Summer Namm 2005: Best of Show Product Winner!

I've now got my entire Fakebook collection (thousands of songs!) stored on my MusicPad Pro+ . I'm now feeling confident & prepared as ever to satisfy just about any song request thrown at me. Though $1,099 may seem a bit steep, it's well worth the investment, especially for the pro musician, because it includes so many IMPORTANT music display performance features not possible with a laptop PC. Namely optimal song view in Portrait Mode, auto cropping of page margins (white area) to maximize display of the music, bright non-glare screen viewable at all angles, easily editable notation (notes) & lyrics etc directly on the screen itself, custom playlists, 1 GB flash pen drive memory support which allows you to store your COMPLETE fakebook music library collection on a single USB pen drive. Not only this, but any song can be called up in a matter of a few short seconds (usually under 8).

I feel the MusicPad Pro+ my most valuable music equipment investment ever, other than the arranger keyboard (Tyros) itself of course, and worth serious consideration (vs a laptop) by many here. It is (imho) far less of an audience distraction than a laptop as it's sleek & completely flat (unlike a PC laptop which looks, at least for my type of venue performances, inappropriately computer geeky on stage). My audiences rarely have any idea I'm utilizing music on stage whatsoever. Page turning or going from one song to another (custom playlist) is a breeze requiring only a slight tap on the screen itself (tap left portion of screen: page back, tap right portion of screen: page forward) or utilizing a remote foot pedal for total hands free operation. Battery life will handle a 3-4 hour gig. Unit also includes an AC adapter for longer sessions. If you guys can afford an arranger keyboard, you certainly can come up with the $ (and invest) in a device for managing & displaying your MUSIC as well. All my music & fakebooks are now packed away in storage. Music sheets & fakebooks no longer clutter up my music studio. Welcome to the digital world folks! - Scott

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http://scottyee.com

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 08-03-2005).]

Scott,

Your excellent review has me intriqued. One question I have is, how did you get all your fake books inside the MusicPad Pro? Did you scan each page? Were they in electronic form?

Thanks
Al

Scott:

Thanks for that info. I've had my eyes on the Music Pad Pro. I'm guessing within the next 6 months I'll own one. Based on what it cost me yesterday for repair costs for my wife's SUV I could have bought a Music Pad Pro! Well Santa Claus ( aka my wife) always tries to get me a some techie type gift for Christmas. I think I'll start dropping the hints today.

Scott, I have 7 fake books on disk in Adobe .pdf format. Does Music Pad Pro read .pdf files? How time consuming was it for you to transfer your fake books to the unit?

Scott I have a friend who bought one of those. He loves that thing. Says it's the best piece of equipment he has bought in the last 5 years

Squeak

As the MusicPadPro includes a number of uniquely advantagous digital sheet music 'display' & 'editing' features, music must be converted to freehand (.fh) format. This means requiring to initially convert your music sheets either from: paper to .fh format via a scanner, or directly from: digital format(PDF, JPG, MS Word, Sibelius, Finale files, etc) to .fh format via MusicPad Manger software.

Luckily, I've befriended a group of fellow MusicPad Pro owners who own (either in paperbook or in PDF form) the same fake book song collections I own. We decided to pull our individual efforts together and share our conversion work. As a result, we each now have between us, every song included in our group fakebook collection (thousands of tunes) all easily retrieveable & viewable on our MusicPad Pro units.

Admittedly, the conversion process takes a bit of time & effort, requiring around 3-4 hours to convert an entire fakebook containing many hundreds of songs. The good news is that once it's done, it never has to be done again. The advantage of sharing your conversion work with other MusicPad Pro owners is that you'll gain (in return) a library of many more fakebooks converted to .fh format, after having only had to convert one (or two) fakebooks yourself. From a legal standpoint, you can only copy (and for personal use only) books that you yourself own, but then again, some of these fakebooks were actually illegitimately puplished (no copyright or royalties paid to composers), yet universally accepted & expected to have (on the gig each nite) by many (most) top professional jazz bands around the world. These include: The Real Book: 1,2,3. Interestingly enough, Hal Leonard Publications has recently (2004) released these book legally:

The Real Book 1

The Real Book 2

The Real Book 3



Squeak, I concur 100% agree with your friend.


Squeak, I'm glad you brought this up, because every Synthzone member here who purchased a MusicPad Pro unit based on my earlier recommendation here on Synthzone has reported back to me that they are equally impressed & thrilled with their MusicPad Pro unit, feeling it a worthy investment. This is particularly interesting, especially considering some of the negative comments (like: too expensive or unprofessional looking on stage) aimed at me for purchasing this unit: http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/009823.html

All things considered (convenenience & specifically tailored to music viewing, editing, & organizatin (playlists)) it's well worth the price imho, and as far as it being a stage distraction, this has not been the case (at least for me) whatsover. It blends seamlessly in shows. My audiences hardly (if at all) notices it.

Scott

Scott I don't think it's too expensive. I think the price is justified for someone who performs as much as you do. That unit allows you to carry SOOOOOO much music with you. You replaced mutliple books for the space of one. Can't go wrong there. Plus I think I remember reading you can set up page turning with a footswitch (how cool is that).

Squeak