Computer display music grand piano

[Redknife]

I am interested in the digital music display solutions that you use and like. There are so many options which is good, but dizzying. In my case, I am looking to scan my music (classical) and displaying the music at my grand piano. Bigger is better for me visually.

Physically, the piano keys are about 8 from a 2015 Mac. I have Mac, w10 desk+llaptop, iPads in the house.

Thinking it through, portable solutions overlap my needs but are unique. I dont currently need portable.

So, monitor with long cord from Mac, w10 laptop (own) with external monitor, tablet (perhaps not big enough for me)? Touchscreen? Pedal and how?

Cheaper is better. I am not confident an iPad Pro would be big enough and have no interest in the device other than this application.

Advise relevant to known products is helpful. Direct experience is very welcome. What do you use???

[JB Sherry]

I'm 57, and on top of the middle-age reading glasses thing, I've had Macular holes. So my retinas will never be perfect ( though the treatment worked quite well in one eye ) and my vision is not the best. But I still find that iPadPro works great. I use ForeScore and an Airturn pedal. When I had a smaller iPad I kept the iPad in landscape orientation and Airturn automatically did half-page turns. With the Pro, I use it in Portrait orientation and view a full page at a time. It's a bit smaller than it was when I was doing the half-page thing but I find it very readable.

 

YMMV. I can't comment on any of the other options you're looking at, but ForeScore is really good for classical music. You may want to buy it for iPad to look at some of the features.

 

-jb

 

[tfort]

I have an iPad and use Newzik for score software (I think MusicXML offers big advantages over PDFs).

 

I'm hoping to switch to the big iPad Pro this summer.

[Redknife]

Thanks guys. Ive done some experimenting with the following initial impressions:

 

The iPad is easier to read than paper, so my estimation of required size was an overestimation. But, the iPad was just too small for full page. It would probably work with pedal scrolling.

I set up a W10 2 in 1, 13 next to the iPad. Display settings and source resolution make a big difference. Displaying a lower res pdf on the bigger windows 10 screen was harder to read. I havent yet gotten to apples-apples.

Ergonomics are impacted quite a bit by the screen layout. The W10 had more dead space at the bottom making it uncomfortable to read.

I might try out a 23 hdmi monitor from elsewhere. The solution would need a narrow bezel at the bottom.

I can see how the iPad Pro would hit the sweet spot.

 

 

[Jazzmammal]

I can't comment on anything except this:

 

M/S has a wireless display option with Win 10 so at least you don't need a cord to run from your laptop to the monitor. It does have to be an actual HDTV or computer monitor though. A 19-24" computer monitor could sit on your piano, just remove the stand. You'd probably have to futz around with something so it doesn't scratch the piano or fall off but it could be done.

 

https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/products/adapters/wireless-display-adapter-2/p3q-00001

 

Bob

[Sven Golly]

I can't comment on anything except this:

 

M/S has a wireless display option with Win 10 so at least you don't need a cord to run from your laptop to the monitor. It does have to be an actual HDTV or computer monitor though. A 19-24" computer monitor could sit on your piano, just remove the stand. You'd probably have to futz around with something so it doesn't scratch the piano or fall off but it could be done.

 

https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/products/adapters/wireless-display-adapter-2/p3q-00001

 

Bob

 

...and Duet Display does the same thing with the iPad as the viewport, from PC or Mac.

 

clonk

 

Frankly I know a ton of people using ForScore and a Bluetooth pedal for this sort of thing, works just fine, might not even need an iPad Pro, but that would just be icing on the cake.

[Adam Burgess]

iPad Pro makes it so easy.

 

One thing I didn't get right first time was remembering the margins of your iPad is the surround. The music can go much closer to the edges of the screen without looking messy unlike old fashioned paper. So depending on what you view the music as, watch your formatting.

[Redknife]

Got it, Adam and good idea Bob. One thing of note on a monitor approach is that some monitors have plugs exiting perpendicular to the major plane of the monitor. Some monitor plugs face down along the back which I think would be better for this application. Price wise, a 23 inch monitor is maybe 1/5 of an iPad Pro.

 

 

Frankly I know a ton of people using ForScore and a Bluetooth pedal for this sort of thing, works just fine, might not even need an iPad Pro, but that would just be icing on the cake.

 

That is helpful. Sounds like a Bluetooth pedal would apply to all solutions so that part is easy. ForScore appears to be very popular. $10, good buy. Probably try Newzik as well.

 

Im going to fiddle with mounting the iPad on a boom stand to allow setting the reading distance. I think the set reading distance is an issue for me.

 

Thanks all for simplifying this process.

 

[WheelHead]

I am not confident an iPad Pro would be big enough and have no interest in the device other than this application.

 

I agree with you. I use a 15" screen now and it is not big enough for piano scores though works. . I have thought about mounting a very large display on the wall (computer) in front of digital piano. I think it would be a bit less effort and more pleasant seeing a nice big score learning new material to have a big view of the staffs. There are countless ways to put laptop, tablet or any computer on a large display. About iPads as I have written before: I am a Surface Pro 4 person with a computer tablet that runs FULL size sample pianos and any DAW effortlessly that does not run on a phone operating system though the iPad Pros are nice tablets.

 

WH

[Redknife]

Last round of exprimentation: aspect ratio is important in smaller sized screens.

 

The ipads 4:3 ratio more closely reflects an 8.5 x 11 piece of sheet music. The full page portrait mode image on the iPad is roughly the same size as a 13 16:9 laptop. For reference, an iPad Pro has an image size of 10.35 x 7.76

Landscape mode on the 16:9 13 provides a very readable image but you can only see 2 grand staffs at a time (unless you reduce image size and add dead space).

Seems to me that for a 13 or smaller screen, an aspect ratio of 4:3 is better for displaying sheet music.

 

I then used a 23 16:9 monitor and found that it nicely displays two full pages side by side.

 

[WheelHead]

 

I then used a 23 16:9 monitor and found that it nicely displays two full pages side by side.

 

Makes a lot of sense. I think less fatigue also for practice sessions with a large monitor.

 

For black pianos, for those wanting more a match: Dell has 23.8 and 27 "Piano Black" glossy-black monitors.

 

WH

 

 

[aurel]

I have been using the iPad Pro with the Newzik app and it works amazingly.

I mostly import MusicXML files, and I can zoom in or out exactly how I want - without losing any information on the score.

 

For PDF, I crop the white margins. Very happy with the A4 format + my BlueTurn pedal.

 

For teaching purposes, I connect my iPad Pro with an HDMI cable and my students see me making markings, jumping from one piece to the other...

 

Hope it helped!

[Redknife]

(My own zombie thread follow-up)

I finally acquired an iPad Pro 12.9. ForScore on the 12.9 is perfect for me at the piano. Incredibly crisp display. The display is about the same size as typical printed music but is easier to read due to the illumination. The iPad Air 2 was too small for my eyes but I can see how it would work for some.

[ElmerJFudd]

Android and iOS sadly destroyed any effort by hardware developers to create dedicated hardware for this task. Since software developers have already released digital sheet music software for the iPad, Samsung Galaxy and the like. The sad part about that is we have waited a very long time for screen sizes to get sheet-music-big because for other vastly more popular digital print media consumption, small is fine. And of course if gigging a lot, these products are great for clipping to a mic stand and seeing chord charts, setlist, lyrics, etc.

 

It was really Photoshop that drove the creation of the latest 12.9 iPad Pro and hence it is more horsepower than we need for sheet music reading making it expensive. And although you can turn the page with a tap of the screen or a Bluetooth pedal Id rather not turn the page at all for 2 sheets worth of music. So two iPad Pros side by side is exceptionally budget-unfriendly.

 

Alas, for this task it would seem a nice large and thin PC monitor is still the most task specific solution. It doesnt need much more than a Raspberry Pi and some good software to accomplish the goal. Perhaps someone will or has already tackled this.

 

https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/pdf-files/

 

https://m.newegg.com/products/9SIA2W08FK8524

[ElmerJFudd]

In other news, eink would be cool if they can get price and screen refresh times down low.

 

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