Well, the first week of gigs with the MPP has come and gone and all I can say is..

WOW!!!

Really, I had zero problems with it on all my gigs last week. Obviously, preparation is critical, but I guess I had my ducks in a row and it was just a breeze. No more music stand, pit lights, over-stuffed folder of music to mess with, no large crate of music on the stage next to me...

At both club dates this weekend, members of the audience actually asked to come up on stage to check it out while I was playing. The client on Saturday couldn't believe that ALL my music was already scanned into the unit and in order. He also told everyone about it during his announcements on break, lol...The older folks thought it ingenious that I could turn pages by just touching the MPP screen.

My typical routine is (on the Tyros 2, that is) as I approach the end of a song, I've already pulled up the next one, but not engaged it. So, first song ends...Touch the MPP once and it's ready...I hit two buttons on the T2 and it's ready...That's it...It takes about 3 seconds to get into the next tune.

Even my sax player who usually rejects anything made after 1950 commented how slick this was and how easy it made my job. That's huge, because in almost ten years of working with him, he NEVER has anything nice to say to anyone about anything, lol...

How much better can this get? Again, this is a closeout model, with an updated software download that I paid $399.00

Talk about a piece of equipment intelligently designed with the working musician in mind...

IMO, Freehand nailed it!



Bill in Dayton

[This message has been edited by Bill in Dayton (edited 01-29-2007).]

Just to play the devils' advocate here, Bill, but what would you do if the thing simply refused to work while at a gig?

Do you still carry your music along as a back-up?

Ian

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Remember to leave good news alone.

Ian-

Of course I do, lol...

I've put everything away, but my sets are still in working order, so...worse case scenario...

Assuming it fails without warning in the middle of a gig...

I'll announce a short break...bring the old box of sheet music, old music stand and pit light, have it all set up in under 5 minutes and be back in business.

Actually, my bass player still uses his sheet music, I'd probably NOT take a break at all, rather, take his music-have him read over my shoulder on the tunes he needs to...then set my back-up plan in motion on the next regular break we take...

Sometimes I feel like I'm running Noah's Arc...I have two of everything and/or a backup plan for every piece of equipment I use.

I do not wish to talk any more about my equipment failing on me. I think to discuss it is bad luck, lol...



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Bill in Dayton

Ditto to what Bill mentioned.I have one small binder with the more popular tunes I play. Enough for a 3 hour gig. It's stashed in the SUV. I've had mine a little over a year and it has never failed ( knock on wood). The only downside to the MPP is that it's pretty much useless for the outdoor gig I play about once per month in the summer at a marina. The bright sunlight is just too much.


[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 01-29-2007).]

I'm glad to hear everything goes well with these.

I did some research on the closeout $399.
They are version 3, the new version is 4 and has all new software and some new hardware.

Unfortunately now version 4 is not downward compatible with 3, but I believe you can load version 3 saved songs onto version 4.

I get my first shipment this week, I'm very excited myself to get rid off all my overstuffed music books and stands.

Just curious, are you talking about using actual sheet music on the job, or lyric/chord charts?
DonM

Frank you're right on with saved in 3 working on version 4. I originally had version 3 then upgraded to 4. All worked just fine. I tried to send Bill some files done in 4 for his MPP version 3 and he could not open them.

Don, I use mine for actual sheet music and lyrics.

Actual sheet music, usually also containing chord charts...

Sometimes just chords/lyrics...

With over 500 tunes in there already, its a little bit of everything..



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Bill in Dayton

Just some thoughts to add on the MPP:

One thing to watch out for: when adjusting the screen brightness it is very easy to mistakenly select the screen calibration instead, which is like a Palm Pilot - you have to touch selected points to calibrate the touchpad. If you touch the wrong places (easy to do) then the mouse won't work anymore (actually, it'll get thrown off the screen and you can't get it back). I did this in the middle of a set once and had to take a break and fix it. The fix is to insert a paperclip into the tiny reset hole in the lower left back of the MPP, which brings the screen calibration panel back up and lets you fix the problem. You should familiarize yourself with this if you haven't already in case you need to know at a gig. I've screwed up my calibration accidently a couple of times now and I suggested to Freehand that in a future OS upgrade they move the brightness and calibration controls away from each other.

Speaking of Freehand, we are now well over a year with no service updates to buggy v4.0.6 OS which is inexcuseable. The company has long been aware of simple issues that cause v4 MPP's to crash all too easily and they haven't done a damn thing about it. I can't tell you how disgusted I am with Freehand as a company and if/when anything comes along that can replace my MPP then I'm there. There is absolutely no reason to upgrade to v4 unless you enjoy rewarding bad product support. If that sounds harsh it's meant to be.

Jim-

Thanks for the tip, I didn't even know there was a master reset, lol...

So are you saying that the version 3.1.5 is superior to the current build?

I know its still early, but this version meets all my needs...basically its exceeded my expectations. I had been concerned about the quality of image due to a fairly unsophisticated scanning procedure, but the results are perfectly acceptable to me. Some of my oldest charts are pretty rough, I'll replace them over time, but that's not a MPP issue.

I know the newer version has a MP3 player in it and has a high res-screen, but for the price...I think I'll be pretty happy with the older version.



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Bill in Dayton