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I would like to know what you guys and gals  are doing  for song books.  I've doing my semi decade complete update now.   I've typed  in my songs using quattro pro which is an exel like spread sheet.  In the past I've used 1" binders with plastic sheets.   The 10 books I have are bulky and weighty   Are you still using plastic sheets or have you gone to spiral bound books from Office depot?   If you have gone away from plastic sheets how well do you song books hold up? Who has the best printing deal?

Thanks

Right now I am in the same process. A few years ago I got a Brother monochrome laser printer. It has the ability to print both sides of a sheet. For just a few dollars on Ebay you can buy the toner refill kits.

I still use the plastic protectors. We do outdoor gigs in the summertime. Here is my question. When static is present has anybody figured out an easy way to open them  to stuff the sheets in? It is like tying to open a plastic garbage bag  and drives me nuts.

I have used Access for books and had it all figured out but couldnt remember some things so I bought Latshaws song list creator. If you read the books again thread I have photos of the 2 column format I use. I can put 13k in a one inch binder. I have used 3 columns in landscape but they were hard to read in dark bars.

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Music Book Deluxe is a great software, their database is VERY up to date, and they bring out updates regularly. They allow a lot of formatting options for printing. I have been very satisfied with them.

I have used binders and plastic sleeves for years and do additions to one section of my book probably 4-5 times a year (I continually buy music). The sleeves are expensive, though you CAN occasionally find them on clearance at places like Staples. I've even found them at Big Lots for cheap. I buy binders at the Goodwill when someone dumps a ton of 2-1/2-inch white binders for 99 cents each...I also buy bags of pens at the G/W.

I am going to switch to spiral bound books now with conversion to computer. UPS store will bind anything for $3/book. I have been to shows where they use spiral bound  and the books seem to last. (I don't think I'd try it with just 3-ring binders - pages would be too easy to tear out). Longevity of the spiral bound could have to do with the fact that they're very nice places and books aren't being abused by young drunkards. I'm actually contemplating printing extra ones and letting people buy them if they want (for cost). Lots of people have asked. Will just put different color covers on the ones that will be for sale. Quick to have new ones printed, too, that way - I just despise having to haul out all the binders, take the first 50 pages out, sort new inserts, and reinsert.  Horrible JOB!  

K

I got lazy!! People now know we have songs that are not in the book. In a few seconds we do a search on the computer If we dont have it I write it down. I am online and if I can get it from Cavs or Tricersoft it is in the next rotation. Depending upon whether they will be back I buy the cd. Cd MANUS WAKE UP!!! Will you please? I will pay $2 for old songs and $3 for new ones.

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dual columns baybeeeee! That saves a lot of paper!

Also we have had problems with the front breaking off the books. This time I am buying the flip back binder that allows them to fold it under the book.

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So does printing on both sides. It takes half the sheets and saves on weight...

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Dual column AND print on both sides halfs even that!  

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It goes back to 1" binders from 2"

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I've got four columns in my song book,  I have to reduce my typeset to 8 just to get the information on one line.  How are you doubling the information?

I had the same problem with books. Plus I'd often find pages everywhere if they snapped apart. Which was constant.

What's working now is not using books at all but heavy duty rings to hold just the plastic pages together without binding or covers. They don't come apart easily and the "books" seem to survive better since they're now flexible and bend all over. I have a very physical room and these have held up well for over a year now.

I currently get my plastic sheets from Costco. They are thick (3.5 mil) and are around $6 for 200 of them, which is a lot cheaper than when I used to get them at Staples. For you fellow PNW folks with a Costco card it's something to look into.

Because I didn't know any better, I started making my first books in OpenOffice (a nice little free program) just setting things up in a table. Well, I'm still doing it that way because once you get started....  But it's not so bad. New stuff I add to the table and it sorts by column so I can have either title, artist, or disc brand and number (sorry... I still think that way) alphabetically organized with a mouseclick.

My books take a lot of abuse. A few weeks ago one was barfed on. She's a nice person... just had a little too much. Anyway I had the server who was cleaning up the mess put it in a garbage bag, and the next day I hosed it off in the yard. It was back in service that night.

I've told that story to a few singers and they go "Eeeww... which one?" But I can't tell them even if I wanted to. They're all getting pretty scrungy. I need to make new books myself sometime this spring.

I also only print one song per artist, that cuts down some pages. I have everything in my computer so if someone wants a different manu's version, I can bring it up instantly. I do try to keep more than one if the styles is different. For example, I keep both Roberta Flack and Fugees versions of Killing Me Softly because the style is different.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

Just got my printing back today. $107 to print out 11 books.  180 pages.

3 ring binder
plastic sleeves
slip and pencil 3 ring pouch
printing

about $30 per book.

NOT cheap...and then you get to watch the diptards spill their drinks on them, drop them on the floor, open the rings so the pages come out ... write their names on the covers, etc. etc.  Obviously their mothers never took them to the library to borrow books! (NOT REALLY )

K

I always figure it to be a $400 project.

Where in the PNW?

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I have never used sprial binders or plastic sheets for my karaoke song books.  

As to spiral binders, I got tired as a singer dealing with rings that had permanently separated leaving me with a huge mess whose pages couldn't be turned.  I have my books sprial bound.

As to sheet protectors, they sometimes stick together and start to feel quite unappealing after they have been in use for a while.

Lastly, I can print and bind a 100 page book at the "office supply" stores for less than $10.  All of my original books are still in use after a year of KJ'ing and will be replaced this spring only because of the updates required.

Though I have S&D, I use Word to manage my song books.  I copy the information from online for my new additiions and paste that data into Word.  Whatever typing maybe involved doesn't phase me; I type fairly well.

All my music exists both on disk and also digitally (MP3+g) - I'd not be without this backup.

And so, all the MP3 files are labelled and ID3 tagged perfectly.

I wrote a small mpiece of VBscript to parse through a directory, get filenames, strip out the info needed and throw it into Excel.

I then have Excel print this out, leaving a space between every artist, 1 column, 1 sided.

It can make the book a little thicker - yeah, but it makes it a lot easier to find things.  All sorted by artist, except 1 book sorted by title.

I'm an hour and a half out of Portland. The club is under the radar and never advertises (for the first reason you can think of that a club wouldn't do this) but if you PM me I can tell you where.

I don't mean to be secretive about myself though. I just haven't figured out how this forum works yet... buying privileges with points and all. I'll get an avatar up soon.

I drive to Seattle a few times a year and would like to stop in, meet you, and see how an experienced pro does this. I'm really green and learning as I go.

When you SEE them purposefully destroying your books, hand them a bill for $30!!! OR have the bar put it on their tab. Warn your customers about the rings and how to care for the books... but if they keep it up, tell them you'll have ONE kiosc station due to the abuse, and then they can crowd around that when they want to pick their selections.

Believe me, the word will get around you take your books seriously!