder" in your honor? Godspeed, Navigator Chartmaker!

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

ABC Nav has held me up from actually learning ABC. Does its thing very well, albeit with the odd quirk. Terry - tell JP to get rid of that irritating message asking if you actually want to quit.

What you're looking for sounds like quite the chore. Maybe someone could transcribe all of Breandan's cards. Sounds like government grant work. Or you could take an index like Norbek's and cut out all of the transcription except the incipt, file them by their starting notes.

Or - you could load all these ABCs into a PalmPilot or the like and search for the notes in a word processing program...lotta work for a title.

Someone mentioned being able to look up titles on your iPod. Those are ID3 tags; I have them for all of my MP3s, they're available for most CDs from sources like freedb. Makes searching for a title easy, at least, if you have enough CDs. You might look for a ITM fan with lots of recordings on their hard drive; it's a simple matter to buy an external hard drive and swap all of these files around (albeit you're not making the artists any money).

[phcook]

Hi all

I'm probably the guy who recommended abc nav.

I had exactly the same problem, and it took a while before I could use it correctly.

All that you have to know is that an abc file is a collection of abc tunes.

The main toolbar is for abc FILES, and the small one is to add abc TUNES to your FILE.

For instance, you create an abc file called Irish tunes, and then, after opening it, you create a first tune "Silver Spear", then a second one, "Maid Behind The Bar"; then you save each tune, and you get a single file.

Best wishes

[Jumbuk]

What I'd really like is an incipit system, like Breathnach demonstrated to me back in '74.

Do you mean like Henrik Norbeck's online database at:

http://www.norbeck.nu/abc/index2.asp?ca ... el&first=G

This is a downloadable abc tunebook with incipit index.

... and of course John Chambers' abc tune search allows you to search by first line:

http://jc.tzo.net/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind

[Terry McGee]

Yes, that's the kind of thing, except that rather than look for the tune on line, I'd like a reminder list I can carry on my person of tunes that I can play. I asked JP Martin (author of ABC Navigator) and he's produced me exactly that. You pull all the tunes you want to list (in my case, all the tunes I know, but it could be say all the tunes I have to learn for a gig, or something similar) into a single ABC file (easy with Navigator's Drag and Drop facility) and then request a "Reminder" file. It produces a file that can be printed listing the name of the tune, the tune type, the key and the first four bars of the tune on one line, with a new tune on each line. So, a very compact reminder file.

I've just finished the first draft of the ABC Navigator User Guide - 12 pages of it! Gasp, no wonder it seemed a bit daunting at first!

Terry