I have always been intrigued by the MusicPad product for live use, but it is a little pricey. I hate dealing with notecards and paper, and sometimes I don't have the time to memorize some songs.

Has anyone use one of those new digital photo frames for storing chord charts, setlists, or sheet music? They appear to store many images in memory, and there are even remote controsl that can step through the images. It seems it would be possible to scan music, or create chord charts in a paint program that would then be stored in the picture fram. There are small 7" displays so I'm not sure about the legibility of the text. Some even play MP3 files!

Just a thought,
Brian

That's using your noggin.

I own the MusicPad Pro. I got it on close out. Getting it to display images properly is a huge PITA. You think you figured it out and the next time you bring in something it looks like crap. It displays bitmaps. Why not PDF files????

The Sony Reader is a very slick device. It does read PDFs and other formats so you can enlarge images and not lose quality. Downside is it's a 6" display and I don't know if that's feasible. $349.

The digital photo frames are certainly worth a shot. Around $100. I was thinking of getting one for a different purpose but I might try it for music as well.

Busch.

I am not sure you would be saving much money.
I got my mother one of the 10 inch ones for Mothers Day and it was $160. The larger ones, which are moresuitable for viewing music run over $400.

I think that the price would have to be under $150 for it to be worth it to me. I know you can get 7" and possible even 8" ones for that price if you search around. Heck...you could even wire up a footswitch to the remote to flip between pages. I'm thinking about getting one and making a custom mount for my Apex stand.

I have one of those frames and I happen to do my charts in Adobe InDesign in a 4 x 6 recipe card format which I print out - accordian tape for longer charts. So I did a test.

I found the low quality of the photo frame is not conducive to high quality font images, no matter how high I set the dpi of the original file, the on-screen quality was too low to read thin/small characters with accuracy.

In graphic design, scanning/displaying/printing typefaces require much more resolution than RGB or CMYK photo images. So I bumped up the resolution (1200dpi was too high to be read, 600dpi was maximum the frame could handle) but there was no difference in viewing quality.

A great idea before its time though. For now, stick to your laptop display or better yet, try PAPER.

Thanks for for trying that experiment drawback. Maybe I'll pick up a larger frame with better resolution. I saw some that had 700ishx480ish resolution, so that may be enough for rough chord charts.

I'm wondering about a Table of Contents.

Unless you scroll through every picture that represents a page of paper, how are you going to get to a song that's out of order with your setlist?

Thanks. But I think I'll just continue to write the chords on the back of my hand.

I have a Music Pad Pro wiht the latest software (v4.0.6). While I'm very critical of Freehand and their lack of software updates (especially regarding the MPP's MP3 player), I can get music to display very easily and clearly on my MPP. One of the tricks is to scan full-page scores, like those found in Warner Brothers fake books rather than the terrible Hal Leonard variety, or use the Freehand print driver to print directly from a program that displays notation, such as Band In A Box.

The Music Pad Pro has an easy to use directory or you can create songlists so the music is instantly available from song to song. It also allows you to turn to and from pages easily by touch or footswitch. It's designed for music, and those digital photo frames are not (I have one).

I bought an 8"er for my wife and it was about $160.
You can upgrade the memory with a 1 or 2 gig card and put almost 1000 pics in there and put it in manual scroll mode.

It sounds like it would still be pricey.

Why not just use your laptop?

Randy

I picked up a Tablet PC, a fujitsu st5000. The screens about 10 x 7 inches. Runs windows xp. I've got all my charts in pdf format and have a pedal to change pages. I can't see why anyone would buy Musicpad pro when for slightly more money you can get a tablet pc that can show pdf files, run finale, or even pianoteq. During the break you can check your email if there's wireless in the club.

John

That is a great idea John! Can you tell me how you hooked-up the foot pedal to turn the pages and what kind of pedal you're using?

I use a regular sustain pedal plugged into the aux of my Yamaha cp33. Then I use Bome's Midi Translator to translate the soft pedal cntrl message to page down in Adobe reader. Workes very well. There are also usb foot pedals that will work if you are playing acoustic.

John

I can answer that. The Music Pad Pro's software has the unique ability to allow you to edit scanned music - you can actually erase notes without erasing staff lines and insert your own notation/symbols/lyrics/notes. You can link multiple units to show the same music. The touchpad interface is very easy to use even without a stylus - I use my fingernail. The MPP runs on a dedicated Linux OS and is very stable. The only problems I have are minor bugs that Freehand has not addressed. Conceptually the MPP is great, but it could be better.

I've been using standard office software for my stuff. I don't read - but do like having a chart of the tune's chord structure, as well as my group's basic arrangement. I've taken to creating my own chart in MS Word for as new tunes get added to the playlist. I've also created a "master playlist" in MS Excel - and have hyperlinks to the my "chart" as well as to an MP3 file of the original (if it's something I have). I've finding it's a great way to run through our playlist (which is approaching 150 tunes). I simply run down the list - reviewing the tunes that I feel I need a little work on - playing along with the chart and/or MP3 file if necessary.

It's rudimentary in terms of capabity - however, I'm finding it works real well for me.

Just to add to SpaceNorman's post: MS Word documents display very well on my Music Pad Pro and I have several chord-only charts that I use that were created in Word. Even some of my lyrics/chord leadsheets from long ago display well, and you don't have to scan them in - Freehand's software creates a print option. So if you ever want to move to a Music Pad Pro then all your MS Word documents will work with it.

Is the MusicPad simply an electronic substitute for paper? If it _only_ displays what you put into it, a laptop would seem to be a better choice.

If I were to bring a laptop to a job I could use the transpose function of Sibelius to help me out in a pinch if I were working with a singer who wanted everything down a half step.

Can you use MusicPad the same way you use a music notation program or is it just a substitute for paper?

Wellll, sorta. Freehand sells their own format of sheet music files that can be transposed up or down in the Music Pad Pro... obviously they charge money to download songs and I've never needed to do that. There is also a midi file player function that can play those songs (just a simple piano track).

As I mentioned above, the only real trick the MPP's software can do is let you edit existing scores once you scan them, but personally I find it easier just to prepare the music with a notation program or sequencer and load the music into the Music Pad. I guess you would say the MPP is just a paper substitute, but it's a very efficient one... the scanned files in the Music Pad's format are smaller than the equivalent TIF or JPG. It can also play my backing MP3 tracks. And it's quite modern-looking... I very often have curious people looking to see my digital music book.

What do you do with it during breaks? Seems pretty swipeable--I'd be a little nervous about it on some gigs. Otherwise, I like the efficiency.

It plays my break music, and it locks onto either the piano music stand and/or music stand that's made for it.

JUst think of all the trees you'll be saving!!